by Lisa Leslie
That made it all the more odd that this Team USA had a different chemistry than the squads at the two previous Olympics. As each year passed, there was less and less certainty that we would win the gold. Maybe it was because the players were changing. Things had obviously changed for me. In 1996 Dawn and I were the youngsters joining a veteran group of players that had already tasted international competition and was on track to win Olympic gold. In 2004 we were the veteran players who had two gold medals under our belts. We knew what we could do, but we had some questions about the experience level and dedication of the younger players who joined us. I guess, at the end of the day, we were not sure just how good Team USA was going to be, though we knew our team was incredibly talented. Tamika Catchings started every game for us in the summer games, and Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, and Swin Cash came in and really played well. Dawn did a great job of being the veteran leader who kept us all focused and together as a team. But I would be lying if I said there were no lingering doubts. In the meantime, I wanted to enjoy the Games and the experience.
One of the best things about the Olympics in Greece was the atmosphere. The entire time that we were there, things were peaceful, calm, and close to perfect. Everybody had talked about how terrible the traffic was going to be and how congested the city might be, but neither was a problem. Getting around was fairly easy, and our team buses could pull right up to where the Queen Mary 2 was docked. All we had to do was hop on board and drive off to our practice sessions or games. There were not many hassles at all. Apparently, a lot of people stayed away from Athens out of fear that there might be a terrorist incident. I know that several American athletes pulled out of the Olympics because they did not want to put themselves in harm’s way. They did not think it was worth the risk, and you cannot really blame them for making a personal choice like that. It was just a shame that terrorism had made fear a part of the Olympic experience.
I tend to believe that wherever the Olympics are held is probably the safest place in the world to be for those few weeks. I know I felt safe in Athens because we had the U.S. Navy, Air Force, and Marines protecting us. They were in the waters off of Greece the entire time, and we could feel their presence when we were on the Queen Mary 2. U.S. jets would occasionally fly over to assure everybody that we were protected. So that gave me the peace of mind to enjoy myself.
One of my funniest experiences happened on an off day in Athens, at the spa on the ship. My cousin Braquel was with me on the trip, so we decided to go relax in the spa, just as we had done many times at spas in California. We went into Canyon Ranch, got completely undressed, hung our clothes in a locker, and put on a robe so that we could hang out by the pool, get in the sauna, then have a massage, just the way we did in the good old USA. When Braquel and I came out of the locker room, our first stop was the pool. We started swimming around, and there was a large spout that was pouring water back into the pool. It was like a faucet, but it was really ornate and grand. With my height, I could stand in the pool, reach over my head, and hang off of the spout. Once I got my hands around it, I yelled, “Look, Braquel,” and then I pulled my legs up and fell back into the water before surfacing again.
My cousin was laughing, but she warned me, “Girl, you better stay off that faucet before somebody catches you.” I told her, “Okay,” and went back to playing in the water. But when we looked up, there was a man walking by the pool. He did not see us, but we definitely saw him. I glanced at the man, and then I looked at Braquel. We were both like, “A guy just walked by! Wait a minute. We are naked. That was a guy. Was that a guy?” All of a sudden, it dawned on us that the pool was coed. Nobody had ever said anything. There weren’t any signs, but we came to find out that not only was the spa coed, but we were supposed to be wearing swimsuits. We were there just falling out. It was so embarrassing.
We needed to get to our robes pronto, but they were all the way across the pool. One of us was going to have to get out of the water to retrieve them, so I told Braquel, “You go get the robes,” but she wanted me to go. Eventually, my cousin got out of the water very quickly and picked up our robes and towels. She brought mine over to me, and we put them on and walked toward the steam room. I could not believe that I had been hanging off of a giant waterspout, buck naked, in a coed facility. In hindsight, we probably should have figured that since we were on a ship, bathing suits would have been a good idea. But we were in Europe, and we just were not thinking.
Then mild paranoia crept in. We asked each other, “Do you think there are cameras in there?” From then on, whenever we ran into people, we would ask, “Are there cameras in the spa?” One person told us that there were cameras in one area only. “Do they have them by the pool?” we asked. Mercifully, the answer was no. All I could think about was someone sitting back, with feet up, watching my cousin and me on a television monitor while we frolicked in the pool.
So by the time we got to the steam room, my mind was a thousand miles away. You can imagine my surprise when I pulled the door open and saw Greg Popovich, the U.S. men’s basketball coach, there with his assistant coaches. Apparently, they did not know that the spa was coed, either! When Braquel and I walked in, they looked up with surprise, reached to cover up quickly, averted their eyes, and managed to mumble, “Oh! Ladies.” Everyone was in a slight state of shock and embarrassment. Coach Popovich turned a bright red. Obviously, he and his assistants thought that the steam room was for men only. All of the guys tucked their towels around their waists and walked out.
When we saw Coach Popovich a few days later, he told us, “I am so sorry. We did not mean to be rude when we rushed out of the sauna that day. We did not realize that the place was coed.” I knew exactly how he felt, so I let him off the hook and told him the story of our pool experience. We all got a good laugh out of it, and now, whenever I see Greg Popovich or his coaches, I always say hi, but I cannot help but smile inside just a bit.
Going into the early games in the Athens Olympics, I was very relaxed. Van Chancellor was the head coach of our women’s team again, and he and his staff did a great job of getting us prepared for the Olympics in a short amount of time. Honestly, we did not face a whole lot of competition in the early rounds. We beat New Zealand by fifty-two points in our opener and then reeled off six straight victories before getting a test from Russia in the semifinals. We survived with a four-point win, which put us back in the gold-medal game to face Australia again.
Both Australia and Team USA entered the gold-medal match undefeated, and more than ten thousand fans filled OAKA, also known as the Olympic Indoor Hall. This was a rematch of the gold-medal game that Team USA had won in Sydney in 2000. Lauren Jackson and Penny Taylor were, once again, Australia’s mainstays, and they got plenty of help from WNBA players Kristi Harrower, Rachel Sporn, and Suzy Batkovic. It was going to be a fantastic game.
Coach Chancellor asked me to guard Lauren, and that was fine with me. She had been talking a lot about how Australia wanted to face the United States in the gold-medal game, and here was her opportunity. Now, she had to deal with me. My job was to get in her face, contest her shots, and get her out of her comfort zone. As the game got going, though, neither of us seemed very comfortable, and neither of us seemed to be on top of our game. I was making some baskets, and Lauren was scoring at her end of the floor, but we were both missing shots, too.
The game went back and forth, and Team USA had the lead at halftime, but then Penny Taylor heated up, and the Aussies moved on top in the third quarter. That was when Dawn stepped up for us. Every time we got in a jam in that game, Dawn did something to get us out of it. She scored five points in a flash, and the United States was back on top. Dawn huddled us at the free throw line and said, “Tina has the mismatch, and that’s where we are going to get the ball.” Dawn sent Tina down on the block and got her scoring so well inside that she led our squad in scoring.
Dawn was our smallest player, but she had the biggest heart, and she was a great leader. She took control o
f that gold-medal game when she started penetrating and going to the basket, and her energy spread throughout our team. Tina hit some buckets, and I scored some points toward the end, but there was no question in my mind that Dawn was the one keeping us in the game. She hit four free throws and scored on a driving layup in the final two minutes. Appropriately, she had the ball in her hands when time expired on the game clock. We beat Australia 74–63, and that gave the U.S. women’s basketball program its third straight Olympic gold medal and its twenty-fifth consecutive win in Olympic competition. We danced and cheered and waved the Stars and Stripes, and there were a lot of hugs and smiles when we received our gold medals. It was a great way for Dawn to end her Olympic career.
I led our Olympic squad in scoring in the Athens Olympics, and when the Games were over, I had become Team USA’s all-time leading scorer, rebounder, and shot blocker. I was feeling good, playing well, and having fun, so I did not see any reason not to look ahead to playing in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China. The only problem was that I could not imagine what it would be like to suit up for international competition without Dawn Staley. I have so much respect for her. She is all about the team, and that is just the kind of attitude needed to win. Our Olympic squad won the gold-medal game in Athens because we were unselfish, had balanced scoring, played team defense, and got contributions from several players. That is the only way to do it. But if there is one quality I see fading from USA Basketball, it is the concept of teamwork.
The individual, “me first” approach just does not work. It is one of the reasons the U.S. men’s national team has difficulty when they play internationally. They settled for the bronze medal in Athens after finishing sixth in the 2002 world championships. In both cases, they were defeated by squads that had less individual talent but better team skills. The same fate could easily be in store for our U.S. women’s side if we don’t get smart in a hurry.
But for the moment, the women’s game is pretty phenomenal and wildly successful. We have achieved amazing success internationally, and the WNBA as a league is doing well. And yet the recognition that women’s basketball gets in our country is virtually nonexistent. We keep winning gold medals, but it does not seem to matter. Nobody seems to pay attention, and that is really hard for me to digest. The only time I feel certain that we will make big news is if we lose a gold-medal match. Then all the cameras and microphones are pointed at the players, with reporters asking, “What happened?” while sports and news programs show highlights of our shocking loss. But for now, the women’s game is much more team oriented than the men’s. And I think that has been a big part of our success so far.
As I look ahead to 2008, I hope that I can help our young Olympians understand how important it is to keep putting self second. There is nothing wrong with averaging six points per game in the Olympics if your team wins gold. It is not okay to average thirty points individually while you watch your team lose. That is not to say that individual goals should not be sought after and recognized. I understand the desire to put up the highest numbers, but it cannot come at the expense of the team. Winning as a team is what is most important, and the U.S. basketball teams might lose our edge in this area if we don’t shape up.
With the 2004 Olympics over—and with another gold medal for the women’s team—it was time to get back to the second half of the WNBA season. The Sparks were still adjusting to life without Coach Cooper, but our new head coaches, Karleen Thompson and Ryan Weisenberg, were doing their best to keep the team on track.
Karleen had gone from being my teammate at USC to working for the Sparks as our equipment manager. She was the one who did all the dirty work and washed all the team’s laundry, but she was around basketball, and she worked hard while raising two great kids. She was eventually signed on to be one of Coop’s assistants. That was the same year that Ryan joined the staff, and his story was just as unbelievable. He had gone from high school coach to video coordinator for the Lakers to Sparks assistant coach, and now, he and Karleen were the two-headed coaching partnership that would guide the L.A. Sparks through the rest of the 2004 season.
It was such a tough year. Emotionally, the team was spent. We lost Coop. And the Olympics had drawn out the season, so we were tired. But the good early run we had before the Olympics continued, and we finished with the best record in the WNBA and were the top seed in the Western Conference. I was so proud of Karleen and Ryan, because they worked their butts off coaching us and did everything within their power to make sure that we did not miss a beat after Coop left.
Round One of the playoffs pitted us against our old friends, the Sacramento Monarchs. The first game of that series was in Sacramento, and again, the fans were as loud and raucous as ever. The Monarchs really came ready to play and blasted into us. We lost by twenty points. Though the Sparks came back to salvage a win in Game Two at Staples Center, Sacramento stuck it to us in Game Three. It was so frustrating and disappointing. It hurt to have the Monarchs move us out in the very first round of the playoffs, but what was worse was letting them do it in our own building and then watching them celebrate on our home floor. That was totally unacceptable. The loss was difficult to accept, but we had no excuses. The only thing we could do was find a way to regain our home-court advantage for the next season.
Chapter 14
Michael, Maui, and Marriage
Basketball had been a big part of my life for a long time, but do not get the wrong idea; I always had other things going on, too. In 1997 I got my bachelor’s degree in communications from USC, and five years later, I decided to go after my master’s of business administration (MBA) at the University of Phoenix.
By the end of the 2004 WNBA season, I had not been in a romantic relationship in close to three years. I had dated Marcus in college and Todd afterwards, but then it became important to me to focus on just myself for a little while. For a long time, I was a serial monogamist. I had not given myself enough time in between relationships to grow and recognize what I really wanted and needed; I had not given myself time to see what God wanted for me. I knew that I needed to enforce my values and standards to get what I really wanted, yet I kept acting on impulse. So I stopped. In the past, I had compromised too much on the wrong things. I had tried to keep myself grounded by not making it a prerequisite that a man had to be as successful as me. I had not wanted to be overly picky, but on some issues, you need to be. Going back to school to get my MBA turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made.
I was hoping to learn how to better manage and invest my earnings. I wanted to understand how to prepare a business plan and do the proper research prior to investing. And most importantly, I wanted to learn how to be my own boss. The University of Phoenix has a Gardena campus, and I went to classes there every Monday night, even during the Sparks’ season. In a little more than two years, I graduated with a 4.0 grade point average. I had achieved another one of my goals, and I was chosen to be the keynote speaker for our graduation ceremony, which, coincidentally, was held at the Forum in Inglewood. Wasn’t it interesting that after so many years, my life path would lead me back to Inglewood and back to that building, which held so many great memories for me?
Learning at the University of Phoenix was a great experience for me, and being single made it easy to focus. I did not know it then, but that focus was about to shift in another direction. I guess it is true that sometimes the best things do happen to you when you are not looking for them.
Every year I go to Alabama to spend Thanksgiving with Braquel’s father, my Uncle Craig and his new wife, my Aunt Melba. As usual, I had a great time with them in November of 2004, but the time went by too quickly. Before I knew it, Braquel and I were at the airport, getting ready to fly back to Los Angeles. While we were in the main terminal, I noticed a pilot nearby. He was about five foot ten, had a dark complexion, and was wearing brown slacks. I kept telling Braquel, “Hey! There you go. There’s a guy for you.”
My cousin was single at the
time, but she summed up her feelings on the matter with her favorite one-word answer: whatever.
It was very early in the morning, around 6:30 AM or so. I said, “That’s okay. Don’t worry about it. He’s got a wedding ring on, anyway.”
I figured that was the end of that, so we went through the security check and then found some seats near our departure gate. I went over to the counter and asked the lady what time our plane would be taking off, and she told me it was going to be a little bit late. As I turned to walk away, that pilot I had noticed before came up to me and said, “Excuse me. You’re Lisa Leslie, right?”
I told him that I was.
“Oh, cool!” he replied. “My wife and I are really big fans of yours. My wife’s name is Lisa, and she played basketball in California, too.”
He told me his wife’s name, but unfortunately, I did not recognize it. I just smiled and tried to be friendly.
“Wow! You are so shy!” he said.
“Not really,” I said. “I’m just answering your questions.”
What he said next really shocked me. “I’ve got a really good friend. You guys would make a great couple. Are you married? Do you have a boyfriend?”
Even today I cannot tell you why I answered this complete stranger’s questions about my personal life. But I did; I answered no to both questions.
“You should give him a call. He’s a good brother. He’s tall, like six foot six. He works out, and he enjoys outdoor sports, like boating and skiing.”
“Nah, I really don’t think I want to do that,” I replied.
