1997 Los Angeles Sparks season

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1997 Los Angeles Sparks season
CoachLinda Sharp (fired Jul. 16, 4–7 record)
Julie Rousseau (10–7 record)
ArenaGreat Western Forum
Attendance8,931 per game
Results
Record14–14 (.500)
Place2nd (Western)
Playoff finishDid not qualify

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[edit]

WNBA allocation draft[edit]

Player Nationality School/Team/Country
Lisa Leslie  United States USC
Penny Toler  United States Long Beach State

WNBA elite draft[edit]

See also: WNBA elite draft
Round Pick Player Nationality School/Team/Country
1 8 Daedra Charles  United States Tennessee
2 16 Zheng Haixia  China China

WNBA draft[edit]

See also: 1997 WNBA draft
Round Pick Player Nationality School/Team/Country
1 3 Jamila Wideman  United States Stanford
2 14 Tamecka Dixon  United States Kansas
3 19 Katrina Colleton  United States Maryland
4 30 Travesa Gant  United States Lamar

Transactions[edit]

Date Transaction
January 22, 1997 Drafted Lisa Leslie and Penny Toler in the 1997 WNBA Allocation Draft[1]
February 27, 1997 Drafted Daedra Charles and Zheng Haixia in the 1997 WNBA Elite Draft[1]
April 16, 1997 Hired Linda Sharp as Head Coach[1]
April 28, 1997 Drafted Jamila Wideman, Tamecka Dixon, Katrina Colleton and Travesa Gant in the 1997 WNBA Draft[1]
July 16, 1997 Fired Linda Sharp as Head Coach[1]
Hired Julie Rousseau as Head Coach[1]

Roster[edit]

1997 Los Angeles Sparks roster
Players Coaches
Pos. # Nat. Name Height Weight DOB From Yrs
F/C 34 United States Burge, Heidi 6' 5" (1.96m) 185 lb (84kg) 1971-11-12 Virginia R
F 42 United States Burgess, Linda 6' 1" (1.85m) 173 lb (78kg) 1967-07-27 Alabama R
F/C 32 United States Charles, Daedra 6' 3" (1.91m) 225 lb (102kg) 1968-11-22 Tennessee R
F 12 United States Colleton, Katrina 5' 0" (1.52m) 145 lb (66kg) 1968-10-14 Maryland R
G 21 United States Dixon, Tamecka 5' 9" (1.75m) 148 lb (67kg) 1975-12-14 Kansas R
C 34 United States Gant, Travesa  – – 1971-10-10 Lamar R
F 43 United States Gessig, Kim 6' 3" (1.91m) – 1970-12-29 USC R
C 9 United States Leslie, Lisa 6' 5" (1.96m) 170 lb (77kg) 1972-07-07 USC R
G 4 Zaire Mabika, Mwadi 5' 11" (1.8m) 165 lb (75kg) 1976-07-27 R
G 11 United States Toler, Penny 5' 8" (1.73m) 132 lb (60kg) 1966-03-24 Long Beach State R
F 10 United States Wideman, Jamila 5' 6" (1.68m) 135 lb (61kg) 1975-11-16 Stanford R
C 28 China Zheng, Haixia 6' 8" (2.03m) 254 lb (115kg) 1967-03-07 R
Head coach
United States Julie Rousseau (UC Irvine)
Assistant coaches
-



Legend
  • (C) Team captain
  • (FA) Free agent
  • (IN) Inactive
  • (S) Suspended
  • Injured Injured

Schedule[edit]

Regular season[edit]

1997 game log
Total: 14–14 (Home: 8–6; Road: 6–8)
June: 2–3 (Home: 2–1; Road: 0–2)
Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location
Attendance		 Record
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
July : 6–7 (Home: 3–3; Road: 3–4)
Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location
Attendance		 Record
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
August : 6–4 (Home: 3–2; Road: 3–2)
Game Date Team Score High points High rebounds High assists Location
Attendance		 Record
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
1997 season schedule

Season standings[edit]

Western Conference W L PCT Conf. GB
Phoenix Mercury x 16 12 .571 9–3 –
Los Angeles Sparks o 14 14 .500 8–4 2.0
Sacramento Monarchs o 10 18 .357 4–8 6.0
Utah Starzz o 7 21 .250 3–9 9.0

Statistics[edit]

Legend
  GP Games played   GS  Games started  MPG  Minutes per game  RPG  Rebounds per game
 APG  Assists per game  SPG  Steals per game  BPG  Blocks per game  PPG  Points per game
 FG%  Field-goal percentage  3P%  3-point field-goal percentage  FT%  Free-throw percentage  TO  Turnovers per game
 PF  Fouls per game Team leader League leader

Regular Season[edit]

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 13.1[2]
  • 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[edit]

  • Lisa Leslie, Center, All WNBA First Team [3]
  • 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

[2]

References[edit]

  1. ^ a b c d e f "1997 Los Angeles Sparks Transactions". Basketball-Reference.com. Retrieved May 24, 2024.
  2. ^ a b "1997 WNBA Season Summary".
  3. ^ "Postseason Awards: 1997". WNBA.com. Retrieved September 4, 2022.

Sparks on Basketball Reference

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