Unrivaled gives Lisa Leslie space to impart wisdom to the next generation of players

Lisa Leslie likes to call herself a proud auntie.

In her second season as a color commentator for the Unrivaled league’s broadcast team, Leslie, a Naismith Hall of Famer and women’s basketball icon, has had a front-row seat to the sport’s continued evolution.

“I just feel really blessed to be able to sit there and be a part of it, my small piece that I contribute, to just watch these women progress,” Leslie said.

Leslie’s contributions to this Unrivaled season, however, have gone beyond the broadcast booth.

As players take advantage of the Unrivaled facility’s many amenities — from weight rooms to saunas and on-site estheticians — one of the most in-demand services has been one-on-one instruction and mentorship from Leslie.

Over the course of this Unrivaled season, Leslie has advised and worked with a number of frontcourt players, including Cameron Brink, Dominique Malonga, Ezi Magbegor, Kiki Iriafen and Monique Billings.

She also mentioned wanting to work with Shakira Austin, whom Leslie advised during Unrivaled’s inaugural season.

“I want to make sure that as a role model, I’m giving back, paying it forward, and being of service to these players. We owe that to the game,” said Leslie, who will call Unrivaled’s championship game Wednesday.

When Billings saw Leslie during the first week the Hall of Famer was in Miami for the season, Billings approached her, asking for pointers on playing 3-on-3.

Leslie’s response was unequivocal.

“She was like, ‘Oh, take my number and let’s get in the gym,’” Billings said. “I was like, ‘Oh, OK, say less.’ We got to work the following week.”

Though she never played 3-on-3 in a formalized league, the 53-year-old Leslie has experience with the format. Leslie said teams she played on would use 3-on-3 as a way to stay in shape, with the small-sided games serving somewhat as a “punishment” due to their intense physical demand.

Leslie also referenced playing 3-on-3 with Dawn Staley and Sheryl Swoopes for their famed 1995 Nike commercial directed by Spike Lee.

“We played 3-on-3 in New York all day to do that commercial,” Leslie said. “We [also] played 3-on-3 in Venice Beach competitively against women. So, I have 3-on-3 experience before it was an actual league.”

Billings, 29, grew up in Riverside, California, and remembers attending Los Angeles Sparks games and vying for Leslie’s autograph during her days as a WNBA superstar. To now be working with the Sparks’ legend, whom Billings said as a kid she viewed as a “superwoman,” is surreal.

“It’s been incredible the way that that woman pours into me, pours into us,” Billings said. “Nine-year-old me freaks out.”

As Billings readied for her first season in Unrivaled, Leslie put a challenge before her: She wanted Billings to average a double-double.

“At least, like, double-digit rebounding,” Billings said. “She was like, ‘Break it down into three rebounds a quarter if you can.’”

Billings recently ended her first Unrivaled season averaging 14.2 points and 10.9 rebounds in 14 games for the Hive Basketball Club.

Leslie’s work with this year’s Unrivaled roster is an extension of her mentorship during the inaugural Unrivaled season, when she worked with players such as Austin and Angel Reese.

“With Angel — just another player who was like, ‘I want to get better. I want you to help me.’ And that’s what I did,” Leslie said. “I just feel like it’s really the player who has that desire, who wants to be great. And you can tell the way that they show up, you know, when they text, they call, they want to do more.”

During one of Malonga’s practices with the Breeze Basketball Club this season, she turned her head as Leslie entered the gym. As a post player, Malonga has always used Leslie as a reference to watch and study as she developed her own game.

“And of course, she’s a dunker,” Malonga said.

At the end of practice, Leslie asked Malonga and Breeze teammate Brink if she could work out with them.

“Dom has been great,” Leslie said. “She’s such a high IQ player. We may have talked about 10 things that she needed to work on and fix, and … she’s checked all those boxes. She realizes when she makes a mistake on something that we’ve worked on. A pleasure to work with.”

In 2002, Leslie made history as the first player to dunk in the WNBA during a regular-season game against the Miami Sol.

A handful of players followed in Leslie’s footsteps, including Candace Parker, Sylvia Fowles and most notably Brittney Griner. Malonga, 20, is next in line, and she has the potential to jump-start a new era of dunking within the sport. With Leslie watching from the sidelines, Malonga has converted three in-game dunks this Unrivaled season.

“I think she’s proud,” Malonga said of being able to dunk in front of Leslie. “It’s just really fun for her to witness that, with the way that she led. I’m really happy to be able to do that.”

Leslie has taken it a step further when it comes to Malonga’s potential as a dunker. Leslie pushed the 6-foot-6 Frenchwoman to challenge herself at the rim and adopt a dunker’s mindset – something Leslie said she did not have during her playing career.

“I’m like, ‘Every single chance you have an opportunity [to dunk], go for it,’ because I didn’t. And I love that for her,” Leslie said. “I learned to dunk in track practice. It rained and they sent us to the gym. I was dunking a ball [while] warming up for my high jump. Basketball and dunking wasn’t necessarily connected for me the way that it is for these players.”

Malonga has been intentional when it comes to adopting Leslie’s mindset, which she said goes beyond dunking.

“It just makes me jump higher,” Malonga said. “I know that nobody can block me up there, so it’s just increased my chances to make the bucket, and it’s just an aggressive mindset.”

Billings and Malonga both said Leslie’s expertise shines through during workouts, and they described her presence on the court as both commanding and deliberate.

“When we’re working, she means business, and I like that,” Billings said. “She just has an aura about her that she knows who she is. She doesn’t have to say too much, but is willing to give a lot.”

While Leslie is eager to pass on her deep knowledge of X’s and O’s to the players she works with, she considers it just as crucial to reinforce their mental game, empowering them to reach their potential by instilling deeper convictions in their abilities.

“That’s important to me, to make sure that they’re spiritually strong and just feel confident in themselves. It is important to help them mentally as well, because they’re dealing with a lot,” Leslie said.

Her proteges say Leslie has succeeded in fostering their self-belief.

Amid a stretch of strong performances earlier this season in which Billings totaled several consecutive double-doubles, she encountered Leslie, who heaped praise on the Hive forward. Billings responded, “Girl, that’s because of you. You sparked something in me.”

“Her feeling strong and confident about herself, I’m like, ‘Listen, you have everything that you need,’” Leslie said to Billings. “It’s just any little thing that can help them really see the fun and the excitement in this game and the challenge that they need.”

For Leslie, making the most of her opportunity to pass her knowledge to the next generation of players is continuing what the generation before her did in terms of helping to push the sport forward.

“I always like to look at Cheryl Miller and Ann Meyers and Nancy Lieberman. They took the game as far as they could for their era, and they passed it on,” Leslie said. “Myself, you think about Teresa Weatherspoon, Katrina McClain. There’s groups — Dawn Staley, Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper.

“That’s the beautiful thing about arriving now, because [today’s players] understand what the past is and how we’ve helped build this. They’re building now for the future — for these little girls that are watching now.”

Both Billings and Malonga now view Leslie as a mentor. Leslie has encouraged all of the players she has worked with to call if they need her for advice — and it doesn’t have to be about basketball.

“Sometimes, you know, life is life-ing,” Leslie said. “Sometimes these women are going through things that are a little bit heavier, and you don’t have a space where you can communicate and know that it’s safe. They know that with me.”

For Billings, just having the opportunity to work with Leslie, a pioneer of the sport, carries a sense of pride in her own journey as a pro — a feeling shared by many.

“It’s a blessing. It’s a privilege. It’s things that I never could have even imagined,” Billings said. “I admire her, you know. Twenty years later, [that] 9-year-old [is] still admiring, just enamored.”

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