Good Morning! 🙏🏾
Welcome to a special edition of Down to Earth.
What makes it special, you ask? Well, today, I’ll be sharing my latest piece, one that I’ve written for SET Magazine’s 100 Women in Sports issue about the legendary Lisa Leslie.
Lisais widely regarded as one of the greatest women’s basketball players of all time, winning three WNBA MVPS, two championships, and four gold medals throughout her career.
She’s also an incredible human being with a kind heart and a dedication to her loved ones. A woman of high character with a commitment to health and well-being, Lisa’s community-first mindset is one that fits right within theme of this newsletter.
This piece is also my first cover story, a resounding beacon of accomplishment for my 6-year journalism career, and an indication of the great work I will continue to produce next.
I am proud to bring our conversation to life, and hope you enjoy hearing about Lisa’s experiences the same way I enjoyed writing about them.
By: Red Young
It’s a bright, hot and buzzy day when I push open the doors of HGAB studios in Miami. Immediately, my eyes are drawn to the mystical Lisa Leslie, her voluminous hair shimmering over a bold green dress. Stylists, photogs and makeup artists scramble around her feet between each look with a controlled intensity. This is a cover shoot, after all. Could her makeup use an adjustment? Do these shoes go with her complexion? What’s the lighting like? It’s routine for Lisa — as an experienced model and three-time MVP, she’s used to calling the shots.
Lisa is a slender and elegant 6’5, each movement made with feathery grace. There’s a palpable aura surrounding this woman. It’s something of legend in the basketball world. Some of the game’s royal figures — Lebron James, Draymond Green and Kobe Bryant — have testified to her greatness.
But what is it? What makes Lisa so inherently magnetic and resonant with other great people? I’d soon find that the key to Lisa’s success has always been kindness, effort, and consistency of character.
Amidst the madness, a brief moment emerges for us to introduce. She’s bopping and snapping to the bassline of Wild Thoughts by Rihanna. Her presence brings an energy of pride and respectability. She’s got these eyes that really listen to you.
Lisa’s called over to her pedestal, swanning into covergirl poses. Aware of the long day ahead, her team swings by to stuff snack wraps and bottles of water into my hands.
It wasn’t always glitz and glamour for the center of attention. To get the picture of who she is, you’ll have to visit Lisa’s foundation in Compton, California during the 1980s and ‘90s. You’ll see children playing hopscotch, double dutch, and skelly in the unending West Coast sun. The big boys stunting in their convertible Chevy’s and hydraulic Cadillacs, cruising from house party to house party. Anxious parents download the scene from freshly painted porches and mesh-screened windows. Above it all, a latent sense of caution looms. In gang-troubled Compton, chaos could erupt at any moment.
Lisa kept a cool head. The middle child of three, she paved her way through early life with a survivalist mentality. With her father out of the picture and her mother in the far reaches of the continent, (she drove a cross-country 18-wheeler) it was do or die.
And so she did.
She did sports, she did well in school, she did good by others.
She naturally operates with a winning formula of grace and love.
After the shoot, Lisa strolls into a kitschy Miami Latin spot and pulls out a chair across from me. Lisa’s sister, Tiffany, is handling the orders. “Passion fruit, or mango?” Already knowing Lisa’s taste, Tiffany tells the server to go with Passion Fruit. We get mic’d up, and Lisa’s locked into interview mode. When there’s an objective to reach, nothing else matters. Believe it or not, the multi-time champ knows what it’s like to miss out on opportunities.
At 15, Lisa Leslie was flying home from the biggest game of her life with her head in her hands. “I was sick, depressed,” she recalls of her sophom*ore year championship game. “The whole team counted on me to make the basket, and I just missed it.”
Weeks passed, and Lisa’s mother noticed the post-loss funk had yet to subside. She knew her daughter was bound to be great, but the teen had yet to handle defeat with grace. “How you deal with adversity and difficult times is what defines your character,” her mother told her. “Dwelling on defeat keeps you from your next victory, and it isn’t cute.” Her mother encouraged Lisa’s resilience by promising she could do anything she wanted. “But try to look good while doing it,” her voice echoes.
She’s lived by those words ever since. Lisa went on to win a high school national championship, notched 101 points (!) in a half, and had every league and university vying for her affection. In a bid to narrow the gap, Lisa chose her hometown USC Trojans, who had just finished near the bottom of the deck. “I wanted to turn the program around,” she says of the challenge. “I believed I could do it, and I wanted to give my city something to be proud of.”
En route to two Elite 8 appearances, Lisa and the Trojans made Los Angeles proud when it was needed most. Blossoming into a three-time All-American, Lisa grabbed the shot-blocking record and staked a unanimous claim to the 1994 National Player of the Year.
By this point, Lisa had been dominating with the USA team for several years. She wasn’t able to grab a college national championship, (it eats at her to this day) but is proud of her hoops career.
After checking every basketball box she could, an existential question posed itself: What now?
Lisa holds her degree in communications — could she pursue a career in media? The modeling thing is cool, maybe give that a shot? Overseas basketball, the typical route for women aiming for the pro level, was also calling her name.
The answer turned out to be a combination of the above. Touring the world for international basketball, Lisa was chasing greatness with everything she tried. Her modeling debut came with Wilhelmina, a storied agency in New York City. “I’ve always been comfortable in my own skin,” she says confidently. Life in 1990’s New York City proved to be a delight for Lisa. She thrived in the bustling metropolis, her trademark smile warming cold city hearts.
At the height of her bliss, Lisa received a call that would flip everything on its head.
As fate would have it, the WNBA was set to kick off its inaugural season and eyed Lisa as its first superstar. The Los Angeles Sparks drafted her with the franchise’s first pick, bringing Lisa back home once more.
“I couldn’t help but shrug,” she laughs. “I thought it would be some kind of summer league, with reversible jerseys.”
It wasn’t until she realized the Sparks would play at the storied LA Forum, where greats like Magic Johnson and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar called home, that her perspective changed. “‘Oh, what the hell!” She remembers saying. “This is for real!”
Spoiler alert: it was about to get a whole lot realer.
Molded in the spotlight, it wasn’t Hollywood that phased Lisa — it was the adjustment to the basketball of the WNBA. With a league boasting dozens of the best basketball players on Earth, Lisa Leslie was soon stricken with an unfamiliar emotion. “My game just wasn’t ready,” she laments.
Lisa struggled to adjust to the physical demands of the pro level. She grinded during her first two seasons with the Sparks, failing to reach the playoffs during an all-out gold rush for league supremacy. The league became the amusem*nt of Sheryl Swoopes and the Houston Comets, claiming the first four WNBA championships. Stoking flames of desire, rage, and vengeance in Lisa’s heart, she was determined to return to a place of greatness.
“What does it take to be great?” I ask Lisa. Dicing her steak with plastic cutlery, she seems to be searching for a one-size-fits-all answer, but can only speak from experience. “You gotta put in the work,” she says, taking a bite. “When I became unstoppable, it was because I worked my butt off every day.”
I dig into this “unstoppable” mode she mentions. “It was around when Dawn Staley and I roomed together during the Olympics. We were both a different kind of driven, always wanting to get better.” The combination brought total victory to the U.S. (the women’s team beat every country they visited) and showed Lisa the rewards of hard work.
She knew she had to flip the same switch to overcome the dominant ladies of the WNBA. On the other side of the coin, the unstoppable LA Lakers were in the midst of their dynastic run of several championships. At the head of the ship was Kobe Bryant, who Lisa would soon learn was wired just the same as she.
Immortalized by his ‘Mamba Mentality,’ Lisa would often show up early in the morning to find Kobe in the midst of “doing what he does,” on gamedays. The two eventually formed a bond, strengthened by their insatiable hunger to dominate. “Everyone ain’t willing,” Kobe would shake his head. But Lisa was.
As of the 2000, season, a star was born. The WNBA had a new face of the league — one clad in bright red lipstick. Blocking shot after shot, Lisa invigorated the WNBA with a ruthless defensive spirit balanced by pageant-ready femininity. She believes that her willingness to showcase her womanhood allowed her star to develop, paving the way for the expressiveness we see in today’s basketball. “We’re born female, but you choose to be a lady.”
Players like Chicago Sky’s Angel Reese are known for their flashy play and fierce looks, and Lisa’s here for it. “The lashes, the hair, the makeup. It makes me so happy to see these girls being who they are.” Lisa sees women’s basketball as a sisterhood, including women of all different backgrounds, united under a desire to be great (and look good while doing it.)
On the men’s side, the NBA is perhaps more talented and skilled than ever before. But a piece seems to be missing. These demi-gods of basketball are exhibiting some of the foibles attributed to the figures of Greek lore. Gambling scandals evocative of Hades-like greed, and romantic exploits that recall the pitfalls of Zuess. Billed with a redundancy 82-game season, many of these high-performers are simply bored.
Lisa’s Sparks eventually developed into a force in the WNBA. As the center, it was her job to keep the ship intact. With strong values of loyalty, friendship, and family, she embraced this role. Her teammates began to trust that support, allowing them to settle into their own roles. “If I didn't buy into it, how could the rest of the team?”
Lisa Leslie and the LA Sparks bought in and cashed out, reeling in back-to-back championships in 2001 and 2002.
“We don't have championships without our defense,” she says with certainty. This notion of sacrifice isn’t limited to basketball. “That's what missing in society,” she crosses her arms, changing her tone. “When everything is good, it's easy to be there. But how hard is it to be with the discomfort when it's bad? When you see somebody in need — can you stop what you're doing in your busy schedule to help?”
Curious about where these compassionate roots originate, I ask Lisa about her faith. A self-proclaimed “child of God,” she cites service as a core component of doing His will. “You can do your best, but you also want to do your best on behalf of others.”
Brimming with joy, she asks me, “Every day is an opportunity, right?” I nod. “It's an opportunity for us to be giving,” she continues, speaking with her hands. “It's an opportunity for us to be loving and for us to be supportive of one another. The ability to give is a gift itself,” she smiles.
This team-first attitude has seeped into parenting. Regarding her children, Lisa says she’s raising them to be independent yet supportive of the team — strong, confident, and smart. “I can't let the world teach them how to love themselves,” she says. Lisa instead wants her family to embody the values of respectability and work ethic. “Oprah said this first, but when preparation and opportunity meet, it equals success.”
Lisa looks to pass this torch to younger generations of athletes and entertainers. “You’ve got A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Nneka [Ogwumikecko], of course Britney [Griner]. There's so many players,” she muses on the WNBA. With all the young talent there is across sports, Lisa is hopeful that they can do something great with their opportunities, just like she did with hers. “Using my platform can help change the future,” she describes her mentality.
“Anyone with eyes can see the greatness,” she says of former Iowa star Caitlin Clark. “That girl can put the ball in the basket better than —” Lisa stops herself here. “Let’s see what she does.” The hype around the women’s game these days is unprecedented, with viewership and fan engagement smashing records. An urgency during this period is to prioritize the players’ pay. “Something needs to be figured out,” Lisa implores. She finds herself at the head of the mast, serving as a guiding light for these young women and the league itself. “Do your best,” she tells them. “Know your worth. Your talent is just the start. Be who you are, but do it with heart and effort.”
Lisa has shifted her platform from the league to the housing industry, striving to be of service to her community in a more tangible way. Along with her husband Michael and sister Tiffany, Lisa operates Lockwood Real Estate Group. LRG is under the Keller Williams International umbrella, the top dog in luxury real estate. “We win in that space,” Lisa says, reminiscent of her once-dominant LA Sparks.
Lisa takes the opportunity to educate her clients, who are typically pro athletes and entertainers. “Those are my peers,” she says. “How communities of color invest in themselves, especially when they have money, is so important.”
With college athletes able to make money off of their likeness with NIL deals, Lisa wants them to realize their opportunity. “These are first-generation millionaires,” she adds. At this point, Lisa leans in to emphasize her sincerity. “You’re making money now, but you get hurt, and it's gone in a year or two. What did you do with it?” She shakes her head. “Okay, you got some fancy car and you got bling. Bro, let's take this money, and figure out ways to grow!”
Following the 2009 season, Lisa said goodbye to basketball. Motherhood became her full-time role, and she’s been embracing it with the same ferocity of her playing days. While she’s usually letting stress and confrontation roll off her shoulders, the two-time defensive player of the year comes out in full force when it comes to her two teenagers. “I’m not gonna gain anything by hurting another human being,” Lisa says with piercing sincerity. “I may smile and go, ‘That’s okay’. Now, if it has to do with my children, the gloves are coming off.”
The fire settles as Lisa describes raising her daughter, Lauren, with an agenda of love. In typical teenage fashion, Lauren smirks and rolls her eyes.
Lisa muses about her love of quality time with family, where they engage in various collaborative activities. “We love dancing,” she begins to shimmy. Anyone who follows Lisa on social media knows her knack for dance trends and TikTok fun.“It could be hip-hop, or if I’m stepping in the name of love. Dancing makes me feel good — but it ain't gotta be good.”
Her life is, in fact, as blissful as it sounds—filled with sunshine and rainbows. “I have such an amazing life,” She puts it bluntly. Much of this bliss derives from her strong, communicative relationship with her husband Michael. In union for 20 years, the two high achievers make marriage look easy. They laugh, dance, and play sports together. Movie nights are big for the Lockwoods.“We don’t argue,” Lisa purrs, Michael to her side. “We understand each other so well, that if there’s an issue, we just talk about it.” I show my surprise. “I’ve learned that the people who love me aren’t trying to hurt me. I know their intent isn’t negative.”
Epitomizing a traditional mindset, Lisa embraces her role as a nurturer, tending to the needs of the home. “I’m happy to have a meal ready when he gets home. I’ll take care of the kids. But he does his part too, as a man, you know. He’s working, he’s keeping busy. He’s taking out the garbage!” The two have mastered the art of balance and mutual sacrifice, and they’re enjoying the ride.
As someone who doesn’t drink or smoke, Lisa’s constantly finding ways to enjoy herself while respecting her body and cultivating a healthy state of mind.
“I love creating a space, redoing a house. We've gutted and remade several properties.” Lisa cites creativity as fuel for her happiness, standing on the shoulders of the things she’s created and the opportunities they spawn.
I ask Lisa how she deals with stress. If she’s not pouring a drink to knock the edge off, or lighting a joint to mellow out, what’s her secret? For her, perception is reality. “I look at things as problem and solution-based, and to try to remove the emotion from whatever that is.” This practical approach allows her to see issues in her life as challenges — like puzzles that need solving. “Let’s say I have a speaking appointment, and my flight is canceled. I can't stress about that. It's out of my control. I can only find solutions within my control.”
All the talk of problems, solutions, and missed flights sends a cold shock up my spine — my flight back to New York. It was set to leave in just 90 minutes. I needed to finish the interview and make it to the airport on time. This is when I experienced the quick-thinking, humanist mentality of Lisa Leslie. “We’ll take you,” she graciously insits. Lisa’s family and I pile into her butterfly-door Tesla and zip up from Miami to Fort Lauderdale, continuing our conversation on optimism.
Despite unfavorable circ*mstances, Lisa’s mother always made sure a currency of love supported her kids. “For whatever we didn’t have, we had happiness and love.” Lisa was always assured that their time in Compton was temporary. It taught her that positivity goes a long way, and that the best way to live is by being good to others. “The hard part is making the right decision when you don’t want to.”
Lisa sees every moment as a chance to be good to others, and to provide value for the world. An avid public speaker, she understands communication is her gift, and influencing positivity is her purpose.
“We have the choice to give up, or to circle the wagons and make a comeback,” she speaks of her pro career. I can’t tell you how many times we’ve been down 20, 30 points and came back, because we believed. It’s all mental. Do you have it in you?” Eyes fixed on the road, I can see that she lives by this. “If you believe we can’t do it, if you start hanging your head, guess what? It won’t happen. But if we sacrifice for the team, and keep our eyes on the prize, we can go get this thing!” I silently believe in our ability to overcome the ruthless Miami-Dade traffic.
Lisa’s ability to make calculated decisions is critical to her success as a player and coach. As the head honcho of the Big3’s Triplets, it’s Lisa’s job to manage personalities and challenging situations. “It's a choice to allow someone to make me feel some kind of way.” As the first woman to win a professional men’s championship, it’s a safe conclusion that the mental toughness is on lock.
Lisa can hardly contain her excitement when talking about the Big3. “You can't hide,” She says about the gameplay. “You get exposed out there if you’re slacking. You can't take any plays off.”
Her highly competitive nature matches the intense 3 on 3 format, with the first team to 50 taking victory. Being a new league, the Big3 experiments with elements like the “fireball,” which commissioner Ice Cube added as a challenge to foul calls. “I’ll hit the button if I disagree, which creates this fire in the arena. Then those two players play one on one for the call.” It’s her kind of conflict resolution. The prospect of Caitlin Clark joining the Big3 intrigues Lisa. Ice Cube offered the Iowa star a whopping $5 million to play eight games in his league, more than she’d make in four years with the WNBA. “We’ll see what happens,” Lisa says with mystery.
We begin to discuss cultural shifts and societal challenges, including trans women in competitive sports. Having played basketball for decades with both men and women, Lisa firmly believes that trans women could pose potential dangers for biological women, and set unfair precedents from a competitive standpoint. “An elbow to the face from a man is very different from a woman,” she insists. She supports trans women to “live how they please, with their own space in sports.” Lisa’s proud of what the biological women are building in the WNBA. “Any major decisions should consider them first.”
Chess, and not checkers is Lisa’s M.O. There’s always a focus on the big picture, which includes her health and lifestyle choices.
“Everybody always asks me about my skin,” the model smirks. “‘Like, girl, how you don't age?’ It’s the basic things. I drink mostly water.” Sleep and recovery are important for her too — she aims for a consistent eight hours. Tapping into holistic health routes, Lisa’s big on healthy food, herbs, and tea.
“I drink nettle leaf tea, and dandelion root. Keeps you calm, and keeps cancer away.” She conceptualizes a toolkit of turmeric, ginger, lime and cinnamon — “I bring those everywhere I go,” she punctuates.
Athletes admire her, the fashion world adores her, and professionals respect her. Her presence stops motion in its tracks, her gaze commanding your attention. She is a natural-born star. With multiple championships, gold medals and MVP awards under her belt, Lisa is widely considered to be among the greatest basketball players ever. As the title suggests, she’s the regal and powerful Queen of the Court, sitting high upon the throne with flair and beauty. “I wear the crown, but I’m for the people first, and I am proud to represent them,” she says of the WNBA’s ladies. “They are a broad spectrum of style, toughness and femininity,”
The faint whistle of Lisa’s electric ride whirrs as we pull into the Fort Lauderdale airport, with just enough time to say good-bye. I am in awe at her generosity and the compassion exhibited by her wonderful family. I dash through security and make my flight with a few moments to spare.
A few weeks later, Lisa and I hop on a Zoom call to catch up on the latest in women’s basketball, which saw the biggest tournament and WNBA draft ratings ever. She’s much more comfortable in her own space, swiveling about her trophy-clad meeting room. Olympic gold medals adorn the sky-blue walls, MVP trophies squarely in sight. “The WNBA is my dream come true,” she coos. “It makes me so happy to see this perfect storm of talent, exposure and good people.” When I ask her about the possibility of getting back into the W, be it through coaching or a front office role, she twists her lips and thinks. “You can’t say never with anything, but I’m happy with my independence and freedom to be with my family.”
Lisa’s life is the picture of happiness, health and satisfaction. She has the perfect family, is thoroughly involved with basketball, and has an outlet for service and mentorship with Lockwood Real Estate. But there’s something more she wants. With her kids set to leave the nest, Lisa’s next chapter will challenge her flexibility, endeavors both thrilling and exciting on her horizon. As Lisa looks ahead, the same passion that drove her to dominate on the court now fuels her ambitions off it, promising a future as impactful as her storied past. She can do it all, but only feels compelled to do one thing exceptionally well. “I know I will find my calling, and I know I’m on the right path to it.”
“But, for now,” she howls with laughter, “I just want to hit the spa.”
