Name | Candace Parker |
---|---|
Profile | candace_parker |
Nationality | American |
Position | Forward |
Height ft | 6 |
Height in | 4 |
Weight lbs | 175 |
League | WNBA |
Team | Los Angeles Sparks |
Number | 3 |
Birth date | April 19, 1986 |
Birth place | St. Louis, Missouri |
Highschool | Naperville Central High |
College | Tennessee |
Draft | 1st overall |
Draft year | 2008 |
Draft team | Los Angeles Sparks |
Career start | 2008 |
Overseas career start | 2009 |
Career teams | Los Angeles Sparks (2008–present) |
Overseas career teams | UMMC Ekaterinburg (2009–present) |
Awards | Wade Trophy winner (2007)USBWA Player of the Year (2007, 2008)Wooden Award (2007, 2008)Naismith Award (2008)Honda-Broderick Cup (2008)WNBA Rookie of the Year (2008)WNBA MVP (2008) 1× WNBA All-Star (2011) |
medal templates | }} |
Candace Nicole Parker (born April 19, 1986) is an All-American basketball player for the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks and is also the younger sister of NBA player Anthony Parker. She was drafted to the team from Tennessee in 2008. She may be best known for being the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game and the first woman to dunk twice in a college game —she set both milestones as a redshirt freshman on March 19, 2006. She also became only the second player to dunk in a WNBA game on June 22, 2008.
A versatile player, she is mainly a forward, but was listed on Tennessee's roster as a forward, center, and guard. She was a starter on the Lady Vols basketball team, winners of the 2007 and 2008 NCAA championships.
Parker won the 2009 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice award as the favorite female athlete in the sports category.
She grew up in Naperville, Illinois. Her whole family loved basketball, and she began playing at an early age. Her father had played at the University of Iowa in the 1970s. The family was also huge Chicago Bulls fans. Candace was 2nd guessing about playing basketball, fearing she would not live up to the level of play her father and brother demonstrated, so she focused on playing soccer. It wasn't until the eighth grade that her family convinced her to play. Her father would help coach and critique her. Candace said of the experience, "He did things to make me mad, to challenge me, because I was so much more athletic and had so much more knowledge of the game than everyone else that sometimes I just coasted. If me and my dad went to a park and he didn't think I was practicing hard enough, he'd just get in the car and leave. And I'd have to run home. I mean run home. Once I figured that out, I'd always try to go to close-by-parks."
She is the only two-time award winner of the USA Today Player of the Year, winning the award in 2003 and 2004. Parker also won the Naismith and Gatorade Awards as national basketball player of the year for each of those years. She joins Marion Jones, Greg Oden, Brandon Knight and LeBron James as the only back to back winners of the Gatorade honor. Parker was named a WBCA All-American. She participated in the 2004 WBCA High School All-America Game, where she scored nine points. In March 2004, she won the slam dunk contest at McDonald's All-American Game, and she beat a lot of the top male athletes in the country, including two first round draft picks. She also won the USA Today All-USA high school basketball team, or the USA Today Player of the Year Award. Carol Ross, head coach of the University of Mississippi Ole Miss Rebels, said this of Parker: "She's the toughest matchup in the game. On many nights, she's the best guard on the floor, the best post on the floor, the best rebounder on the floor, the best passer on the floor, and, let's not forget, the best scorer on the floor. She's got the strut of a competitor and the stuff of a champion." A sports management major who had a 3.35 grade point average as of December 2007, she was named University Division Academic All-American of the Year in women's basketball for 2008 by the College Sports Information Directors of America.
On April 8, 2008, Parker led the Lady Vols to their second straight NCAA women's title, the eighth championship for Tennessee. She was also named the MVP for the second consecutive tournament, joining Cheryl Miller, Chamique Holdsclaw and Diana Taurasi as the only female players to have done so. She won the honor despite suffering a dislocated shoulder during her team's regional finals win, but returned (wearing a white long-sleeve T-shirt under her jersey) and led the Lady Vols to the title. Although Parker had a year of eligibility remaining due to her medical redshirt in the 2004-2005 season, she opted to enter the WNBA Draft following the championship victory. While at Tennessee, she compiled a record of 101 wins and 10 losses.
On May 17, 2008, in her debut game against the Phoenix Mercury, she recorded 34 points, 12 rebounds and 8 assists. Her 34 points broke the record for a rookie in a debut game. The record was previously held by Cynthia Cooper, who scored 25 points in her debut game in 1997.
On June 22, 2008, she became the second woman in WNBA history-after her teammate Lisa Leslie-to dunk during a regulation WNBA game against the Indiana Fever and Michelle Snow in the 2006 WNBA All-Star game. The dunk was on the same basket as the dunk of her teammate.
Parker was named the Hanns-G 'Go Beyond' Rookie of the Month for the month of May 2008. She received the same honor for July 2008.
In August 2008, the WNBA suspended play for a couple of weeks to some of their players to join the U.S.'s National Women's Basketball at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Parker was selected to go, as was teammate Lisa Leslie, and the US team cruised with 8 straight victories to achieve the gold medal. They won games with an average margin of 38.8 points. They faced Australia in the final game, and won, 92-65. Parker averaged 9.4 points in the tournament, and scored 14 in the finals game.
On October 3, 2008, she was named the Hanns-G 'Go Beyond' Rookie of the Year as well as Most Valuable Player for the 2008 WNBA season. She became the first WNBA player to win both the Rookie of the Year and the Most Valuable Player in the same season. In addition, she also joined Wilt Chamberlain and Wes Unseld as the only professional American basketball players to win both ROY and MVP trophies in the same season.
Candace Parker missed the 2009 WNBA season after having her baby girl Lailaa, but on June 30 Candace returned to practice with her teammates for the first time. She played her first game back from maternity leave on July 5, 2009. Candace earned 2nd Team All-WNBA honors despite missing almost a full month. She led the Sparks to the Western Conference Finals but lost in 3 games to the Phoenix Mercury. In the playoffs Parker averaged 18 points and over 10 rebounds per game. She missed most of the 2010 WNBA season due to a shoulder injury.
In 2011, Candace Parker played six games. During the seventh game, with 5:56 left in the third quarter, Parker went down after grabbing a defensive rebound and making brief contact with Quanitra Hollingsworth. After getting an MRI on June 27th, she found out she had a torn meniscus in her right knee. Parker may be out of the season for approximately six weeks.
Parker was invited to the USA Basketball Women's National Team training camp in the fall of 2009. The team selected to play for the 2010 FIBA World Championship and the 2012 Olympics is usually chosen from these participants. At the conclusion of the training camp, the team will travel to Ekaterinburg, Russia, where they compete in the 2009 UMMC Ekaterinburg International Invitational.
Parker grew up in Chicago adoring the Bulls and was a Michael Jordan fan. Her all-time favorite player is Ron Harper, of whom she has a picture hanging in her bedroom. She has two dogs: a St. Bernard mix named Fendi and a pug named Nino, who is named after a character in the movie New Jack City. Parker’s favorite movies are Love and Basketball and He Got Game. She also likes to listen to Disney soundtracks such as The Little Mermaid and watch Full House and The Cosby Show.
Parker was named Academic All-American 2007–08 by the ESPN the magazine. She had a 3.55 GPA when she won this award.
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Category:1986 births Category:Living people Category:American women's basketball players Category:American expatriate basketball people in Russia Category:Basketball players from Illinois Category:Basketball players from Missouri Category:Gatorade National Basketball Player of the Year Category:People from St. Louis, Missouri Category:People from Naperville, Illinois Category:Tennessee Lady Vols basketball players Category:McDonald's High School All-Americans Category:Parade High School All-Americans (girls' basketball) Category:Power forwards (basketball) Category:Women's National Basketball Association first overall draft picks Category:Los Angeles Sparks players Category:Basketball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Category:Olympic basketball players of the United States Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States Category:Olympic medalists in basketball
de:Candace Parker es:Candace Parker fr:Candace Parker it:Candace Parker lv:Kendesa Pārkere mk:Кендис Паркер ja:キャンデース・パーカー ru:Паркер, Кэндис fi:Candace Parker tr:Candace ParkerThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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