sparks Lisa Leslie INTRODUCTION HISTORY MAKERS Los Angeles Sparks center Lisa Leslie made history on July 30 2002 Her team faced the Miami Sol in Los Angeles California Leslie quickly gave the hometown fans something to cheer about Fast Facts Lisa Leslie won two Women’s National Basketball Association WNBA titles Leslie is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame Tina Charles is the fourth WNBA player to score at least 7,000 career points Charles has won three gold medals in the Olympic Games with Team USA
on etra seattle 31 With less than five minutes to play in the first quarter the Sol missed a shot The ball bounced to Sparks player Latasha Byears She threw a long pass to Leslie who stood alone near center court Leslie dribbled to the basket She leaped for a slam dunk Fans jumped to their feet and cheered Leslie had just made the first slam dunk in WNBA history The Sol won the game 82 73 But WNBA fans and players remember Leslie’s dunk as one of the most exciting moments in league history She was one of the WNBA’s first true superstars Tina Charles
9 Twenty years later another center made a huge impact on the league Seattle Storm center Tina Charles is a scoring machine On July 24 2022 the Storm faced the Atlanta Dream Charles started the game with 6,986 career points Charles scored nine points in the first quarter In the second quarter she made a three-point basket Then Storm teammate Epiphanny Prince had the ball She passed it to Charles Charles took a step and made another three-pointer Lisa Leslie makes the first slam dunk in the WNBA As she ran down the court after scoring Charles held up four fingers With 7,001 career points she had become the fourth WNBA player to score at least 7,000 Charles had reached an incredible milestone But does her career point total make her better than Leslie Read on to find out Let the smackdown begin
seattle seattle strom swedish 31 seattle AT&T Stokes 41 Tina Charles right has not won a WNBA title but she is one of the league’s greatest scorers
