Lisa Leslie's Crusade - athlete with breast cancer - Interview

Ebony, Oct, 2001 by Aldore Collier

WNBA all-star champions breast health awareness

AS a member of the gold medal-winning 1996 Olympic basketball team and current superstar center for the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's NBA, Lisa Leslie was required to undergo extensive physical examinations, but still gave it only fleeting energy.

Then she was hit with a force stronger than any punches or body blows she'd ever encountered on the court. Almost two years ago her mother, Christine Leslie-Espinoza, found two lumps in her breasts. Fortunately, they turned out to be benign.

But the discovery was a trumpet-like wake-up call for Leslie. "Having that scare so close to home, I had to become more educated about it," she recalls. "I used to wear the pink ribbons, but I did not really understand breast cancer until [my mother's scare]. She recognized then that breast cancer is the most common cancer in women and that a lot of African-American, women die from it because they don't get the doctors' appointments and treatments they need prior to finding the lumps."

Spurred into action by her mother's scare, Leslie, 29, began speaking out. Today, she is the national spokesperson for the second year for the Sears WNBA Breast Health Awareness Program. Sears has committed $1 million to getting the message out over the next three years through the WNBA and the National Alliance of Breast Cancer Organizations.

Leslie travels the country speaking to various groups, hammering in the need for early detection. Sometimes her mother accompanies her on the trips. Leslie's public service announcements also are shown on network television and in sports arenas during basketball games.

And speaking out to both men and women on the subject has been very gratifying to her. "I've had a wonderful opportunity to reach a lot of people in inner-city communities and just around the world," she says. "A lot of people come up to me and say, `Thank you. I saw your public service announcement, and I got checked and the found a lump. It was benign.' People have told me so many different stories about how they used to be afraid of it [the exam]."

The challenge is the same as it has been for many years--getting women to embrace early detection. "A lot of women don't know or do anything until it's too late," Leslie explains. "If we can just help the awareness. There are all kinds of myths out there too about breast cancer: It doesn't have to be genetic. And being athletic doesn't prevent you from getting it either. You could get it from being bumped when you were 13 and all of a sudden have a lump when you're 20. You need to check yourself once a month, either in the shower or lying down, and get checked by a doctor once a year, especially if you're over 40."

Leslie is determined to get the urgent message of testing out to as many men and women as possible. She makes certain to include men in the message because she's aware of actor Richard Roundtree's well-publicized battle with breast cancer. "Men can get it too, just not as often as women," she reminds.

Determination is something Leslie has had in abundance since growing up in the Los Angeles suburbs of Compton and Carson. Basketball was not even on her radar until, at age 12, she was constantly asked about it because she was taller than most boys. She was a natural left-hander, but when she saw that all the other players were right-handed, she worked hard and managed to become skillful as a right-handed player. "I learned to dribble and shoot right-handed. When I set a goal, I work hard to achieve it. I wasn't going to play left-handed anymore."

She says that her determination comes from her mother, who stressed to Leslie and her two sisters (an older sister is 5-foot-11 and the younger is 5-foot-6) and her four half brothers that they could do anything they wanted. Her mom, she recalls, cut pictures from magazines of girls graduating from college, playing violin and other activities to illustrate for them what they'd look like pursuing their dreams.

For Leslie, the first step was the University of Southern California, where she set a Pacific 10 conference scoring record with 2,414 points. She graduated in 1994 and was a member of the 1996 Olympic team that won the gold in Atlanta.

She also realized a lifelong dream of modeling when, shortly after graduation, she signed a contract with the prestigious Wilhelmina modeling agency. A couple of years later, in 1997, Leslie joined the WNBA. She finds it easy to juggle the two careers because the basketball season is over at the end of summer and her modeling takes off in the fall.

In the middle of that hectic mix is her acting career. Leslie has performed on a number of television sitcoms, including Moesha, Martin, Sister, Sister and Hang Time, and says she wants to do more acting.

The WNBA star and breast cancer spokesperson has learned to accept constant stares, both in awe and admiration, that accompany being a 6-foot-5 woman. Some men are intimidated by her height, but many are curious and complimentary. Leslie says shorter guys have a much easier time with her height than men over 6 feet tall. "Short guys approach me much more often than taller guys," she says. "Believe me, ask anybody tall, you can always get a short boyfriend, but you can hardly ever find a boyfriend who's taller than you are." Even though her boyfriend is 6-foot-4, she says she would have no qualms dating a man of any height as long as he is secure in himself, that's because she's very secure in herself, her abilities and her goals.