by Lisa Leslie
My Spartak head coach was Nedelko Lazic, and he was okay. His assistant, Rafi, was from Israel, and he took me through a lot of the drills that I had done with Michael before we left Los Angeles. Rafi taught me different things about facing up, reading defenses, and feeling a player against me and then reacting to that. He helped me with my turnaround jump shot and along with Michael, was one of the primary people who helped me improve my free throw shooting. I really enjoyed spending time with Rafi, and I liked the way he helped my game.
But the Russian league seemed so strange to me. For some games, Papa san would say, “No, daughter. You stay home. I don’t want you to travel.”
“What? You don’t want me to play?” I would ask in surprise.
“No. You rest.”
Sometimes, the top players did not have to participate. I do not know why. But there were so many things in the Russian league that boggled my mind that when Papa san told me not to play, I just didn’t play.
In February 2006, I took a break from Russia and returned to the States for the NBA’s All-Star Weekend in Houston. I competed alongside Kobe Bryant and Magic Johnson in the Shooting Stars competition, but Team Los Angeles got edged out by Tony Parker, Steve Kerr, and Kendra Wecker of Team San Antonio.
After the All-Star Weekend, I returned to Russia for EuroCup play. Spartak had a big game against the Anda Ramat Hasharon team from Israel, which featured Detroit Shock stars Deanna Nolan and Cheryl Ford. Their team was talking a lot of trash in the newspapers about how they were going to beat us, and their coach was calling her squad the Dream Team. She even mentioned that Anda had two players on its roster that she thought were better than Lisa Leslie.
When people started to ask me about it, I said that Deanna Nolan and Cheryl Ford were two of the WNBA’s great young players, and Anda was fortunate to have them on the roster. I knew that they were very strong players, and I told everyone that we hoped to play our best against them. I wanted to take the high road.
When Spartak finally played Anda, there was a lot of anticipation. It was a home game for Spartak, and before each of our home games, we always gave the opposing team’s players and coaches huge bouquets of flowers. It was a nice gesture, but when we were beating Anda in the final minutes, they shredded the bouquets and threw the flowers all over our gym. To this day, it is one of the most unsportsmanlike displays I have ever seen.
When we flew into Tel Aviv for the rematch, the people there were pretty confident that Anda was not only going to win, but win big. In EuroCup play, it is all about the combined numbers. Spartak had defeated Anda by seven points in Russia, so they had to beat us by more than seven points in Israel, because the team with the highest combined score from the two games would be the squad that advanced to the semifinal round.
For some reason, when we first got to Israel, we were not allowed to practice on Anda’s home court. The next day, when we got on their court, there were maintenance people working on the floor, and the opposing coach kept coming in out of the gym while we were practicing. There was way too much drama, but we beat them, anyway, and got to move into the next round of the EuroCup.
In the semifinals, we got past Halcon Avenida of Spain, even though the second game of that series ended in a 61–61 tie. That was how they did it over there. Since Spartak had won convincingly in the first game of the series, there was no need to have a winner in Game Two. The Spanish team did not equal or surpass our combined point total in regulation play, so we advanced to the finals with a 132–116 advantage in the two-game series.
We were set to face le Pays d’Aix from France when the EuroCup finals began on March 2006. We took the lead fourteen seconds into Game One, never relinquished it, and defeated our opponents on their home court. Le Pays d’Aix would have to beat us by sixteen points in Moscow in order to keep us from winning the championship, but they did not even come close. Instead, I put up twenty points and grabbed fourteen boards to help Spartak capture the 2006 EuroCup Championship.
I was picked as the league’s best center. What more could I ask for? I had a coach who appreciated me, and a professional championship in Europe to go with the two WNBA titles that I had won in the States. My experience in Russia was a good one. I think the people there appreciate women’s basketball much more than Americans do.
Another great thing about Moscow was that I never felt a hint of racism. The people were always friendly when Michael and I walked down the streets, and no one ever said a word about the color of our skin—at least not in English.
Back in America, the WNBA celebrated its tenth anniversary in 2006 by adding the Chicago Sky as its latest expansion team. The league also announced its All-Decade team, which honored the ten best and most influential players from its first ten years of play. I was very pleased to be named to that All-Decade team. Sheryl Swoopes, Tina Thompson, and I were the only original players from the WNBA’s inaugural season to receive the honor, and Houston’s Van Chancellor was named the league’s Coach of the Decade.
After playing in Russia, I felt really good about coming back to play with the Sparks. It was time for me to see if I could give Uncle Brainard enough good reasons not to push me into retirement. But, as had become the trend in recent seasons, I was not coming back to a team that I totally recognized. Nikki Teasley had been traded to Washington in exchange for former WNBA rookie of the year Temeka Johnson and veteran forward Muriel Page. And Joe Bryant had gotten the full-time job as the Sparks’ head coach.
To start the 2006 season, the Sparks split six consecutive road games, followed by eight straight wins. In the last game of that streak, I nailed a jump shot that made me the first player in WNBA history to score five thousand career points. It was another exciting accomplishment.
My overall game was stronger than in the previous season, but more importantly, I felt good. Chamique was playing well, and Temeka Johnson was running the show for us and dishing the basketball. Our record was 14–5 as the Sparks got ready to face Indiana on July 7 in Los Angeles, and I made a note of that date for two reasons: it was my thirty-fourth birthday, and the Sparks’ president, Johnny Buss, had a very special birthday present for me.
Our team broadcaster, Larry Burnett, emceed a pregame ceremony at the corner of the Staples Center basketball court. We were right near the Sparks’ bench when he told the crowd, “Usually when you go to court, it is not a good thing, but from now on, when you come to this court, it is going to be a very special thing. The Buss family and the Sparks understand that when you have greatness in your midst, you enjoy it, you nurture it, and you acknowledge it. Tonight, Lisa Leslie’s greatness is going to be acknowledged right here, and, Lisa, this is a very special night. Usually, you have to be retired or dead before something like this happens, so enjoy it. The president of the Los Angeles Sparks, Johnny Buss, is here with a very special announcement.”
Johnny was all smiles when he took the microphone. He said, “Oh my God. This is so much fun for me. This is a special night. Obviously, it is Lisa’s birthday, so it is a great night to begin with. I couldn’t think of anything to get her for her birthday, so I thought this city, the Buss family, and the Sparks owe this woman a debt of gratitude for ten seasons of incredible basketball and a ton of accolades. Without any further ado, Lisa, I want to dedicate this Sparks court to you on your birthday in this tenth anniversary season of the WNBA. If you can just help me lift this carpet up.”
We both reached down and removed a piece of carpet that had been covering the corner of the court. It revealed a brand-new stencil on the floor, which read, LISA LESLIE COURT. My number nine was there, as well as a large facsimile of my signature. Johnny said, “There it is, the Lisa Leslie Court. Lisa, thank you so much. I love you to death.”
I was literally stunned, but I got a brief chance to collect my thoughts as the song “Simply the Best” blared through the Staples Center sound system. Then, it was my turn to talk, so I addressed the crowd and said, “I am just humbled because you know I give all th
e glory to God. I am just so thankful for the life that I have and the blessings I have been blessed with to play a sport that I love and to have the family that I have. I just thank God, because I am from Compton, California, the inner city. My mom was a single parent with three girls. We worked hard. Thank you, Mom, for everything you have given me: my morals and my values.
“I just try to come out every day and represent my family and my city and my country the best that I can, because I am grateful to be able to play this sport, not just to play basketball, but also to be able to represent God as a Christian. I’m just thankful to have a court named after me. I don’t know what to say. I am just thankful and for all the little girls out there and the little boys, write down your goals and keep working hard. You can do, and achieve, anything that you want to do. I am an example for you. I just thank you. Continued blessings to you guys. God bless you, and to my husband, I love you, babe. Thank you.”
It was one of my most special and unforgettable birthdays.
I made my sixth All-Star squad that season, and for the first time, the Eastern Conference won. The Sparks had a tough schedule after the break. Most of our games were on the road, but we played well, and Coach Bryant was fun to play for. He always seemed to see the bright side of things, he always had a smile, and he had a laugh that could be heard in the next county. He gave our squad a lot of freedom, and the Sparks responded. I knew I was making Uncle Brainard proud, and I was voted most valuable player again. That honor put me in great company with Sheryl Swoopes as the only WNBA players to own three regular-season MVP trophies.
The Sparks were back on track to be a serious threat for the finals. We faced the Seattle Storm in Round One, and after losing Game One, we came back strong in the next two games to advance. Next up was Sacramento.
The Monarchs once again had the crazy, loud fans that made it tough to play them on the road. In Game One, I missed shot after shot after shot, and as a team, we just could not dig out a win. Game Two was back in L.A., which was great, because we always played well at Staples Center. But Staples Center was booked for an American Idol concert, and neither American Idol nor the WNBA would change their dates. We were forced to play our “home” game at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, which was deemed a neutral court.
It is awfully hard to have home-court advantage when you are playing in someone else’s building. We had not played at the Pond all season long, and we were not familiar with the court, the backboards, or the rims. We did not even know where the locker rooms were located, and we never found our comfort zone in Game Two against the Monarchs. They jumped on us early and never let up. It was horrible. We scored only eight points in the second quarter, and we trailed by twenty-four at intermission. I finished with ten points and had another rough shooting game. Sacramento grabbed the win, 72–58; won the conference crown; and eliminated us from the playoffs for the third consecutive season. I might have been the league’s MVP, but that did not mean very much to me when our 2006 season came to that abrupt ending in Anaheim.
Once my WNBA season had ended, I was supposed to report to USA Basketball to prepare for the world championships that would begin in Brazil in September, but the day after the Sparks got eliminated, I got word that my Uncle Ed Shaw had been in a car accident. His Chevy Suburban had been hit by another vehicle and had wound up wrapped around a tree. When they got Uncle Ed to the intensive care unit at Harbor U.C.L.A. Medical Center, he had no feeling from his chest down.
As days turned into weeks, he started to improve a bit, and we were hoping that he would regain all of his feeling. I kept getting calls from USA Basketball. They wanted to know when I was going to get to camp, so I explained my situation and told them that I felt it would be best that I withdraw from the team. Believe me, that was a very difficult decision for me, but Uncle Ed was not like some relative that I talked to only once a year. We were very close. He was only a few years older than me, so we actually grew up together, and he had supported my basketball development from early on, and he was critical to all of the success that I had achieved. He was an essential part of my life. I was not comfortable leaving him and taking off for Brazil to play basketball.
So for the first time since the eleventh grade, I was not going to be part of the USA Basketball team. It was a strange feeling, but my teammates understood and sent me their good wishes. Unfortunately, the U.S. team could only manage a bronze medal in the world championships. More troubling, though, was that Uncle Ed’s physical progress had become limited, and his hospital stay was extended. Weeks became months, and he was still paralyzed. I spent a lot of time with Uncle Ed, and I tried to motivate him the same way that he had encouraged me on the basketball court. I said, “Come on, Uncle Ed! Be strong! You gotta fight!”
Hopefully, Uncle Ed’s condition will take a turn for the better, but he was hospitalized in August of 2006, and as I write this, he still is.
A lot of people thought I had bowed out of the world championships because I was pregnant. That was not the case at the time, but it was not for lack of trying. Michael and I were looking forward to starting a family. He said he had always thought that he would not have any more kids after Gabrielle and Mikaela. But he thought I would be an awesome mom and was open to having more children. I really appreciated that. The problem was that I was not sure that I wanted to bring a child into an uncertain world full of war, poverty, homelessness, sickness, and other big issues. Then I realized that the world had its share of problems back when my mom had me and when Mom’s mother gave birth to her. Things change, but kids continue to survive and flourish and grow up to make more kids. It is life, and that is part of what we are here for. There is still a lot of good in this world, too, and I wanted to contribute to it. Michael and I were ready to take that big step.
The first time that we thought that I was pregnant, we bought the little home pregnancy test kit and followed the instructions. No pink stripe showed up, but the sad face did. I was not pregnant, but we went back to practicing, and we started using an ovulations indicator, which would display a happy face to let me know when I was ovulating. When the happy face showed up, I would give Michael a sly smile and say, “Now.” I was pregnant in no time.
The first month of my pregnancy went smoothly. I did not have any morning sickness. From time to time, I did get a terrible metallic taste in my mouth, so the doctor told me to do whatever I could to stabilize myself and be happy. I ate candy to try to get the taste out of my mouth. Lots of candy. I probably munched on more Skittles, Starburst, and mints while I was pregnant than at any time in my entire life.
Once we got to the second month and were certain that I was pregnant, we had to start letting people know. Ironically, two days before we were going to spread the news, my agent called to tell me that the L.A. Sparks had been sold by the Buss family to Kathy Goodman and Carla Christofferson, two avid Sparks fans who were also very savvy Los Angeles businesswomen.
Besides my surprise, all I could think about was how I was going to tell the new owners that I was pregnant. The Sparks’ sale talks had been very hush-hush, very confidential, but as soon as I found out about the sale, I called Kathy and Carla and informed them that I was expecting and would not be available to play in the 2007 WNBA season. That was just days before the sale was announced publicly in December, so they were a bit shocked, but both women were also very excited for me.
My pregnancy became totally public at the news conference announcing the Sparks’ sale, and some members of the media questioned why I had not told the prospective owners about my pregnancy sooner than I did. Well, if I had known ahead of time that the Sparks were up for sale, I could have informed everyone involved that there was a chance that I would not be available to play, but that was not how it played out. As soon as I knew about the sale, I told Kathy and Carla about my pregnancy.
A few weeks later, on New Year’s Eve, I got an excruciating pain in my stomach and was rushed to the emergency room. It hurt so badly, and honestly, I w
ould have taken a needle in my eyeball to relieve the extreme pain. The doctor found out that I had a fibroid tumor that was outside of my uterus. I knew that I had a fibroid before I got pregnant, but I did not know that as the baby grew, the tumor could grow as well. Sometimes the tumor lost blood flow, which caused a lot of pain for me, and some of the things that I ate made the problem worse, too, so chocolate and caffeine had to be out of my diet for the rest of the pregnancy and maybe the rest of my life.
My doctor also told me to stop working out, so I was sidelined for most of my second trimester. That was really difficult for me, but some days were better than others. But I found ways to occupy my time. Michael and I traveled a bit. And we set up the baby’s nursery.
The whole pregnancy process was amazing. When Michael and I saw the ultrasound images and 3-D video of the baby during the second trimester, we were convinced that I would be having a boy. It looked like a boy for a while, but near the end of the trimester, the doctor said, “No. We are pretty sure that your baby is a girl, or a really unhappy boy.” It did not matter to us. We just wanted a healthy baby.
I had to start shopping for bigger clothes because my stomach kept growing and growing. Nothing that I owned fit me anymore because I’d gained about thirty-five pounds. I popped the buttons off of two pairs of slacks, and I felt weird wearing XL shirts, but that was what I needed to cover my big belly. Some people said that I looked like I was hiding a basketball under my shirt.