Leslie, Toler Coming to L.A. as 16 Assigned in WNBA

Lisa Leslie and Penny Toler became the first players to join the Lakers’ team in the Women’s National Basketball Assn. on Wednesday as the new league assigned 16 of its signed players to its eight teams.

Three of those assigned were Leslie’s 1996 Olympic team teammates--Rebecca Lobo to New York, Sheryl Swoopes to Houston and Ruthie Bolton-Holifield to Sacramento.

Leslie, 24, was expected to join the L.A. franchise, the nickname of which will be announced at halftime of the Feb. 2 game between the Washington Bullets and Lakers at the Forum.

But Toler was a surprise. Early reports had Australian Olympian Michele Timms joining Los Angeles, but she was sent to Phoenix.

Assignments, said WNBA President Val Ackerman at a New York satellite news conference, were based on geographic considerations and competitive balance.

Toler was a 1988-89 All-American guard at Long Beach State and had a career scoring average of 21.7 points per game. She’s still the career assist leader at Long Beach State with 513.

She is currently playing professionally in Israel and had played pro ball in Italy for four years and Greece for two.

In the early going, Leslie said she likes Los Angeles’ two-woman team.

“If we played two-on-two games right now, Penny and I would win,” she said.

She also said Phoenix, with Timms and Jennifer Gillom, and Charlotte, with Vicky Bullett and Andrea Stinson, also started well.

John Buss, son of Laker owner Jerry Buss and recently named president of the WNBA team, said Forum seating capacity would be cut to 8,000 seats for WNBA games, which begin June 21.

WNBA Notes

Wednesday’s other team assignments:

Phoenix--Michele Timms (guard), Australia, and Jennifer Gillom (center), Mississippi; Sacramento--Ruthie Bolton-Holifield (guard), Auburn, and Bridgette Gordon (forward), Tennessee; Utah--Elena Baranova (center), Russia, and Lady Hardmon (guard), Georgia; Charlotte--Vicky Bullett (center), Maryland, and Andrea Stinson (guard), North Carolina State; Cleveland--Janice Lawrence Braxton (center), Louisiana Tech, and Michelle Edwards (guard), Iowa; Houston--Sheryl Swoopes (guard/forward), Texas Tech, and Cynthia Cooper (guard), USC; New York--Rebecca Lobo (center/forward), Connecticut, and Teresa Weatherspoon (guard), Louisiana Tech.

Key dates: mid- to late February, a second group of 16 players will be assigned teams; mid-February, the L.A. team hopes to name a coach (former Laker Michael Cooper attended Wednesday’s news conference); mid-April, a Southern California player tryout; April 28, the WNBA draft; early May, player tryouts for all teams; May 28, training camps open.