1997 Los Angeles Sparks season

August 2023 March 2026 Los Angeles Sparks 1997 14 14 Western 2nd Linda Sharp (fired Jul. 16, 4–7 record)Julie Rousseau (10–7 record) Great Western Forum Did not qualify True The 1997 WNBA season was the first season for the Los Angeles Sparks. The Sparks finished in second place in the Western Division with a record of 14 wins and 14 losses. Transactions WNBA allocation draft Player Nationality School/Team/Country Lisa Leslie USC Penny Toler Long Beach State WNBA elite draft WNBA elite draft Round Pick Player Nationality School/Team/Country 1 8 Daedra Charles Tennessee 2 16 Zheng Haixia China WNBA draft 1997 WNBA draft Round Pick Player Nationality School/Team/Country 1 3 Jamila Wideman Stanford 2 14 Tamecka Dixon Kansas319Katrina ColletonMaryland430Travesa GantLamar Transactions DateTransaction January 22, 1997 Drafted Lisa Leslie and Penny Toler in the 1997 WNBA Allocation Draft1997 Los Angeles Sparks Transactions https://www.basketball-reference.com/wnba/teams/LAS/1997_transactions.html 2024-05-24 Basketball-Reference.com en February 27, 1997 Drafted Daedra Charles and Zheng Haixia in the 1997 WNBA Elite DraftApril 16, 1997Hired Linda Sharp as Head Coach April 28, 1997 Drafted Jamila Wideman, Tamecka Dixon, Katrina Colleton and Travesa Gant in the 1997 WNBA draftJuly 16, 1997Fired Linda Sharp as Head CoachHired Julie Rousseau as Head Coach Roster Los Angeles Sparks 1997 WNBA 34 Heidi Burge F/C 6 5 185 1971-11-12 R Virginia USA 42 Linda Burgess 1997 Los Angeles Sparks F 6 1 173 1967-07-27 R Alabama USA 32 Daedra Charles F/C 6 3 225 1968-11-22 R Tennessee USA 12 Katrina Colleton F 5 0 145 1968-10-14 R Maryland USA 21 Tamecka Dixon G 5 9 148 1975-12-14 R Kansas USA 34 Travesa Gant 1997 Los Angeles Sparks C 1971-10-10 R Lamar USA 43 Kim Gessig 1997 Los Angeles Sparks F 6 3 1970-12-29 R USC USA 9 Lisa Leslie C 6 5 170 1972-07-07 R USC USA 4 Mwadi Mabika G 5 11 165 1976-07-27 R Zaire 11 Penny Toler G 5 8 132 1966-03-24 R Long Beach State USA 10 Jamila Wideman F 5 6 135 1975-11-16 R Stanford USA 28 Haixia Zheng C 6 8 254 1967-03-07 R China USA Julie Rousseau UC Irvine Schedule Regular season Los Angeles Sparks 1997 Total: 14–14 (Home: 8–6; Road: 6–8) Los Angeles Sparks June yes 2 1 0 2 |- | 1 | June 21 | New York | L 57–67 | Lisa Leslie (16) | Lisa Leslie (14) | Jamila Wideman (6) | Great Western Forum | 0–1 |- | 2 | June 23 | @ Utah | L 89–102 | Lisa Leslie (22) | Lisa Leslie (10) | Jamila Wideman (7) | Delta Center | 0–2 |- | 3 | June 25 | Charlotte | W 74–54 | Lisa Leslie (19) | Leslie Toler (5) | Penny Toler (7) | Great Western Forum | 1–2 |- | 4 | June 27 | Sacramento | W 102–92 | Zheng Haixia (28) | Zheng Haixia (10) | Toler Wideman (7) | Great Western Forum | 2–2 |- | 5 | June 30 | @ Houston | L 66–71 (OT) | Lisa Leslie (21) | Lisa Leslie (16) | Penny Toler (5) | The Summit | 2–3 Los Angeles Sparks July 3 3 3 4 |- | 6 | July 2 | @ Cleveland | W 74–62 | Lisa Leslie (19) | Lisa Leslie (7) | Jamila Wideman (6) | Gund Arena | 3–3 |- | 7 | July 5 | @ Charlotte | L 66–78 | Lisa Leslie (16) | Leslie Toler (7) | Jamila Wideman (6) | Charlotte Coliseum | 3–4 |- | 8 | July 7 | Cleveland | L 70–81 | Lisa Leslie (22) | Lisa Leslie (9) | Jamila Wideman (8) | Great Western Forum | 3–5 |- | 9 | July 11 | Utah | W 75–68 | Linda Burgess (20) | Burge Burgess (9) | Leslie Toler (6) | Great Western Forum | 4–5 |- | 10 | July 13 | Phoenix | L 56–57 | Linda Burgess (12) | Heidi Burge (11) | Burge Charles Colleton Dixon Toler (2) | Great Western Forum | 4–6 |- | 11 | July 15 | @ Sacramento | L 73–78 | Lisa Leslie (17) | Burgess Leslie (5) | Penny Toler (10) | ARCO Arena | 4–7 |- | 12 | July 16 | Houston | W 77–52 | Zheng Haixia (15) | Lisa Leslie (10) | Lisa Leslie (5) | Great Western Forum | 5–7 |- | 13 | July 19 | @ New York | L 57–69 | Penny Toler (14) | Lisa Leslie (7) | Jamila Wideman (4) | Madison Square Garden | 5–8 |- | 14 | July 21 | @ Charlotte | L 64–75 | Lisa Leslie (18) | Penny Toler (8) | Leslie Toler (4) | Charlotte Coliseum | 5–9 |- | 15 | July 23 | Cleveland | L 85–89 | Lisa Leslie (28) | Lisa Leslie (13) | Jamila Wideman (7) | Great Western Forum | 5–10 |- | 16 | July 25 | @ Phoenix | W 86–83 | Lisa Leslie (17) | Lisa Leslie (8) | Toler Wideman (4) | America West Arena | 6–10 |- | 17 | July 27 | @ Sacramento | W 84–62 | Tamecka Dixon (20) | Lisa Leslie (9) | Penny Toler (9) | ARCO Arena | 7–10 |- | 18 | July 30 | Utah | W 91–69 | Lisa Leslie (23) | Lisa Leslie (11) | Lisa Leslie (7) | Great Western Forum | 8–10 | Los Angeles Sparks August 3 2 3 2 |- | 19 | August 1 | Houston | L 57–81 | Penny Toler (17) | Lisa Leslie (6) | Penny Toler (3) | Great Western Forum | 8–11 |- | 20 | August 3 | Charlotte | L 70–77 | Penny Toler (19) | Lisa Leslie (10) | Penny Toler (7) | Great Western Forum | 8–12 |- | 21 | August 5 | @ New York | W 67–50 | Dixon Toler (16) | Lisa Leslie (14) | Penny Toler (3) | Madison Square Garden | 9–12 |- | 22 | August 7 | @ Cleveland | W 87–84 | Tamecka Dixon (23) | Lisa Leslie (14) | Lisa Leslie (5) | Gund Arena | 10–12 |- | 23 | August 9 | @ Houston | L 71–72 | Tamecka Dixon (21) | Zheng Haixia (7) | Penny Toler (4) | The Summit | 10–13 |- | 24 | August 16 | @ Utah | W 74–64 | Lisa Leslie (23) | Lisa Leslie (12) | Penny Toler (8) | Delta Center | 11–13 |- | 25 | August 18 | Phoenix | W 75–66 | Lisa Leslie (26) | Lisa Leslie (15) | Penny Toler (8) | Great Western Forum | 12–13 |- | 26 | August 20 | New York | W 78–76 | Penny Toler (17) | Zheng Haixia (9) | Penny Toler (6) | Great Western Forum | 13–13 |- | 27 | August 22 | Sacramento | W 88–77 | Zheng Haixia (21) | Lisa Leslie (12) | Penny Toler (8) | Great Western Forum | 14–13 |- | 28 | August 24 | @ Phoenix | L 68–73 | Tamecka Dixon (25) | Lisa Leslie (14) | Penny Toler (4) | America West Arena | 14–14 las 1997 Season standings LAS Statistics Regular season Player GP GS MPG FG% 3P% FT% RPG APG SPG BPG PPG Penny Toler 28 28 32.4 .426 .184 .839 3.4 5.1 1.3 0.1 13.1 Lisa Leslie 28 28 32.2 .431 .261 .598 9.5 2.6 1.4 2.1 15.9 Tamecka Dixon 27 21 26.5 .456 .423 .773 3.0 2.0 1.8 0.2 11.9 Jamila Wideman 28 14 22.6 .236 .194 .794 2.0 3.7 0.9 0.0 3.0 Katrina Colleton 28 14 21.9 .437 .360 .567 2.1 1.6 1.3 0.3 4.9 Zheng Haixia 28 21 19.9 .618 N/A .661 4.4 0.6 0.4 0.7 9.3 Linda Burgess 28 6 17.6 .541 .500 .735 4.2 0.3 0.7 0.5 6.5 Mwadi Mabika 21 1 15.5 .390 .184 .542 2.6 1.0 1.1 0.3 6.0 Heidi Burge 22 6 12.8 .444 .000 .511 3.1 0.7 0.5 0.5 4.0 Daedra Charles 28 1 10.1 .403 .000 .667 1.7 0.4 0.4 0.4 2.3 Travesa Gant 2 0 6.5 .000 N/A N/A 1.5 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 Kim Gessig 1 0 4.0 N/A N/A N/A 1.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 0.0 ‡Waived/Released during the season †Traded during the season ≠Acquired during the season Tamecka Dixon was tied for tenth in the WNBA in steals with 49. Tamecka Dixon ranked tenth in the WNBA in Field Goal Percentage (.456) Lisa Leslie ranked third in the WNBA in points with 445 points. Lisa Leslie ranked third in the WNBA in points per game with 15.9 Lisa Leslie ranked fifth in the WNBA in field goals with 160. Lisa Leslie ranked first in the WNBA in total rebounds with 266. Lisa Leslie ranked second in the WNBA in blocks with 59. Penny Toler ranked tenth in the WNBA in points with 368 points. Penny Toler ranked eighth in the WNBA in field goals with 144. Penny Toler ranked tenth in the WNBA in points per game with 13.1https://www.basketball-reference.com/wnba/years/1997.html 1997 WNBA Season Summary Penny Toler ranked sixth in the WNBA in Free Throw Pct with .839 Penny Toler ranked second in the WNBA in assists with 143. Jamila Wideman ranked seventh in the WNBA in assists with 103. Haixia Zheng ranked ninth in the WNBA in blocks with 20. Awards and honors Lisa Leslie, Center, All WNBA First Team http://www.wnba.com/history/awards_1997.html Postseason Awards: 1997 WNBA.com 2022-09-04 Lisa Leslie: Led WNBA, Defensive Rebounds, 203 Lisa Leslie: Led WNBA, Total Rebounds, 266 Lisa Leslie: Led WNBA, Rebounds per game, 9.5 Lisa Leslie ranked second in the WNBA with 2.1 blocks per game. Lisa Leslie ranked third in the WNBA with 113 Free Throws. Haixia Zheng, WNBA Peak Performer Haixia Zheng, Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award Haixia Zheng: Led WNBA, Field Goal Percentage, .618 References Sparks on Basketball Reference Category:Los Angeles Sparks seasons Los Angeles Sparks Los Angeles