'I thought we were going to play in a small gym' - Lisa Leslie on suddenly being called to play in the WNBA

After helping Team USA win the gold in 1996, Lisa Leslie thought her basketball career was over. As was the common trend among women basketball players then, she accepted her fate and prepared for a new career.

She signed a contract with an agency and moved to New York to embark on a modeling career. But then, she received a call about the WNBA—the women's counterpart to the NBA. She didn't think highly of it, as Leslie assumed it was going to be a very small league with limited resources.

"When I was called about the WNBA, they said it would be in the summer, like a summer league," Leslie said, appearing on the Legends of Sport Podcast. "I really thought it was gonna be like reversible jerseys, we'd probably play at Long Beach State or a small community college, a gym. So I was like 'Yeah I could do that for a couple of months."

Leslie was surprised, to say the least

Little did she know that they would play on the Los Angeles Lakers' home floor and share a locker room with them. Lisa was not prepared for how serious and massive the WNBA was. The last time she picked up a basketball was when Team USA won the gold medal.

"My first time preparing for the WNBA was literally training camp," she recalled. "And then I'm like, 'I'm not really ready to play basketball.' We're playing at The Forum. I had no idea that Dr. Buss would have the LA Sparks... We had the same locker room as the Lakers."

"We got thrust into this professional league that I was not really prepared for. I was ok but I was running on fumes," Leslie said.

Setting the stage

The Los Angeles Sparks legend was embarrassed that she missed a dunk in her very first game. However, she padded the stat sheet with 16 points, 14 rebounds, two assists, and two blocks and recorded the WNBA's first double-double.

She ended her first season as a bona fide professional baller with 15.9 points, 9.5 rebounds (led the league), 2.6 assists, and 2.1 blocks per game.

A couple of years later, Lisa guided the Sparks to two consecutive WNBA Championships. She established herself as one of the best women's basketball players in history by winning a string of individual accolades.

Leslie retired from the WNBA in 2009 as the league's all-time leading scorer and rebounder. She continues to be a staunch supporter of the league and is proud of its radically improved performance.

"They're living out the dream that he had always hoped for. The product was always good," she concluded.