The Pioneer
The frontier and an appetite for the unknown, goes first.
Lisa Leslie is The Pioneer because she did not inherit a template, she wrote one. Assigned to what she expected to be a summer league with reversible jerseys, she became the first woman to dunk in WNBA history, a goal written into her training contract, and later the first Black woman to coach men in the BIG3.
“I just dunk it. And I'm like mad when I went up, and then I dunked it — and I'm like oh yeah, like let's go. I've always tried to motivate my teammates by my actions.”
First WNBA dunk, goal achievedundated
“I want to dunk. I want to be MVP. What else have I done? Oh there's a scoring champion thing. I want to be the scoring champ. Also want to win Defensive Player of the Year — put that in my Nike contract.”
Goal-setting with trainerundated
“I was happy I was able to be the first Black woman to do that — and yeah, let's go, you're coming back.”
Coaching men in BIG3undated
Knuckleheads with Quentin Richardson & Darius Miles: “Lisa Leslie”
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