by Lisa Leslie
I was really upset and exceptionally whiney, but as usual, Mom put things in their proper perspective. She told me, “Lisa, you listen to me. Not everybody is going to like you. You’re perfect, they just don’t know it. You are a beautiful girl, and you have a certain look. Sometimes they want somebody short. Sometimes they may want somebody tall. They might want girls with long hair, dark hair, or blond hair. You know that you are beautiful on the inside and on the outside. If these people tell you no, just say, ‘Okay,’ and walk out. You are going places, Lisa. Don’t ever get upset because a door closes. Just go around the corner, and you will find another door that is wide open for you.”
Mom gave me every piece of positive affirmation she could think of, and she ultimately told me, “You just keep on going, and if, at the end of the day, you are still getting negative responses, just get on a plane and come on home. You have other things that you can do. If it is not your time right now, it is just not your time.”
Mom made a lot of sense, and her long-distance pep talk was just the jolt that I needed. I told Mom that I loved her, and then I hung up the phone and took a more positive attitude into my next go-see. When I walked in, the response was much better. The people said, “Wow! We would love to use you. You’d be awesome. We could use you to open our show.”
I was so excited. Finally, somebody liked me. Unfortunately, they told me that the clothes for the show had already been selected and fitted for girls who were five foot eight or, at the most, six feet tall. The woman said, “I know we don’t have anything here that would fit you. If we had only met you sooner, we could have had clothes custom made for you.”
I went from delighted to deflated in an instant. I was bummed. The bad news was that I did not get the job. The good news was that these fashion people liked my look. Maybe I really could do this modeling thing. At the end of the day, I reported back to Kevin, and I told him there were four negative responses, two positives, and two maybes.
Kevin asked me point-blank, “So, how did you like it out there?”
“It was definitely different, and all those ‘go sees’ were truly a challenge,” I said.
“Lisa, you do not have to do go-sees. We can find work for you, but you just experienced what it is really like to be a nine-to-five working model. That is what their lives are like.”
I told Kevin that I would go out one more day and finish off my scheduled appointments. I was starting to understand that I was not cut out to do everybody’s show. I was different, but that could actually work in my favor, and I felt as though I could find my special niche in the modeling world.
With Wilhelmina supporting me, it was not long before jobs started coming in, good jobs, too. The Anne Klein people saw my pictures and got in touch with me through the agency. That is how I got to work with Annie Leibovitz, one of America’s greatest photographers. She used to be the chief photographer for Rolling Stone magazine. She had her own exhibit at the National Portrait Gallery, and it was Annie Leibovitz who, on the morning of December 8, 1980, snapped the famous shot of former Beattle John Lennon cuddling with Yoko Ono while nude. Several hours after that photo shoot in the Dakota Apartments in New York City, John Lennon was gunned down in front of that building and killed.
Annie Leibovitz had a wonderful reputation, and she was a truly creative professional. She took some amazing pictures of me with other celebrities on a shoot for the Anne Klein II ad “Celebrating the Signature of Women: Women of Substance and Style.” It was a very classy ad. I met some amazing people and got to wear clothes that were very elegant and chic.
Other photographers expressed interest in working with me, too, and things were really picking up. I signed with Bruce Binkow, an agent with Management Plus Enterprises, and with him representing me, my workload multiplied. We did a deal with American Express that had me photographed under the Santa Monica pier. I wore jeans with a white button-down shirt that had the collar turned up, and I was holding a basketball. That photo wound up on huge billboard displays in the Los Angeles area. There was one on La Cienega Boulevard and another out at LAX, and a giant mural of that ad took up one entire side of a building on Highland Avenue. That was, literally, the biggest shoot that I did. It was incredible to see my image so much larger than life, and I must admit, Mom, Tiffany, and I practically lost our minds when we saw it. We screamed, laughed, and hugged. Then we took lots of pictures of the billboards. It was a big deal for us.
I also did shoots for TV Guide and Sports Illustrated, and photos of me from the Olympics started popping up and getting published. My name was becoming well known in the industry. I did a fashion show in New York City where I modeled for Tommy Hilfiger and another show for Giorgio Armani. I was working with top designers and wearing amazing new styles, and I loved it.
Modeling in fashion shows, however, can best be described as organized chaos. The girls have to look so calm and composed on the catwalk, but once they get backstage, it is pure pandemonium. I had to remove one outfit as quickly as possible and slide into the next one. It did not matter where I was or who was around. It was simply strip, dress, and get ready for the runway again. If you have seen the finale episodes of America’s Next Top Model, then you know exactly what I am talking about. It got frantic. Models were tense, and everybody was in a hurry. That was why, prior to the shows, we rehearsed all the walks and the clothing changes. We had to. Each of us had four or five outfits to put on and pull off, and we could not afford to have any traffic jams backstage. Everything was rapid fire at the fashion shows, and by the time we finished one, we really knew the meaning of the term “working model.”
My modeling career was going well, though, so well that the people at Wilhelmina threw a huge party for me in New York, at a place called the Cigar Room. I was in fashion heaven just getting ready for the evening. The agency brought in a make-up artist for me, and I got to pick through several racks of designers’ clothing and borrow anything that I liked. I was doing what the big stars got to do! I picked out a very elegant, long white gown by Nicole Miller, which I really liked. Then they told me, “Take four or five dresses, Lisa. Just send them back when you are done with your events.”
It was all so unreal. When I was dressed and ready to go, there was a limo waiting outside to drive me to the party in style. When I entered the Cigar Room, Lisa Leslie from Morningside High was mixing with some of the top people in the world of high fashion. Lots of other models showed up for the affair, too. It was a whirlwind for me. There were so many things going on and so many fascinating people. It was incredible fun. I do not know if I had ever felt so special or glamorous before. If only Aunt Pete and her “get your tall, skinny, lanky self and your big feet into this kitchen” could have seen me.
I enjoyed so many aspects of the modeling business, and for some reason, I really liked doing layouts. Those are the photo-shoot spreads that are often used in magazines, especially when a new color comes into season. Apparently, most models steered away from doing layouts, but I thought they were a lot of fun, and I knew that they were much more relaxing than basketball games.
I got to pose for Elle, Shape, and Sports Illustrated for Women, among others. Those were fun photo sessions because they were part hoops and part modeling, so I got to do two of the things that I enjoyed most in life.
Modeling in New York was a fabulous experience, but it did not take me long to realize that being a nine-to-five model was not for me. A lot of girls see the glamour and think, Yeah, that is what I want to do! Trust me. It is so much hard work. Just getting modeling work can be a full-time job all by itself. The business is highly competitive and much more cutthroat than basketball. I would stand in “go-see” waiting lines with lots of girls, and they would rarely talk with each other. There was no model-to-model chitchat, small talk, or anything. Nobody spoke, and everybody seemed to be in their own little world, doing their own little thing.
I tried to be friendly. My vibe was, “Hey, how are you guys doing?” I was used to b
eing a team player. I would say, “Good luck,” to the girls in line, or I might say, “Can you help me with this?” I was trying to communicate, and they seemed surprised. “Where are you from?” they would ask, with just a hint of attitude.
I usually got interesting looks and rolled eyes when I said I was from Los Angeles. To tell you the truth, the more isolated the other girls were, the more outgoing I became. My confidence soared because the other models were so quiet and timid. That was a switch for me.
Modeling was being very good to me. I was doing so many things, and as my notoriety picked up, my schedule got even busier. I did so much modeling in just a few months. I had several sponsors, and Bruce kept lining up more and more jobs. Life in the fashion world was so positive for me that I made a major career decision: my professional future was going to be as a celebrity model and not as a basketball player.
Chapter 10
We Got Next!
I was tired of basketball, and I was more than ready to start pursuing other goals. That was why I turned down offers of three hundred thousand to five hundred thousand dollars to play overseas. I had prepared myself to be so much more than just a basketball player, and now I wanted to focus on my modeling career. I was twenty-four years old—young enough to give modeling a shot and still go back to basketball if it did not work out. There was a chance my stock as an athlete would decrease the longer I stayed away from the game, but I was ready to take a chance on modeling. I put basketball on the back burner.
The new American Basketball League for women had just tipped off in the United States. Though they made me part of their core group, I opted not to play. As far as I was concerned, I was retired from basketball. I was a full-time model now.
But in January of 1997, Bruce Binkow told me that the National Basketball Association was starting a new league for women. It was going to be called the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA), and the season was going to run from June through August. Ever since Team USA won Olympic gold in Atlanta, America had been buzzing about women’s basketball as never before. The timing was right to start a new league. Sheryl Swoopes and Rebecca Lobo were the first players to sign with the WNBA, and Bruce told me that if I got involved in the new league, I could continue modeling in New York and could just play basketball during the summer. It sounded like an ideal situation to me, so I told him, “Okay, I’ll do that.”
I had played summer league basketball in Los Angeles before, so I figured the WNBA would be a bunch of small gyms, reversible jerseys, and very few fans. I thought they might sell a few boxes of popcorn to defray costs, and that was okay. I was on board, but I was not expecting anything big. After all, it was just a summer league. Just about every city in America had one of those.
I was already doing modeling shoots in New York when I signed a personal service contract with the WNBA, and then I started getting jobs promoting the new league with Rebecca and Sheryl. We were the face of the WNBA in its inaugural season, and I thought that was cool. We shot several commercials and promotional announcements. I did a Nike commercial, too, so I was doing a lot of work, but I was not playing any basketball. All I did was talk about basketball. I was so into the modeling and the commercial shoots that I never gave a thought to getting myself ready to get back on the court. I guess I figured, Hey, I just played in the Olympics a few months ago; and I was in the best shape of my life. Why wouldn’t I be ready to play in the WNBA? Little did I know that I could be in incredible shape in the summer, yet be way out of basketball shape by the following spring.
The WNBA was going to have eight teams in its first season. Los Angeles, Phoenix, Sacramento, and Utah would make up the Western Conference, while New York, Houston, Cleveland, and Charlotte would comprise the Eastern Conference. The league wanted to do everything possible to ensure competitive balance, so WNBA officials determined its top sixteen players and assigned two of them to each of its teams. Those select players were placed in the cities and regions where they were best known, in hopes of drawing local fan support. For instance, the WNBA assigned Penny Toler and me to the Los Angeles Sparks. Penny had been a star at Long Beach State University, and I, of course, had been born in Southern California and had attended high school and college in the Los Angeles area. Playing for the Sparks seemed perfect for me. I could live at home in the summer and play in front of my family and friends. Sheryl Swoopes (Texas Tech) went to the Houston Comets, along with Cynthia Cooper, while Rebecca Lobo (UConn) was assigned to the New York Liberty with Teresa Weatherspoon.
I have to tell you, I was pleasantly surprised with how organized this new summer league seemed to be and by some of the people who had bought into the WNBA. Lakers owner Dr. Jerry Buss became the Sparks’ owner, too, and his son, Johnny, got the job as team president. Our colors were going to be purple and gold, just like the Lakers, but with a touch of teal added. I was really surprised to find out that the Sparks’ home court was going to be the Great Western Forum in Inglewood, the same building where the Lakers played. I had passed by their locker room a few times, but I had never thought I would actually have the opportunity to dress and shower in the same locker room that had been used by Wilt Chamberlain, Jerry West, Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and James Worthy. I was also excited to hear that in New York City, we would be playing against the Liberty at historic Madison Square Garden. Right then, I knew that the WNBA was going to be much more than a little summer league. I thought, Oh shoot! They are going to be selling tickets. This is big time! It was only going to be a three-month season, but the WNBA was going first class.
By the time that realization sank in, it was already too late for me. I was not in shape and not prepared for what was to come. I was in big basketball trouble. It was already springtime, and I was just starting to pick up a basketball.
It was a little basketball, too, an orange and white one. They called it orange and oatmeal, but the important thing was that the WNBA basketball was one inch smaller in circumference than the ball that the NBA used. The idea was to make the ball easier to handle since women usually have smaller hands than men. I had not played with a small ball since I left USC after the 1994 season.
After the WNBA allocated its top sixteen players, the league held an elite draft, which placed, among others, Wendy Palmer with the Utah Starzz, Lynette Woodard in Cleveland, Nancy Lieberman-Cline with the Phoenix Mercury, and Daedra Charles and Haixia Zheng with me on the L.A. Sparks. International players, like Australia’s Michelle Timms and Elena Baranova of Russia, were in the mix, too, so there were plenty of quality players to choose from.
Then, on April 28, 1997, the WNBA held its first draft of collegiate players. Nobody scouted college women the way that teams do now, and there was very little international scouting at all. Van Chancellor, the head coach and general manager for the Comets, probably did the best job of selecting players. Houston wound up with four Olympians on its squad that first year. Swoopes and Cooper were joined by Janeth Arcain from Brazil in the elite draft and Tammy Jackson in the second round of the college draft.
Chancellor used the very first pick in the very first WNBA draft to take Tina Thompson, my former Trojan teammate. She did not win a bunch of awards or accolades at USC, but in my opinion, Tina was a great player. I was mad that the Sparks could not get her. I am not sure that any other team in the league would have taken Tina with the overall number one pick, but Van knew what he was doing. I was hoping that Tina would join me in Los Angeles. Oh man, if the Sparks would have had Tina and me in the post, whoo-ee! We would have been awfully tough. I knew how she played, and I knew about her work ethic, but apparently, Van Chancellor knew about Tina, too. The Sacramento Monarchs used the second overall pick to take Pamela McGee from USC, and the Sparks got Jamila Wideman, a point guard from Stanford, with the third pick in the draft.
While all of the drafting and allocating was going on, the WNBA’s promotional machine was revving into high gear to hype the inaugural season. The league’s first slogan was
“We Got Next,” and Spike Lee filmed a commercial with that theme for Nike. It featured Swoopes, Dawn Staley, and me in New York City, playing against guys at a fenced-in outdoor basketball court. We played there all day long. I am serious. We played from morning until night on that shoot, and it turned out to be a great commercial.
At the beginning of the commercial, Spike Lee says, “Once upon a time there were three girls.” The video shows Sheryl, Dawn, and me walking up to a court where several guys are playing a pickup game. I am wearing light blue sweats, a red top, and a dark jacket. I tell the boys, “Yo! We got next,” and when we get onto the court with them, I hit a jump shot. Sheryl drives in for a layup. Dawn dishes out an assist and makes a strong defensive play. It is three girls against all guys, all day. At the end of the spot, you hear Spike Lee say, “And this isn’t a fairy tale. They didn’t beat every guy, but they beat enough to say that basketball is basketball and athletes are athletes.”
That was what we were about. Girls were finally getting a chance to play. It was amazing how that spot opened the eyes of the American public to the fact that women could play basketball and play to win. That commercial aired numerous times during the 1997 NBA playoffs, and print ads for the WNBA popped up in several major magazines. NBA Commissioner David Stern made sure that the fans of his men’s league got to hear all about the new women’s league, and why not? The National Basketball Association was behind the WNBA financially and philosophically. It was in the NBA’s best interest to do everything possible to make our league a success.