Lisa Leslie

Lisa Leslie holding her WNBA MVP award in 2001. (www.sportsillustrated.com)

Lisa Leslie is a retired WNBA basketball player. She was born on July 7, 1972 in Gardena, California. For her entire career, she played for the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks. She was number 9 and center for the L.A. Sparks. She retired in 2009. Her height is 6 feet 5 inches and her weight is 170 pounds. On July 30, 2002, Lisa Leslie was the first WNBA basketball player to dunk, with 4:44 left in the first half of the game. She has won the WNBA MVP award three times and the Olympic gold medal four times. When she was in middle school, her dream was to be a television weather reporter and she didn't join any athletic activities, besides tether ball and double dutch. Leslie went to Morningside High School in Inglewood, California. She joined the girl's basketball team, volleyball, and track and field. Leslie went to the University of Southern California because she decided to stay close to her family. In the 1997 WNBA draft, she was picked seventh and joined the Los Angeles Sparks. In 2006, Leslie married Michael Lockwood and has one daughter, Lauren Jolie Lockwood, born June 15, 2007. She left the WNBA for a year because of her pregnancy. She is expecting another child after her retirement. Leslie is not only a retired WNBA basketball player but she is also a fashion model and actress.

Lisa Leslie shooting a basket. (www.hk-kicks.com)

I picked Lisa Leslie as my hero because she has been an influence to me. One day at my cousins' house, my uncle and I were playing basketball and he told me that I was like Lisa Leslie because I kept making several shots in a row. So now I look up to her because she was doing so well at basketball that she made me want to work extra hard at basketball. I have looked up to Lisa Leslie ever since I was about 9-years old. I look up to here because everything that I have trouble with, I always think of her and how she grew to be what she is right now, and to just relax and have fun. Now, I'm 12-years old and I still look up to her. I believe that I can be just as good as her when I grow up.

Getting hugs from her teammates. (sports.espn.go.com)

Lisa Leslie has helped me in the past by making me want to continue playing basketball. She has also helped me in the present by influencing me to train harder at basketball and to join some basketball teams. All that she has done in the WNBA has made me want to become a more athletic person. I never give up trying to achieve my goals because of her. She makes me want to train harder at basketball and other sports. She is my influence in not just basketball, but all the activities that I do, because she changed my life by making me join sport groups and by teaching me better sportsmanship. I just hope that I can meet her one day and thank her for everything that she has done for me. She is my hero and I will never forget her for my entire life.