Leslie Looks to Have Another Magic Season

Before her historic 2001 season in which she won the All-Star MVP, WNBA MVP and Finals MVP, Lisa Leslie had added yoga and extra weight training to her offseason regimen.

So, in order to help the Sparks repeat as WNBA champions in 2002, and to give herself the best chance to double up on her unprecedented triple-MVP performance, Leslie decided she needed a little Magic.

Magic on the Sparks: 56k | 300k

Leslie and other Sparks teammates prepared for the 2002 season by playing four days a week against Earvin "Magic" Johnson and his touring team at UCLA.

"I'm a big fan of the Sparks and women's basketball. I love working out people," Johnson said. "Lisa Leslie was there every day. Mwadi (Mabika) was there every day. It was great. What we would do is work on jump shots, we would work on post moves and then we would scrimmage every single day. (Those) women did not miss a day, and they held their own against those guys every single day. I made sure they played with me so we could win every single game, and we did that most of the time."

Thanks to these workouts, Johnson believes the Sparks have the mettle to repeat as WNBA champs.

"You watch them now, you can see the confidence and see the improvement," Johnson said. "Now, when they play against the women, they can get that shot off because they got it off against the men and they can be physical because they were physical against my players. It worked out to their benefit. "I think they're going to repeat because they're physically stronger than anybody and mentally stronger by playing against us every single day."

All-Star guard/forward and a promising young talent in the league, Mwadi Mabika, agrees with Magic and feels that playing with Johnson against his traveling team during the offseason elevated both her game and that of Leslie.

"We played five on five everyday," Mabika stated. "Lisa and I always played on Magic's team and he coached us during the games. He would tell us what we were doing right and wrong. We played with him everyday and he would give us advice. It was hard because we would play against the guys on his traveling team, but it made us more confident in our shot, and when to take a shot, and hitting a wide-open shot under pressure. I think he helped Lisa and I a lot."

Leslie's tear through the WNBA began on July 16, 2001, when she came off the bench to score 20 points and grab nine rebounds -- both game-highs -- in the 2001 WNBA All-Star Game. Sacramento's Yolando Griffith had been voted as a starter and Leslie let her actions speak regarding the disappointment of not being voted a starter.

LESLIE'S 2002 STATS

PPG 17.6 RPG 12.0 APG 3.9 BPG 3.29 SPG 1.43 FG% .500

"What I tried to do was focus and decided, 'OK, I'm going to come off the bench,'" Leslie said after the game. "What can I do to help this team? I can get out there, still score points, rebound and block shots. I did play with a lot of emotion, but I thought, 'I hope Coach [Michael] Cooper doesn't bring me off the bench [for the Sparks].' But I was focused on what I wanted to do and my goal was to try to be MVP."

West All-Star coach Van Chancellor noticed that Leslie played with a purpose.

"Nice playing from Lisa Leslie," Chancellor said. "Looked to me like she was on a mission."

Leslie was on a mission then, and she and the Sparks are on another mission now. In order win a second consecutive title -- their goal in 2002 -- the Sparks must resist the desire to rest on their laurels. So far, all signs point to a team still willing to make bold moves.

Lisa Leslie has her sights set on participating in another ring ceremony in 2003. Andrew D. Bernstein NBAE/Getty Images

In a draft-day trade, they sent starting point guard Ukari Figgs to Portland for the rights to rookie Nikki Teasley. Coach Michael Cooper publicly said that he wanted the Sparks to race through the WNBA regular season at 32-0 and then sweep through the playoffs, despite the fact that an unblemished record in the WNBA is nearly impossible. With so many games in such a short period of time, back-to-backs and travel fatigue tend to wear on even the best of the best. Undaunted, Leslie herself talked about a repeat moments after they won title No. 1 last September.

"Watching the Lakers has been a huge motivation for us," Leslie said.

Things have gone almost according to plan. En route to a desired perfect season, the Sparks stumbled against the Sting, 94-87 in Charlotte. They are still squarely on top of the Western Conference, however, with a 5-1 record as of June 6, and Leslie has made it look easy, averaging 19 points and 13.6 rebounds per game while she hits 50 percent of her shots from the field. From the sound of it, Leslie is just getting started.

"I have fulfilled a lot of the goals I have set," Leslie told USA Today. "But even when I found myself the best at certain levels, whether high school, college or the pros, there is always something I could learn and do better."

With her willingness to improve, Leslie, who despite being a two-time Olympic Gold medalist and USA Today's top girl's high school player of the last 20 years, has shaken her soft label. Chalk it up to experience.

"I think the one advantage the Comets always had over us is they knew how to win," Leslie told the Los Angeles Times after the Sparks beat the Comets on May 27. "But once you win a championship, we know those different levels, and how to stay in tune with them."

"We are a veteran team now. We're very seasoned and poised. We're not going to beat ourselves anymore."

This heart of a champion, combined with confidence and experience, may make the 2002 season for Leslie and the Sparks another magical one.