CULTURETECHLENSLisa Leslie
VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)
Combined Graph record U-07734 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6862.
Lisa Deshaun Leslie (born July 7, 1972, in Gardena, California) is a center who played her entire twelve-season WNBA career (1997–2009) with the Los Angeles Sparks after starring at USC, winning league championships in 2001 and 2002, three WNBA Most Valuable Player awards, and four Olympic gold medals with the United States (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008). On July 30, 2002, against the Miami Sol at the Staples Center in Los Angeles, Leslie became the first player to dunk in a WNBA game — the claim supported here by the WNBA's own history timeline and by the National Women's History Museum. The WNBA timeline specifies a one-handed breakaway dunk with 4:44 remaining in the first half of an 82–73 loss to Miami. Leslie was inducted into both the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015, and retired as the Sparks' career leader in scoring and rebounding.
Answer summary · this record in brief, from its own record text
Lisa Deshaun Leslie (born July 7, 1972, in Gardena, California) is a center who played her entire twelve-season WNBA career (1997–2009) with the Los Angeles Sparks after starring at USC, winning league championships in 2001 and 2002, three WNBA Most Valuable Player awards, and four Olympic gold medals with the United States (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008).
The record
- Also known as: Lisa Deshaun Leslie
Notes
Sports Encyclopedia roster CTL-SPE-0350. Firsts disposition: 'First player to dunk in a WNBA game' ASSERTED — supported by the WNBA (history timeline) and the National Women's History Museum. Curator's Judgment (DRAFT): The dunk matters because of who the league was built around: the WNBA's founding center, in her home arena, in a championship season. The date and the opponent are in the league's own timeline, which is where a first should live. Photo: CLEARED — File:Lisa Leslie by Gage Skidmore.jpg, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Sources
- WNBA. "WNBA History Timeline." WNBA.com. Accessed 2026-11-03. https://www.wnba.com/news/wnba-history-timeline-2012/ (primary source · build store)
- National Women's History Museum. "Lisa Leslie." WomensHistory.org. Accessed 2026-11-03. https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/lisa-leslie (build store)
Photograph · rights-cleared record, CultureTechLens Photo Rights Log
Lisa Leslie speaking in Phoenix, Arizona, 2015
Lisa Leslie speaking in Phoenix, Arizona, 2015 — Gage Skidmore, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Source: CultureTechLens · view at source
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.
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Chicago: CultureTechLens. “Lisa Leslie (CTL-E-6862).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph. Chicago, IL: CultureTechLens, 2026. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6862/
APA: CultureTechLens. (2026). Lisa Leslie (CTL-E-6862) [Entity record]. CultureTechLens Combined Graph. https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6862/
MLA: CultureTechLens. “Lisa Leslie (CTL-E-6862).” CultureTechLens Combined Graph, 2026, https://culturetechlens.com/graph/entities/ctl-e-6862/
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