The two veterans now share another honor: being among the seven players named to the 2004 USA Women’s Senior National Team, which will be coached by Houston Comets Head Coach Van Chancellor, who piloted Team USA in their 2002 World Championship win.

Leslie led the Los Angeles Sparks to back-to-back WNBA Championships in 2001 and 2002. She was a triple Most Valuable Player in 2001, earning All-Star, WNBA and Finals MVP honors. She earned All-Star and Finals MVP honors in 2002, as well. Leslie is the top U.S. Olympic scorer ever, scoring 282 points in the 1996 and 2000 Games. In 2002, she became the first player to dunk in a WNBA game.

Staley led the Charlotte Sting to second place finishes in the Eastern Conference in 2002 and 2003. She has participated in every WNBA All-Star game since 2001. Staley closed the 2002 World Championship as the USA's all-time leader at the Worlds in assists with a combined 103 assists from 1994, 1998 and 2002. In Olympic play, Staley holds the USA Olympic single-game record for free throws made with nine against Brazil in 1996. She hit a perfect 12-of-12 free throws during the 2000 Olympics to rank tied for first for U.S. single-competition free throw percentage. Staley is also the Women's Basketball Head Coach at Temple University.

We caught up with Leslie and Staley as they begin preparing for their third Olympic Games to talk about Athens, international competition, and each other.

Q1: How does it feel to be named to the 2004 U.S. Senior National Team that will compete in the 2004 Olympic Games?

LISA LESLIE: It’s always a great honor to represent our country, its not something that you can get tired of. It’s a lot of pride out there, we know that we’re playing at the highest level. With a lot of hard work and our dedication to our country, obviously our goal is always to win gold and it’s been our motto since the day we started.

DAWN STALEY: We’ve been cut from teams and we’d like to use this opportunity to make up for all those times that we’ve been cut! Any time they ask us to play, we’re going to play, because at times we got turned away or got put on maybe, you know, not the National Team but the second to best, so to be able to play at the very top and be able to represent our country on the National Team, we jump at the opportunity.

Q2: How do you feel about being one step closer to being one of only five three-time women's basketball Olympians? [The others are Anne Donovan (1980, 1984, 1988), Teresa Edwards (1984, 1988, 1992, 1996, 2000) and Katrina McClain (1992, 1996, 2000)]

LISA LESLIE: It's amazing when you think back over it - it's been almost 12 years since I first tried out for the 1992 team. It's a great honor, of course, but you just don't realize the amount of time that's gone by between ‘96 and 2004. It's an amazing thing to represent your country like this, knowing you've stayed on top of your game and are among the top players in the world. It's great to represent your city and state in the WNBA, but to put on the red, white and blue ... I'm proud to say I'm an American and to be able to play for my country for this long. Honestly, being chosen by my country ... in the past it was a long tryout process. I didn't make the ‘92 team, and I can't say enough how honored I am to be chosen to play.

DAWN STALEY: It's startling to me because I was just happy to get one and I was going to be done with it after the first one because it ended so well. But anytime you are called on to represent your country, you want to do that. But at the same time, I think Lisa, myself, all those players who are multiple Olympians, they don't go into it thinking “I want to be a five-time Olympian” or “I want to be a three-time Olympian.” They do it because they love it and they love to represent their country. It's rewarding in knowing that your hard work has paid off in the form of Olympic competition.

Q3: Will Athens be your last Olympic Games?

LISA LESLIE: I don’t know that I can put a time on playing. I feel great at 31 … I’ll continue to play and be true to myself and my body. As long as I’m enjoying the game and feeling healthy I will play. So I can’t say that this will definitely be my last Olympics.

DAWN STALEY: I can! This will be it for me. I’ve enjoyed the ride and I’m getting up there in age and I know that I want other athletes to experience what it is to compete for the Olympics but also want them to know that we don’t just compete for gold medals, we win gold medals. So I want to make sure that its left in good hands.

Q4: Dawn, you have a successful young coaching career at Temple. Could you see yourself coming back as a Team USA coach?

DAWN STALEY: Well, if the same committee keeps picking me to play on these teams, I’m hoping I get a vote from them when its time for me to step up and be a coach. You know, I wouldn’t mind coaching at this level but definitely I need some more experience doing it and I have to get my feet wet internationally as a coach. I would love to coach at that level – I think anybody who’s been around the game and played at that level and who’s coaching would love the opportunity to coach a USA Basketball team. Definitely I would throw my name in the hat!

Q5: Are you looking forward to playing under Coach Chancellor again?

LISA LESLIE: We had a lot of fun in China [at the 2002 World Championships] winning under Coach Chancellor and I’m really confident about us coming together as a group.

DAWN STALEY: Coach Chancellor, he’s a different coach than we’ve ever had in the USA Basketball system. We love to play for him, you know -- we like his style, and we like to get in those pockets when we play cards!

Q6: After their loss to Germany in the World Cup, several Team USA women’s soccer players commented that having a pro league has helped to elevate the level of play for many international players, as well. What has the WNBA done for foreign players? How much tougher does that make it when you face international competition?

LISA LESLIE: I think the biggest concern would be the fact that a lot of the foreign players have been pulled from our league a year in advance to train for the Olympics, as opposed to us having a much shorter period of time to train. But I think when you put all the Americans together, we provide more of an intimidation, because you’re not just facing one or two of us spread out across the league, we’re all together. I think we send a message mentally that when you play the USA you’re facing all of us together. Its just a matter of us having that training and staying on top of our game and I think we can beat any team from any country that we play as long as we play smart and together.

DAWN STALEY: Our league has elevated their play as individuals. They have different styles of play than what our coaches teach us over here in America. I think we pose the strongest challenge for other teams out there but certainly they have closed the gap. As far as our experience in playing together, our core has been together, and when you have that attack you definitely have an advantage.

Q7: What have the international players improved upon in the last four years and what has Team USA improved on?

LISA LESLIE: Overall the international players have really improved their defense. The biggest difference between the way we play ball in the US versus other countries is that we’re more defensive oriented and defense is how we win. A lot of times when international players come into our league, offensively they are really good scorers but they lack that defensive tenacity and I think that’s the biggest thing they improve on when they come here. For us, I think that we have improved on just our overall moves, I would say post moves – when you play internationally, you have to have more than one move, you have to have a step through move, you have to be able to go beyond your first move. I think we’ve become a little more creative in our game offensively like the international players.

DAWN STALEY: Defensively I think they are making improvements, but I think just our experience in playing each other, we are improving. It’s a totally different basketball game when we go over there and play in international competitions because we’re not used to their style of play. Whereas a lot of their top players are playing in the WNBA. So we’re learning their tendencies, they’re learning our tendencies, and we can make adjustments as players night in and night out in the WNBA.

Q8: What is the importance of the “experience factor” in this Olympic team -- having been there and knowing what its like to go for the gold?

LISA LESLIE: We just learned how to win and how to compete and when its time to turn it up and take it to another level. I think that those are things that are really carrying over each year as we evolve and as new players are added I think we kind of spread that energy and our style of winning, our work ethic. We have some really competitive practices, we’re not there just to get up for games and I think that’s the type of attitude that has continued to be passed up year after year. We love to play basketball, we love to work hard but we have to fight hard to win a gold medal and to me that is the kind of attitude that has evolved since we’ve been on the National Team in ’95.

DAWN STALEY: For us, what you’re looking at is a capable, experienced group of players that were selected … when I reflect on ’96, and there were 35 thousand fans in the Georgia Dome, and if I had to start that particular game as my first Olympic experience-- I was nervous, I was nervous on the bench! And that’s the part that you really can’t comprehend when you’re on the outside looking in. It was very intimidating. Its not to say that I wouldn’t have been able to play, its just that it was a very intimidating, very exciting time. But now, looking at it, going through it, knowing what it takes, knowing that it takes composure at times to create an atmosphere -- as a leader if you’re calm and cool and collected, everyone else is going to be.

Q9: Considering the tremendous international success of USA Basketball over the past eight years, how much pressure do you feel to lead this team to its third-straight gold medal?

LISA LESLIE: I think there’s always some pressure to just participate in the Olympics. We always want to win gold medals, we never go there for anything less. We wouldn’t be happy with silver or bronze. I think there’s always pressure to win but that’s what the experience is all about, that we’ve been in this position twice thus far. Its about that hunger and fight and we can’t rely upon what we’ve done in the past, it’s a new day and a new year coming. That’s where our hunger comes from, we have to fight and work hard to stay on the top.

DAWN STALEY: Experience does pay big dividends. But at the same time when we go into an Olympic competition we are prepared. First and foremost, when you are prepared to be successful you’re going to be successful, and we never really fall short of being prepared. That’s why we continue to win gold medals, and the day that we are not prepared or we take someone lightly will be the day that we get upset or we get beat.

Q10: Lisa, what are your thoughts on playing with Dawn? And Dawn, your thoughts on playing with Lisa?

LISA LESLIE: Its been a great opportunity for me to meet Dawn through USA Basketball as an eleventh grader, and we’ve been playing together ever since. She is definitely our floor leader and our general and she can definitely lead us to gold. She’s a great veteran who has the experience and understanding, she’s been a great leader for all of us and having Dawn there is one reasons why I continue to play USA Basketball because I feel like we can definitely win.

DAWN STALEY: Lisa’s the best player in the world for us, and no matter how old she gets, she is still considered to me the best player in the world.