Motivation Quote by Lisa Leslie

Leslie frames faith not as a costume athletes put on for the cameras, but as a training regimen that finally became hers. The key move is the pivot from obligation to appetite: “not just because you’re supposed to” is a quiet indictment of performative religiosity, the kind that reads like good citizenship in many Black and American communities. By contrast, “because you enjoy going” makes spirituality sound less like rule-following and more like conditioning - choosing repetition because it builds something in you.

The date stamp matters. “Since 1996” signals a personal before-and-after, but it also nods to the era when women’s basketball was fighting for air: the WNBA wouldn’t launch until 1997, and Leslie was ascending into a public role where every choice could be interpreted as a statement. In that pressure cooker, church becomes both refuge and recalibration - a place where her identity isn’t reduced to stats or endorsements.

There’s also a subtle rhetorical strategy in “listening to the Word.” It’s passive on the surface, but paired with “being excited about it,” it hints at agency: she’s not being preached at; she’s actively receiving, selecting, responding. For an athlete, that’s a powerful reframing. Growth isn’t only physical or professional; it’s the discipline of showing up when no one is keeping score, and discovering that the real turning point is wanting to be there.