WNBA.com: Photographic Memory: Los Angeles’ Lisa Leslie

Photographic Memory: Los Angeles’ Lisa Leslie

WNBA.com's "Photographic Memory" asks players to look at a photo of themselves and talk about what it captures -- what was going through their mind at that moment of the game and what the photo reveals about their style. Here, Los Angeles Sparks center Lisa Leslie talks about what it was like to throw down the first dunk in WNBA history on July 30, 2002 and what the response was like.

Lisa Leslie became the first player to dunk in a WNBA game on July 30, 2002.
Lisa Blumenfield/WNBAE/Getty Images

"A Cool Moment"
"I think it's awesome to see myself hanging up there on the rim. It was a cool moment in history that I obviously won't forget."

At what point did you know that you had the dunk?
"I was angry, actually. Our team, we weren't playing that well that night and we were down, losing, so I think in a way it was kind of better because sometimes people try and set up dunks or maybe they agree that they're going to stay out of the way. So it definitely was not that situation at all. We got a legitimate steal, and I happened to just get out before everybody else, and I was pissed, so I slammed it really hard."

It felt good though, didn't it?
"Yeah, it did. I was hoping that the energy from the crowd and everything would really turn around the game, but unfortunately it didn't."

What was your reaction to the reaction and all the media attention?
"Well, I thought it was good as far as the media coverage because many times I've done interviews where men are like, 'Don't you think they need to lower the rim? What about the dunking? Is that going to change the game?' And really, it's not going to change the game, but for that moment it was great because we can kind of shut up some people about the dunk and how they responded to it. And I thought that the media did a good job of covering it."