The Only Woman In The Plaza: Lisa Leslie’s Statue At Crypto.com Arena Is Long Overdue

She played her entire WNBA career

Lisa Leslie is finally getting the kind of permanent recognition that should have been waiting for her in Los Angeles a long time ago. The Los Angeles Sparks announced that the Hall of Famer and franchise icon will be honored with a statue in Star Plaza outside Crypto.com Arena, with the unveiling set for September 20 before the Sparks’ game against the Portland Fire. The statue will place Leslie among L.A. sports royalty, in the same plaza as names like Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Jerry West, Shaquille O’Neal, Kobe Bryant, Wayne Gretzky, Oscar De La Hoya and more. But the bigger story is simple: when Lisa Leslie stands there in bronze, she’ll be the first Sparks legend — and the first woman with her own statue in that plaza — to receive that honor.

And honestly, “long overdue” almost feels too light. Leslie was not just great for the Sparks. She was foundational. Before the WNBA became a league where young stars could walk into sold-out arenas, signature shoe conversations and national TV debates, Leslie was one of the faces proving that women’s professional basketball belonged on the main stage. From the moment the league launched in 1997, she gave Los Angeles a superstar big with skill, presence, marketability and that rare aura that made people stop and pay attention. She played her entire WNBA career with the Sparks, won two championships, became a three-time league MVP and built a résumé that still reads like somebody made it up.

Her legend started way before the Sparks, though. Leslie was a problem coming out of Morningside High School in Inglewood, where she became one of the most famous girls’ basketball players in the country. Her 101-point performance in the first half of a high school game remains one of those stories that sounds mythical until you realize it actually happened. National Women’s History Museum notes that Leslie scored those 101 points in the first half of a game during her senior year, led her team to another state championship and won the Naismith Award as the nation’s top high school player. That is not just “good prospect” territory. That is “everybody in the gym knows they’re watching history” territory.

After high school, Leslie stayed home and starred at USC, then became one of the defining players of the WNBA’s early years. At 6-foot-5, she brought size, footwork, defense and star power to the center position. She averaged 17.3 points, 9.1 rebounds, and 2.4 assists for her WNBA career, while also becoming an eight-time All-Star, two-time Defensive Player of the Year, two-time Finals MVP, and two-time WNBA champion. The Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame also credits her as the Sparks’ career leader in scoring and rebounding and the first WNBA player to reach 6,000 career points. In other words, if the Sparks have a Mount Rushmore, Lisa Leslie is not just on it — she helped carve the whole thing.

Then there’s the dunk! On July 30, 2002, Leslie became the first player to dunk in a WNBA game, a moment that carried way more weight than just two points. It was a visual announcement that lazy assumptions about athleticism, power or entertainment value could not box in the women’s game. For a generation of girls watching, especially tall Black girls who were often told to shrink themselves or be “less intimidating,” Leslie gave them the opposite message. Be big. Be dominant. Be graceful. Be unapologetic, and if the rim is there, go meet it.

Her dominance also traveled. Leslie won four Olympic gold medals with Team USA in 1996, 2000, 2004 and 2008, helping build the standard that U.S. women’s basketball still lives up to today. She set a U.S. Olympic women’s single-game scoring record with 35 points and, by 2008, became the first consecutive four-time Olympic basketball gold medalist in history. USA Basketball also lists Leslie among its all-time World Cup leaders, ranking first in career points and rebounds. So when we talk about Lisa Leslie, we are not just talking about a WNBA legend. We are talking about one of the most decorated basketball players America has ever produced, period.

That is why this statue matters beyond the ceremony, the photo ops and the emotional speeches. Leslie was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2015, and her place in history has been secure for years. But public monuments tell people whose greatness a city chooses to make impossible to ignore. For decades, Star Plaza has been packed with men whose careers helped define Los Angeles sports. Lisa Leslie belongs right there with them — not as a favor, not as a diversity footnote, not as a “finally, women too” gesture, but because her legacy demands it. The only real question is why it took this long.

SEE ALSO:

The WNBA’s New Collective Bargaining Agreement Is Changing The Math On Motherhood For Players

Everything You Need To Know About The 2026 WNBA Season