{"id":796338,"date":"2026-05-14T17:53:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/796338\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T17:53:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T17:53:16","slug":"los-angeles-sparks-to-honor-lisa-leslie-with-a-statue-outside-crypto-com-arena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/796338\/","title":{"rendered":"Los Angeles Sparks to honor Lisa Leslie with a statue outside Crypto.com Arena"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The Los Angeles Sparks are honoring Hall of Fame player Lisa Leslie with a statue outside of Crypto.com Arena. Leslie became the second player in league history&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>LOS ANGELES(AP) \u2014 The <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/los-angeles-sparks\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> announced Thursday they will honor Hall of Fame player Lisa Leslie with a statue outside of Crypto.com Arena.<\/p>\n<p>Leslie became the second player in league history, joining Sue Bird, to be honored with a statue by her franchise. The eight-time All-Star remains the team&#8217;s leader in points, rebounds, blocks and a host of other categories.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTo be cemented in Los Angeles, the city that raised me, I couldn\u2019t be more proud to be a role model forever!\u201d Leslie said in a statement. \u201cGod has blessed me and I have truly given my all to this sport and our community. I am thankful to my coaches, teammates, incredible fans, and, most importantly, my family and friends. As the saying goes, \u2018The wolf is only as strong as the pack,\u2019 and I\u2019ve been fortunate to have an amazing pack supporting me every step of the way.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>She helped the franchise win back-to-back titles in 2001 and 2002 and spent her entire 12-year career with the Sparks. Leslie also won four gold medals with USA Basketball.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019ve known Lisa for nearly three decades and believe that she is beyond deserving of this incredible honor. She was the driving force behind bringing back-to-back championships to the Los Angeles Sparks franchise in 2000 and 2001,&#8221; Magic Johnson said. \u201cLisa\u2019s hard work and commitment has made her one of the best to ever play the game.\u202fLisa\u2019s legacy isn\u2019t just measured by championships and accolades, though; it\u2019s defined by the doors she opened and the standard she set for generations to come.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leslie&#8217;s No. 9 jersey was retired by the team in 2010. The statue will join the 15 other iconic sculptures in the plaza at the arena that include Johnson, Wayne Gretzky, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Shaquille O&#8217;Neal and Kobe Bryant.<\/p>\n<p>The ceremony to unveil the statue will take place on Sept. 20 prior to Los Angeles&#8217; game against Portland.<\/p>\n<p>AP WNBA: <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong id=\"isPasted\">Copyright 2025 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Los Angeles Sparks are honoring Hall of Fame player Lisa Leslie with a statue outside of Crypto.com&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":796339,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,2961,224,5337],"class_list":{"0":"post-796338","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-la","11":"tag-los-angeles","12":"tag-losangeles"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116574211873846286","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796338","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=796338"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/796338\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/796339"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=796338"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=796338"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=796338"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}