Leslie Played for Title With Chicken Pox, Strep Throat

Lisa Leslie never missed a basketball game during her four-year varsity career at Morningside High School, a span of 133 games. As it turned out, her last game was the closest call.

Leslie is resting at home this week, recovering from chicken pox and strep throat that nearly prevented her from playing in Saturday night’s State Division I girls championship game in Oakland.

Fortunately for Morningside, Leslie overcame the illnesses to lead the Lady Monarchs to their second consecutive title.

“I’m getting my strength back,” she said Tuesday night. “I want to see my teammates. I didn’t get a chance to see them much after the game.”

Instead of celebrating Morningside’s 67-56 victory over Berkeley, Leslie was taken by her mother to Humana Hospital in San Leandro, south of Oakland, with a 102-degree temperature.

“It was tough to breathe after the game,” Leslie said. “I was sweating, and I think that sent my temperature up. My sides started to hurt, and I could feel a lot of pain in my chest.”

Considering her condition, Leslie’s performance--35 points, 12 rebounds and seven blocked shots--was one of the most remarkable of her storied prep career. She played 29 of the game’s 32 minutes.

“I can’t figure out how she played,” Coach Frank Scott said. “I knew she had missed school on Thursday and complained about not feeling well. She came to school Friday, but she wasn’t herself. She wasn’t talking much Saturday. I thought she’d pop out of it, but she didn’t.

“All I can say about her performance is I’ve never seen anything like it. She really wanted that last game. She wanted to be part of it.”

Leslie showed an uncharacteristic lack of emotion during the game, which is little more than a blur to her now.

“I don’t remember that much,” she said. “I kind of want to see a tape of it. It was like I was playing blind. Playing with a fever was very hard, very uncomfortable. I was going through the motions, but the right motions.”

The 6-foot-5 center was at her best late in the game. She scored 13 of the Lady Monarchs’ last 15 points after Berkeley had cut a 17-point third-quarter deficit to 52-49 with 4:45 left to play.

After the game, Leslie didn’t have time to relax. A large group of reporters surrounded her outside the locker room and conducted interviews for about 20 minutes. It was shortly thereafter that her mother, Christine, noticed that she was running a fever.

Scott said it was suspected before the game that Leslie might be coming down with chicken pox because her younger sister, Tiffany, recently had the illness. But Leslie, 17, already had chicken pox once, so she wasn’t worried about getting it again.

“The last thing I thought about was getting the chicken pox,” she said. “I think it’s very unusual (to get it a second time). But possible, obviously.”

Scott said a doctor at the hospital initially said Leslie didn’t have chicken pox. That proved to be an inaccurate diagnosis. Leslie broke out in a heavy rash Sunday.

“I looked in on her Sunday morning,” Scott said. “She had bumps all over her. It had to be chicken pox.”

The illness was confirmed Monday by a doctor’s call. Tuesday, a second call informed the family that further tests showed Leslie also had strep throat.

Needless to say, Leslie didn’t have a very enjoyable trip home.

She was driven to the airport separately from her teammates and boarded the plane only minutes before Sunday’s flight, Scott said.

“Her mother had her bundled up,” the coach said. “She was so sore.”

Said Leslie: “I couldn’t have survived it without my mom. If she wasn’t there, I probably would have come back home before the game.”

The airline radioed ahead and had a wheelchair waiting for Leslie when she disembarked at Los Angeles International Airport.

Scott, who said he gave Leslie every opportunity to take herself out of the game, realizes that Morningside would have been without its star had the title game been played Sunday.

“I thought about that,” he said. “I think we would have been close, but I don’t know if we would have beaten Berkeley.”

Without Leslie, it’s unlikely.