A Grand Slam at Staples

It was a piece of history, swathed in frustration.

It was a moment so long awaited, it seemed it couldn’t live up to the anticipation, but it did.

Lisa Leslie became the first woman to dunk in a professional game Tuesday, slamming home a one-handed jam off a fastbreak late in the first half.

That it was her only basket of the half in the Sparks’ sloppy 82-73 loss to the Miami Sol was a sore spot.

But the highlight will long outlive the loss, even if it trimmed the Sparks’ lead over Houston in the Western Conference race to one game.

“I told the ladies they really messed up history,” Coach Michael Cooper said.

Women have dunked in college games and all-star contests, in practices and warmups, but until Leslie took Latasha Byears’ outlet pass off a rebound, took a couple of dribbles and slammed it home, no woman had ever dunked in a professional game, though Leslie and others had tried.

(The first woman to dunk in a college game was 6-foot-7 Georgeann Wells of West Virginia, in 1984. Wells did it twice. Few have followed. Charlotte Smith of North Carolina--a 6-foot leaper--had a one-handed dunk in 1994, and 6-5 Michelle Snow dunked three times during her career at Tennessee).

The professional honors go to Leslie.

“It’s just such a blessing. My life has been almost like a storybook,” Leslie said. “I don’t know what to say other than finally, I got the dunk, and I’m the first to do it. All the hoopla about it, everybody else will be second.

“There’s been so much pressure and talk about it around the All-Star game, and finally the situation came, I don’t even know how,” Leslie said. “I just turned around and I was free and I said, ‘Oh my God, I’m going to go for it.’ ”

The crowd of 13,141 at Staples Center understood the moment, launching into a raucous celebration that was still going when the timeout that followed her dunk with 4:44 remaining was over.

Leslie’s teammates were as much a part of it as the fans.

“Everyone’s been holding their breath for a while,” DeLisha Milton said. “We were just anticipating the moment when it was going to happen. When it finally did, it was spectacular. She didn’t let us down one bit.

“It was a clean dunk. They can’t say anything about it. They can’t say, ‘Oh, she threw it in, or it slipped out of her hand.’ No, she put it down, plain and simple.

“Give her all the credit--and all the endorsement deals. I’m her new agent.”

Leslie laughed, but it meant something to her too that the dunk came in the heat of a hotly contested game, with guard Betty Lennox on her heels--and room to spare above the rim.

“It was a good dunk,” Leslie said. “It was hard enough. I thought it was valid--a nice dunk. I was just really excited. Unfortunately we lost the game.”

Leslie scored 11 points in the second half to finish with 13, but the Sparks (20-5) couldn’t make it all the way back. Mwadi Mabika led the Sparks with 17 points.

Sheri Sam scored 18 for Miami, and Lennox added 17 in a game the Sol (12-14) led by as many as 19 points.

Ann Meyers Drysdale, the pioneering women’s player who worked the game as a broadcaster, appreciated the moment.

“It’s like a kid eating candy, who gets too much and gets a toothache. That’s the NBA,” Meyers Drysdale said of the dunk. “But when you don’t get enough, how exciting was that?

“You’ll see more, but it’s not going to be commonplace. You’ll see a lot more try, though.”

Including Leslie.

“I feel really good about it,” she said. “If the opportunity comes again, I’ll do it again.”