- Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson
are two of the greatest basketball players ever
and their primes as MVPs,
champions and international stars overlapped quite a bit.
Leslie and Jackson played roughly the same position
at roughly the same time, not just for rival WNBA teams,
but for rival Olympic teams who met
over and over again on the biggest stage.
That much opposition makes one thing
pretty much inevitable, beef.
(soft music)
Lisa Leslie was one of the founding stars of the WNBA,
front and center when the league came together in 1996.
The six-five center had burst onto the scene
with a dominant high school career.
She once scored a 101 points in a half
which is not a number I can like wrap my head around.
Leslie then went from a superb collegiate career at USC
to being leading score for the unstoppable
USA team at the 1996 Olympics.
A gold medal run that notably included
a semi-final win over Australia.
So, it was no surprise to see Leslie
as one of the prominent faces publicizing the nation league,
nor as the literally the first person
to touch a WNBA basketball
as center for the Los Angeles Sparks.
When the league held its first All-Star game in 1999
Leslie started for the West
and once the league's first dynasty, the Houston Comets,
came apart Leslie and the Sparks were poised to take over.
But by that point Leslie knew
a fresh challenge was emerging.
She'd found that out from international play.
In 1998, Leslie made the Australian national team
feel her presence by hitting
one of their forwards in the face
at a pre-FIBA World Championship Tournament in Japan.
That helped build a rivalry that would only grow
when Australia's next great center
asserted herself in a bigger role.
Lauren Jackson is the daughter of basketball stars
and was groomed as a hoops prodigy
long before she hit six foot five.
By 1999, when Team Australia came
to the US for some tournaments,
the teenage Jackson had emerged
as one of the Opals' top contributors
and in a game against the host country
Jackson introduced herself to Leslie
with a sharp elbow to the rib cage
and some unabashed trash talk in the veteran's face.
Though Jackson was injured for Australia's loss to the US
in the final of that tournament
she'd made her point with big scoring numbers,
rugged play against Leslie
and an explicit warning after the fact.
I'm not gonna sit back and let some Lisa Leslie go at me.
I don't care what she says to me
because one day, I'll be as good as her.
That final statement was bold, but not outlandish.
Jackson was the presumptive number one pick
whenever she decided to enter the WNBA draft.
And in the lead-up to the Sydney Olympics
it wasn't unusual to mention the 19 year old's name
among the world's best players.
Here's a 2000 LA Times article
in which the author argues Jackson is like Leslie
except better at driving to the hoop
and Leslie's American teammate, Dawn Staley,
says, Jackson has potential
but Leslie is the best player in the world.
Which, like, if that argument even needs to be made
you are a pretty exceptional 19 year old.
Leslie herself said as much.
So, there was some hype building
for a potential Olympic showdown
between the USA's best and Australia's challenger.
And the hype only intensified
when the Opals played the Americans again
in a pre-Olympic exhibition
and the two players exchanged some bumps
after Jackson got tied up with Sheryl Swoopes.
Jackson reportedly stared Leslie down and asked,
you want a piece of me?
And after the game she proclaimed once more
that she wasn't just gonna stand for any bullshit
from the older star who she'd previously accused
of trying to intimidate her.
For what it's worth,
Leslie was less invested in the back and forth.
She admitted that there was a rivalry
but insisted she and Jackson didn't really meaningfully
get into it during that exhibition
and only Jackson was agitated about the exchange.
Oh, and by the way, scoreboard.
Reflecting on these match ups in her autobiography
Leslie paints the teenage Jackson as the instigator.
She talked trash to Leslie and cursed her out
in spite of the fact that their coaches rarely matched them up
to avoid conflict and foul trouble.
Well, come Olympic time
guess who faced off in the gold medal game.
The US crushed Australia like always
but Jackson came away with 20 points, 13 rebounds
and also a fistful of Leslie's hair.
Yeah, so, I want to get some testimony
from Leslie, from Jackson and from some witnesses
before we analyze the tape ourselves.
In her book Leslie explains that she took down her braids
and pinned a fake ponytail to her hair for the final
so she wouldn't have to deal with all that
in the quick turnaround between post-game
and the flight out of Sydney.
Well, late in that USA victory
Leslie was lined up during a free throw
and though she's not certain
thought she saw one of the Australians tell Jackson
to give that ponytail a tug and Jackson did just that.
After they fought for a rebound
Jackson yanked Leslie's ponytail right off her head,
deliberately, says Leslie, leaving the victim
to collect her ponytail and toss it over the baseline.
Leslie kept her cool the rest of the game
even as the fans of the host nation pointed and laughed.
Even as the photographer
who caught the hair waved it around.
After the game, Jackson apologized to Leslie,
but when the gold medalist asserted
that only a hard intentional yank
could've released the ponytail
and Jackson knew exactly what she was doing.
Jackson insisted that wasn't the case,
that her fingers got caught
and years later Australian captain Michele Timms
backed her teammate saying Jackson was too busy playing
to notice Leslie's hair situation
and that accusations of the deliberate yank were ludicrous.
But there's more.
The night of the incident an unnamed Australian player
told Lisa Olson of the Daily News
that the hair thing was intentional, that it was payback
for the Americans' dirty play and their attitude.
Players in the locker room, after the fact,
weren't talking about the silver medal
they were chattering about the hair.
Though Timms vouched for Jackson
she also clearly took some cruel satisfaction
in seeing Leslie's hair on the floor
and in an interview for Australian television,
Jackson didn't seem apologetic,
claiming the only fabulous moment of the tournament for her
was when Leslie's hair came out.
A couple of years later,
Jackson still said it was an accident
but implied that Leslie deserved it.
Hmm, okay, you ready?
Let's go to the tape.
So, the first thing I want you to notice is the ball.
The rebound comes off of the rim
and neither Leslie nor Jackson
has a real chance to grab it.
Now watch Jackson.
Her right hand swings up, apparently to contest the shot,
but it comes down backhanded with some force
and if you freeze it right there,
I think that looks like grabbing, not getting caught.
Even the way Jackson releases the hair, smoothly,
without any visible surprise is to me suspicious.
So, I want to know what you think
but based on the testimonies, the witness statements
and the video evidence I'm ruling Lauren Jackson guilty
of intentional hair removal.
According to beef law, the sentence for Jackson's crime
is that Lisa Leslie gets to have the last word.
So, let's go to her comments at the podium after the game.
Quote: I told her she could have the hair,
I'll take the gold.
Got 'em!
Anyway, Timms argued that Leslie was trying
to get in Jackson's head somehow,
that she didn't know how good the kid was.
But, she clearly hadn't asked Leslie
who said if Jackson came to the WNBA she'd be huge,
that she had all the tools to be a great player
and in fact she'd love to have Jackson on the Sparks.
No such luck.
In a 2001 draft absolutely packed with great players
the soon to be 20 year old Jackson
went number one overall to the Seattle Storm.
A western conference team hoping
to one day rival the Sparks.
Jackson broke out instantly becoming a rookie All-Star
alongside Leslie in the West,
but the Storm didn't improve much.
And while Jackson did score
a rookie season high of 26 points
one night against the Sparks
Leslie led LA to a regular season sweep of Seattle.
She went on to win her first MVP trophy,
then win the Sparks the 2001 Championship.
The first WNBA titled not won by the Houston Comets
but Jackson had reinforcements on the way.
With another number one pick in 2002
the Storm added another huge name in future legend,
UConn point guard Sue Bird.
The towering center had a perfect new co-star,
the creative and deadly Bird.
The Storm could actually rival the Sparks now
and the second time LA and Seattle met that year
Leslie got tangled up with Jackson
and threw an elbow into her back.
It didn't get called a foul
but it did precipitate a pretty rowdy fight
between their teammates.
Fight aside, that was Jackson's first ever
win over the Sparks.
Leslie warned that the teams would meet again in a few weeks
and she felt bad for what the Storm had coming.
But what they had coming was another W.
Just days after Leslie made history
with the WNBA's first in-game dunk
Jackson's clutch free throws against the Sparks
sealed a fifth straight win for a team en route
to its first playoff birth
and a first round match up against the Sparks.
It didn't go so hot.
Leslie controlled LA's two-game sweep
and at one point dropped Jackson with a knee to the groin.
I would love to show you a clip of that
but there is way too little WNBA video on the Internet.
Anyway, the wounded Storm star finished
that decisive game two
with just four points on one of nine shooting.
The Sparks went on to win their second title
and the domination continued the following month in China
when Leslie and the US wrecked Australia
on their way to a gold medal in the FIBA World Championship.
Jackson was perhaps too eager to best her rival
and spent much of that semi-final loss
on the bench with foul trouble.
For the next couple of years Jackson and Leslie succeeded
without crossing paths much.
They were All-Star teammates again in '03,
but Leslie injured her knee in that game
and sat a bunch of the season.
Seattle, meanwhile, missed the playoffs
but under new coach, Anne Donovan,
Jackson became more of an inside force
and won her first MVP.
In 2004, Leslie returned strong and took back the trophy
but MVP runner-up Jackson with Bird back at her side
led Seattle to their first title.
The Storm avoided LA in the playoffs
when the Sparks fell in the first round.
In '05, another potential playoff showdown fell through
when both teams lost in the first round
and even when their paths did cross
there was a lot of avoiding taking place.
Jackson claimed her rival and All-Star teammate
still didn't talk to her
because she hadn't gotten over the hair incident
which Jackson still described as an accident
but they couldn't avoid each other in the 2004 Olympics
where the US once again beat Australia in the final.
This time, Leslie had Jackson's WNBA teammate,
Sue Bird, by her side as America ran away
with the game in the fourth-quarter.
Jackson herself had another disappointing Olympic final
scoring just 12 points on 16 shots
while her rival took home a third Olympic gold.
By the middle of the decade
Jackson was a fully formed superstar,
not far behind Leslie in the 2006 MVP voting.
Leslie certainly wasn't gonna
hand the throne over to Jackson,
but before another Spark-Storm playoff series,
she spoke highly of her foe's maturation.
She still saw Jackson as a physical player
who beat her up on the block
but she'd apologized when it got out of hand.
Jackson was good and now she just played ball
with less of the extracurricular stuff.
Leslie said they even talked
and exchanged compliments at the All-Star game
and Jackson herself basically agreed
that she had grown up a bit.
These words all preceded
a typically chippy first round series.
Jackson outplayed Leslie during a game won Seattle victory
but Bird missed opportunities late in game three
and the Storm blew Jackson's last and best chance
at beating the full-strength Sparks.
And I don't think Jackson ever got the satisfaction
of beating Leslie that she craved.
In 2007, Jackson won an MVP again
but Leslie was out that whole year
after giving birth to her first child
who interestingly enough is named Lauren.
Leslie insists that's a coincidence.
In 2008, Leslie returned and once again
led the US to an Olympic gold medal game against the Opals.
Leslie told her teammates,
there's only one Lauren Jackson and five of us,
which accurately predicted a game America dominated
despite Jackson's 20 points and 10 rebounds.
Leslie rubbed it in by wearing all four of her golds
in her last Olympic medal ceremony.
Jackson meanwhile needed ankle surgery after the Olympics.
So, she could only sit and watch
as Leslie and the Sparks beat the Storm
in yet another playoff series.
In 2009, Jackson once again missed
the Spark-Storm playoff series with injuries.
Leslie claimed Seattle was actually more dangerous
without Jackson then led LA to another series win.
In 2010, at long last, Jackson stayed healthy,
matched Leslie by wining a third career MVP,
finally led Seattle to a series victory of the Sparks
and eventually won her second title
but it wasn't quite the same
because Leslie had already retired.
And that was it.
Jackson left the league a couple years later.
She'd cemented herself beside Leslie,
among the greatest WNBA bigs ever.
But her team never beat Leslie's in a major event
despite numerous opportunities.
2012 was Jackson's final Olympic appearance.
The Australians lost to the US in the semi-final,
but Jackson broke Leslie's Olympic career scoring record
before passing the torch
to the next great Australian center.
And I think this beef has a happy ending.
It started out as a petty, lopsided feud,
defined by what was either a bizarre accident
or more likely a cruel and immature act.
It ended just as lopsided, but it came a real rivalry
defined more by physical play
and mutual respect than hatred.
These two definitely didn't become friends
and they might never,
unless Jackson someday apologizes for the hair pull.
That just might do it and there's still time.