Original subtitles

You know, there ain't many people out there

who can say they're the first person

in the world to do something.

Lisa Leslie is on that list

for multiple things.

She is the first athlete to win

four consecutive gold medals in a team sport.

She's also the first WNBA star

to win MVP for the season,

MVP for the all-star game,

and MVP for the playoffs.

She's the first WNBA superstar

to come to my workshop.

And because Lisa is so focused on community

and leadership, and using her platform

to give people a voice,

we've got the perfect person in Laurel that we can build

something for her to honor her.

- Ben. - Hey.

- Lisa Leslie. - What's up?

Are you in here shooting buckets?

- What's happening? - It's the closest thing

we get to in the shop.

- Okay, hi. - How are you?

Oh, 6'5".

Look at you, a normal-sized person.

So is everybody in your family tall?

Yes, my mom was 6'2"...

- 6'3"... - Okay.

she's probably about 6'1" now.

Sorry, mom. She...

she's coming down a little bit.

She said some people are blessed on the inside

and some people are blessed on the outside.

And we've been blessed both, meaning, you know,

we have great height and to be proud of that

but also, to know it's important

to be good on the inside.

Role models and being a good role model

it's so key, for kids.

I think it's so important

and becoming a role model to me

was not just about signing the autographs,

but it's also changing the perspective...

people's perspective about me personally,

about women's basketball,

and it's really a blessing.

- So I love it. - Yeah.

I wanted to build something

that would kind of center around that,

having a platform to speak from.

- Yes. Yes. - Okay? So first time...

- in a woodshop? - This is my first time

in a woodshop, in fact, I took drama

when I could have taken woodshop

in middle school, so I missed it.

I took drama also instead of woodshop.

Did you? See?

Just one more thing we have in common.

Let's go see what we're gonna build.

We're gonna actually work, huh?

- Yeah, we are. - Oh, wow.

All right, so when I found out

that you were going to be here,

I was pretty dang excited.

The really cool thing is our Laurel High School

varsity girls won the state championship this year.

- Woo-hoo. - And it's the first time

in school history that our girls have won

- the state championship. - Really?

- Isn't that cool? - That is a huge accomplishment

and you can't take it lightly.

So Coach Cooley, this was her first state championship.

- Oh, nice. - She had actually planned

on retiring and the girls wanted her to come back,

so she stayed one more season. They won.

- Wow, how inspiring. - And...

I know. Isn't that great? There's a movie

- in there somewhere. - Right.

The cool thing about her is that

it's less about raising incredible athletes

and more about raising incredible people.

And so I went to the school and talked to them.

And they actually said, "Well, we don't have a podium."

So I wanted to do something for the basketball team,

but then also something that was more for the community.

- Look at you Ben, I like that. - See?

How do you build it?

Here's how we're gonna build it.

It's gonna be the shape

of the key in basketball,

and then it will all be plexiglass

so whoever is sitting in the crowd

that you're speaking to, they will be able to see.

The top of the key will have a circle,

the free throw line is where our tabletop will be.

And then I want to use maple for all of the frame

and all of the trim, because basketball courts

are built from maple, but then we'll incorporate

mahogany bow tie joints,

because the Laurel High School Tornadoes

are Cardinal and gold.

And that'll give a nod to the Laurel Tornadoes.

The main thing is that it's an opportunity

for the young people to be able to aspire

to stand up to be able to speak

to be able to give back to the community.

So I think at this point, we probably shouldn't even

call it a podium, we'll call it a platform

because a platform is of space of power,

and also a place of communicating need, right?

- Bringing awareness. - Leadership.

Leadership, all those things.

- So let's get started... - Way to go.

- with this rough stuff. - All right.

We're gonna get back to math class. All right?

- Yeah. Let's do it. - I've already done

the dimensions in my head.

In basketball, some plays can be run

a little looser, we can't slough off on this.

This has to be to the decimal point.

If it is off, our circle will not line up.

So that's what we're going to use.

We're gonna cut sections out of this, okay?

We have to figure out the length of our pieces

and what angle they need to be to make a circle.

So the first step is going to be actually

cutting the segments.

Picture a stop sign,

it's straight lines

that create almost a circle.

That is what we are doing,

is we are taking straight lines

and creating a hexadecagon.

A hexagon has six sides, a decagon has ten.

- It's a hexadecagon. - Look at you, Ben.

So we're gonna call this play.

- Okay. - We're gonna call it

the Hex Flex.

The Hex Flex.

- We're running a flex drill. - We're running a flex drill.

That's right. All right, so this is to figure out

the length that comes out to...

Twenty-eight times three point one four

divided by sixteen comes out to...

it comes out to like about five-and-a-half.

That's what I got. What do you think?

- Around 5.49. - That sounds right.

So then to figure out that angle,

we do three-sixty divided by sixteen

divided by two. 11.25 degrees.

- Okay.

- For the angle. - Once we glue it all together,

- it will make a circle. - Got it.

We got it.

- I'm ready for adventure. - We're ready.

Let's do it.

We've got our strategy, we've got our game plan.

Now we're going to actually cut out the segments

and I'm gonna let Lisa cut these.

Practice makes perfect.

Your coach is going to show you one time,

then you got to take over and you got to run it

until you understand it.

So I'm gonna let her cut

all 16 pieces.

So we'll cut them a little bit big

and then we'll sand them down to size,

and then it'll join up perfectly.

It's like a fingernail, because if you do it

too short, you can't fix it. But if it's too long,

I can bring it down. I got you.

- You got this? - I got it.

So it's got a little trigger up here, a safety.

Yeah, you flip it over and then pull the trigger.

There you go. You got it.

That had a little kick to it.

It's got a little torque.

- Is that it? Boom. - Boom.

- One down fifteen to go. - Fifteen.

So your mom was a mail carrier.

She was a mail carrier.

So my granny was a mail carrier.

She became a mail carrier to provide for the family.

- Wow. Look at us. - I mean...

- It's amazing. - So she's a mail carrier.

She's a mail carrier, and then once

my mom got pregnant with my younger sister,

she decided that she wasn't making enough money

to take care of three girls

and went to become a truck driver.

So you know what's great about mom

is that she sat us down.

And she's told my sisters and I,

give her five years to give us a better life.

So like she would leave Monday morning?

She was gone most of the month

and that was the toughest time I think in my life

and my sister's life, to be without your mom

for that long.

It was sad but it also...

- made me stronger. - Yeah.

Made me a leader, I had to take care

- of my little sister. - I was going to say...

yeah, that it teaches leadership, like...

so my dad is also... was a truck driver.

Same thing like the heartbreak of seeing them go,

but then also being proud of them

- and what they were doing. - Yeah,

my mom worked very hard. Yeah.

- All right, let's go. - Let's get to work.

Yeah.

I'm having Lisa cut these a little big,

then we're going to take them over to our sander

and we're going to set the angle perfectly

on our guide there, on our slide.

So you turn the dust collector on.

On, oh.

By sanding it, it's going to give us

a perfect glue surface.

So once we join it up, it's gonna make

that joint even stronger.

All right, do the other side.

All woods act differently.

I wanted to use Maple because basketball courts

are built from maple.

Maple doesn't really expand

and contract like a lot of woods do.

It's hard, but it still has flex.

So if you ever are down low

and you're looking across a court

and players are running on it,

you'll see the floor give

and flex a little bit.

Players will tell you they prefer to play

on a wooden court because of that,

because you can jump a little higher and it feels better

on your knees and your shins.

- Perfect. - Perfect.

Before we actually glue it up,

we're going to dry fit it together

and we have a strap clamp

and what we do, is we'll lay them all together,

get them as close as possible,

then we'll put the strap around it,

and when we tighten that strap up,

it draws it all together perfectly.

And we have a perfect circle.

So you see here you know that it's perfect

- because once we clamped it... - Yes.

- It's all close. - We're tight.

And now we're gonna take it apart,

- and put glue on it. - What?

- Are you serious? - This is a dry fit.

Oh, so we got to glue them. Okay.

So you started playing basketball in seventh grade.

Were you good?

- No. - Really?

I was not good because I had never played

and I didn't know the rules.

But I have one boy cousin, Craig.

And Craig was amazing.

I don't know how at that age,

he probably was like only 18 or 19.

He sacrificed a lot of his time

to take me to the gym.

And I remember the first time we went to the gym,

I was thinking that I was going there

just to play with the ball. And he's like,

"So listen, put the ball down,

and sit on the wall,

you know, hold that". And I'm like, "Wait, what?

I just came to play with the ball". And he was like,

"No, either you're gonna play basketball

and you're gonna get serious,

or we're not coming back again."

And he taught me that it's not just about basketball.

It's about taking care of your body,

which was so helpful, and I'm really thankful

to Craig because when I think about how young he was really,

I mean, what young male takes that time

out of their life to invest in like a 13 year old.

- He was a mentor. - Absolutely.

He was helping you pursue your hoop dreams.

Hoop dreams. I like that.

All right, while this is drying,

we're gonna work on our uprights,

- the sides of the paint. - Okay.

Let's go cut some longer pieces.

Let's do it.

All right, so now that we've got it glued up,

while it's drying, we're going to cut

the sides of the lane,

which are going to act as the leg for our build.

Now this is the only saw that I'm afraid of.

So I'm gonna let you do it.

No.

I'll do this one.

All right, so you ended up living in Inglewood, right?

I did. So I was actually in school,

from kindergarten... from preschool,

all the way through seventh grade in Compton, California.

- So I think I'm from Compton. - Okay.

I then moved one year to Carson with my aunt...

- Okay. - Where my cousin Craig lived,

and then I only lived there for one year

then I moved to Inglewood, California.

Why the move to Inglewood?

Because I went to go live with my grandma.

- Okay. - We moved around a lot

because my mom was on the road

and then ninth grade year

my mom stopped driving cross country,

found a job locally and that really was awesome.

For the first time we're all back living together.

My mom started to come to my basketball games, like,

she had not seen me play before that.

- She'd never seen you play? - No.

- Dang. - Yeah, she was gone.

Mom came to my games in high school though

so I was... I was happy

but I do remember it being very specific, 'cause if

my mom was there, she was always talking

and so I'm playing in the game.

And afterwards I'm like, "Mom, you miss it.

You didn't even see when I did the shot.

You didn't see this because you were over there

talking to that lady." She's like, "Baby,

I saw everything, you know?"

So it was sweet. I love that

she was able to be there and...

- That's awesome. - Yeah.

So this piece here.

This is gonna be our upright,

- our legs, the lane. - Yeah.

So I'm gonna cut this to length,

and then let's go cut out our circle.

Okay, let's do it.

So now we'll take our circle

and we'll install a jig which is just a cross piece.

We have a metal dowel that goes into that.

And then we have a table extension on our bandsaw

and down the center of it, we have holes drilled

so that we know exactly which one

to drop our jig into.

So that when we spin it on that dowel,

it cuts a perfect circle.

Smooth, huh?

Whoo-hoo.

- How about that? - That was cool.

Oh, We got some scraps left, making buckets?

- Oh. - Oh, airball.

I read that you scored 100 points

in a game in high school.

No you read that I scored 101 points

in half of a game in high school, right?

- Only one-half? - One-half,

16 minutes of glory.

- That's crazy. - Did you win?

I didn't realize that that was like a big deal.

I mean, meaning that day I was like,

"wow, oh my God, like, that was cool, right?"

I went to the movies, go home the next day

I never make it back to class, like...

I had press from every channel, newspaper,

Sports Illustrated, like, USA Today.

Everyone was at my school

so I did interviews all day long.

- Dang. - Crazy, right?

All right, so that's two half circles.

We're gonna work on our bowties.

All right. Let's get that one.

- So this... - Oh, the bowtie.

That's a bowtie.

We're gonna add butterfly joints, bowtie joints

is actually known as a dovetail key.

It is a key that locks two things together.

For our segmented circle,

it'll make that joint a little stronger.

And it's going to be so pretty.

Having that mahogany against the maple,

it's going to really stand out and really pop.

So what was the jump to college like?

Oh man, well the jump

to college was... it was a real jump.

And a lot of times,

athletes don't understand how big the gap is

- from high school to college. - Yeah.

It's huge. It was tough. When you're a freshman,

I remember going into practice,

I was the number one player going into college.

And I went and chose USC,

which was not a very good team at that time.

But I had to make a choice if I wanted to go

to a program that was already established

or help establish a new program.

So I did the latter and tried to help establish

a new program at USC.

And I mean in that way you were kind of...

using your platform as an athlete...

- to show change. - Absolutely.

- Gave me a voice... - Yeah.

In Los Angeles to impact other young people

who wanted to go to college, from the inner city

and showing them that you can do it.

Gosh. That's cool.

All right. Now let's see if that lines up.

Put a little glue on it. I know you're ready.

Bam, Bam.

Nice.

In this shop, we have cut metal,

we've cut brass,

we even cut the cheese every now and then.

We actually...

for lunch, eating cheese,

but today we are cutting plexiglass.

First time for that.

And so what we're going to do, we're going to cut

our half circle out of the top,

sand it to get the perfect size,

and then we're going to cut a groove

that the glass will fit into.

Here we go.

I'm gonna clear us a spot here.

I like the plexiglass. This is a awesome idea.

I was thinking about speaking being in front of someone

but still being a part of the crowd.

Yes, being transparent.

Being transparent.

- Open. - Open.

Leadership is inclusive.

- I like it. - I love it.

The assembly, we're going to slot

our plexiglass in.

Then we will put the bottom on.

And then this is our base.

It's gonna go at the bottom,

but then we're going to add quarter-circle brackets

to stabilize it.

And then the bottom half of the circle is gonna go in

the table top half circle is gonna go in.

We built the podium standard height, 36 inches.

It just looks really small next to Lisa and I.

So, okay, WNBA.

- We got next. - We got next.

That first dunk kind of changed the game.

I think for fans and for viewers,

- and probably for players. - I think that in our country

we as the women are very conscious

that we were trying to grow this game.

Yes, it was about winning. Yes, it was about...

championships, I love winning.

I love having on the purple and gold

and representing Los Angeles.

But I saw it as a bigger opportunity.

And even for little girls that look like me out there

who didn't get a chance to see a lot of black women.

That was another opportunity

to be able to represent my community.

When thinking about your career.

Would you say the WNBA was the pinnacle?

WNBA, so winning two championships was amazing.

We lost the third one so I'm always

a little salty about that.

Won several different MVP awards,

whether it was all-star games

or regular season, I have three MVPs.

Eight or nine all Star-games I have played in.

I don't know all of my statistics, but...

nothing beats a winning Olympic gold medal

in our country, 1996.

That's really the highlight of my career.

- Of all of it. - Of all of it.

1996 Olympic team.

- That's pretty cool. - Because you're in the USA

and 35,000 fans chanting "USA", like,

doesn't that give you chills still.

Yeah, I mean It's still... just like hearing it is...

- Yeah, that's the best. - That's big.

How many gold medals?

I have four Olympic gold medals

and two world championship gold medals.

No big deal.

All right, we're gonna do the finishing.

- Let's do it. - And then we're ready to deliver.

- We gotta get this thing delivered. - Yeah.

The front of the plexi

honestly looks a little empty.

And so I'm wanting to add something.

And I'm thinking, an L.

L for Lisa. L for Laurel.

L for...

- Leadership. - ...leadership.

And then the cherry on top

is the little brass plaque that says

dedicated to Coach Cooley.

All right.

Well, from one coach to another,

let's go give this to Coach Cooley and...

- Yes. - The Laurel Lady Tornadoes.

Let's do it.

I love building things that connect to...

the people I'm working with,

that connect to the people that we're giving it to.

Every detail about it was thought out

with the person helping build it in mind

and the person we're building it for in mind.

This is a symbol of giving these girls a platform,

something that they can speak from,

something that they can lead from.

This is a really special moment

to be here for this.

Not every day that a WNBA superstar

shows up at the girls varsity basketball practice.

They don't know that we're coming.

I can't wait to see the surprise.

Here we go.

- Hey, you guys. - Laurel Tornadoes?

Hi, ladies.

Hi.

Hello, hello, hello.

There's a lot of champions in the room right now.

Yes, go tell it.

Hey, coach.

- Coach Cooley in the house. - Miss Leslie, in the house.

- We brought this. - How short you are.

Especially for you.

Because she and Lisa

view this game as more than a game,

but as a way to have a platform

- to speak from. - Oh, look at you...

- dropping knowledge. - I mean...

- I like it. - Lisa and I

built this together...

- Today. - Today.

- All day. - All day.

And then we got an L here for...

For Lisa Leslie, or for Laurel.

Or...

Or for leadership.

The reason that I'm here is not just to bring

this platform,

but it is about hopefully inspiring

you young ladies who are the future

to use your voice and use your platform

to speak and you may not play pro basketball,

whatever you choose to do, do your best.

You can be successful.

But it takes a lot of hard work

and courage, to have the courage

to believe in yourself and surround yourself

with other people who inspire you

and believe in you like Coach Cooley.

Because you need to have the courage to believe,

why not you?

We are role models to...

cousins and nieces, and nephews.

We are role models in our community

and our churches.

It's about using your voice

and the opportunities that you have

right here in your community.

So Coach Cooley, thank you for all that you do.

We appreciate you. And would you like to say

a few words on your podium that's dedicated to you.

Thank you, thank you.

I would like to thank you all for this.

This means so much to us.

And I would like to recognize these young lady

not only just basketball players,

but as great young ladies.

And we would just like to thank you again

for taking the time to recognize us.

And Coach Lisa, we appreciate you.

Thank you.

Coach Cooley and Lisa Leslie,

these are two ladies who have excelled

in the world of basketball.

But what they are excelling more at

is raising role models

and young women of the community.

Lisa had people helping her along the way

she had role models to look up to,

to have her in Laurel

to bring that to the next generation.

That's incredible.