Smooth Exit?
However disappointed Lisa Leslie must have been to end her career Saturday night in Phoenix, she quickly pulled herself together for a nearly flawless press conference shortly after the game.
Lisa Leslie's professional basketball career officially ended Saturday when the LA Sparks lost to the Phoenix Mercury in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals. It was long known that Leslie was going to retire from playing professional basketball at the end of this year's WNBA season, and although she had hoped to go out with her third WNBA championship (and probably her third Finals MVP trophy), things didn't quite turn out that way. So Leslie and her teammates, including fellow Olympians Tina Thompson, DeLisha Milton-Jones, Candace Parker and Aussie Kristi Harrower would have to settle for taking the Olympians on the opposing roster (Diana Taurasi, Cappie Pondexter, and Aussie Penny Taylor) to three games. Despite all being teammates while playing for their countries, there were some very physical battles going on among these players, especially the Americans.
When the game was pretty much decided, Leslie was called for her sixth and final foul. The final foul of her career. As she headed to the bench to watch the remaining few minutes of her team's season – and her WNBA career -- from the bench, she received an ovation from the crowd. The same crowd who only moments earlier had reveled in chanting away a frustrated Candace Parker when she fouled out of the game. Now, thankfully, as Leslie walked off the court towards the Sparks' bench, there was a distinction made by the partisan fans. This was Lisa Leslie, and that childishness would not only be incredibly inappropriate, it would constitute a wasted opportunity to thank someone whom many consider to have made more contributions to women's basketball -- particularly the WNBA and USA Basketball -- than anyone else so far in the game. There just isn't anyone else with the stature and accomplishments and influence that Leslie has had.
So instead of cheering her sixth foul, the crowd -- perhaps feeling particularly magnanimous as their team was minutes from securing its spot in the WNBA Finals -- stood and applauded for Leslie, acknowledging her unique role in the WNBA and in women's basketball. She nodded slightly, but the game was still in play and she was not in her home arena -- where she had already been fêted earlier in the month (see Photos).
She stopped and hugged Coach Michael Cooper, and then shared a long hug with a teary Candace Parker, who later said via twitter, "i think wha hurt da most was lisa not finishin her career wit a ring. i rarely cry but i was so upset she had to end her career like that."
However disappointed Leslie must have been to end her career that night in Phoenix, she quickly pulled herself together for a nearly flawless press conference shortly after the game. Showered, dressed, and carefully made-up, Leslie spoke about why her team had just lost the game, confessed for the first time that Diana Taurasi is her favorite player and why she thinks Taurasi is the best player in the world, spoke of the responsibility of the current players and the league to make sure it continues to thrive, and how she hoped to continue to be a role model to young women on and off the court.
I was particularly impressed with her call to arms, of sort, for feminist action in support of the WNBA and women's sports. She was addressing the media in the room and the media at large. She thanked the media in the room for their work, but she called out the sports media as a whole, which I though was long overdue from someone on the “inside.” Obviously Leslie felt comfortable doing so now that she would no longer be wearing a uniform.
The league and the players are surely in no position to bite the various hands that are feeding them, but why they continually get such dismissive treatment by newspapers and television is not a question that the rest of us have to stop asking.
When asked to reflect on her career since her first game in June of 1997, Leslie took the opportunity to express her displeasure with the lack of growth in attention for her sport in the 13 years that the league has been in action.
"I'm still really disappointed with where women's basketball is ... to see how hard we play and to look at the news and to not even be able to … see the highlights of what's happening in Detroit and Indiana, or to see the phenomenal play that's happened here with Diana and the Sparks and myself and Candace Parker -- her having 18 rebounds and 24 points - there's just been phenomenal basketball being played in the WNBA. We just cannot get our place in society and it's unfortunate that this great opportunity is being missed by, I think, the world at times. So I just hope that you guys continue to do your job and continue to write about us and support us because we deserve to have a place in the media. We deserve to have a place in the news and when you turn on the sports channels you should see what happened in the WNBA. We deserve that."
Yes, Lisa. Yes you do deserve that. Any WNBA fan can think of countless frustrating Sportscenter viewings during which they got no news of the four or five WNBA games played that day, save for the score on the scroll, and possibly -- maybe! -- a 30-second highlight of one game on the early version of the show. But once all the baseball and hockey and racing and golf and tennis and football and soccer and boxing and even little league are ready for the late version -- forget about it. Little league! Sure those kids are cute, and talented, but they’re little kids! They’re not professional athletes! Oh but wait -- there was that night last week or so when Cappie mistakenly thought that Phoenix had tied the game on Penny's buzzer-beating 3 when they were actually down by 4 -- remember that? That highlight got attention on Sportscenter. (Look! Girls can't keep score! "I've got your 'Math is hard!' Barbie right here, babe!") And of course, that infamous "brawl" between Lisa's Sparks and Detroit last season. (Girlfight!)
"I don't see anything about the WNBA,” Leslie said. “If you don't have NBA TV and cable you've missed it and that's not fair. So that's what I'm fighting for. That's my transition. I'm still fighting for women's basketball and for young girls and for my daughter to one day have a place in the media."
That’s great! I'm thrilled that Leslie wants that fight to be her transition. I think that's a fantastic choice. But I have to admit, she caused me some serious concern with what she said next. A reporter asked her, "How do you keep the new players having the momentum to be as hungry as the players who started in the league, with that desire to showcase women's basketball?"
First, Leslie talked about the players recognizing the importance of the fans, and being willing to interact with them, and sign autographs. But then she segued into how the players "represent" themselves.
"As women, we need to look like women, how we carry ourselves, how we dress on and off the court, a lot of those things have to be addressed and continue to be addressed because we are the product, and it's important and people want to see a good product. They do. That's just the bottom line. And you need to be marketable. And I think that more women need to understand that here in our league."
I was a little disturbed by her call to the makeup bag, if you will, when she said that the league's players need to "look like women" on the court. This comment about how her sister players in the league should concern themselves with their appearance seemed incredibly out of place with everything else she was saying and everything the league is about fundamentally.
Here’s what I don’t understand. Why – why, why, why – would a four-time Olympian like Lisa Leslie think that what matters for professional athletes is to “look like women?”
Why is this the discussion? We’re not talking about dress code here. She mentioned that separately. We’re not talking about professional behavior – that’s a completely different subject.
If I had been at the press conference, I might have asked Leslie, “So what does a woman look like?”
Putting aside the terrifying practical concerns here (“I’m sorry, you don’t look enough like a woman, we’ll have to ‘fix’ that before you can play in this league”) the statement is incredibly offensive.
We’re talking about professional athletes. Elite athletes. The best female basketball players on the planet. And someone thinks they have a right to critique whether or not they look “right?” According to some “womanly” standard? What if that’s not how a player wishes to look? What if she doesn’t care whether or not the average person finds her attractive or pretty -- or whatever? What if she realizes she’s not ‘marketable’ and doesn't really care? Not every player can be marketable as an individual. That’s reality. Not everyone is blessed with the natural good looks of a Lisa Leslie (or a Sue Bird, Candace Parker, or Becky Hammon, etc.) In fact, most of us are not.
Is this where we’ve come for women? We’re still telling them how to look when we’re hiring them for a completely different purpose that (ostensibly) has nothing to do with how they look?
The WNBA talks the Title IX talk but walks the pre-1972 walk. I feel like I’m watching A League of Their Own here – and not the good parts.
But how ironic. The WNBA exists because of Title IX, the women’s movement, feminism, and a fundamental belief that equal opportunity for women is a civil right -- and a public good.
Isn’t the point that the product is great basketball? And that’s what is supposed to be marketable, first and foremost? I understand that it sure can’t hurt if the players are nice to look at as well, but that absolutely must be a fringe benefit for a viewer. It can never be the reason for tuning in. Pat Summitt didn’t recruit Candace Parker because she was pretty, and Geno Auriemma didn’t think Sue Bird’s girl-next-door good looks would sell more tickets at UConn. And neither Parker nor Bird were #1 picks in the WNBA Draft because they are beautiful women.
Must it be said, for the umpteenth time, that no one evaluates men this way -- ever?
I hate to say this, I really do, but I can’t help noticing that Leslie is the only player I’ve ever heard speak this way -- and she is retiring. She’s only in her late 30s, but in some ways she represents a link to a past generation – much of it filled with wonderful basketball memories, but some of its mindset clearly outdated.
The “look like a woman” part – that’s outdated, or at least, on its way out. And it should be. At least, I hope it is.