WNBA Player profile: Candace Parker of the Los Angeles Sparks
Candace Parker, the Los Angeles Sparks forward is earnestly competitive; loyal to playing perfect team basketball; a tireless worker, and precisely professional in everything she does on the court.
Known for her powerful slam-dunks, the player has a great feel for the game. She can score at will and also possesses the ability to set up her teammates well. She has a great court vision and is virtually a beast on the court.
The lanky forward has basketball in her blood. Her older brother Anthony Parker is a shooting guard of Cleveland Cavaliers, her husband Shelden Williams is a current player for the New York Knicks and her father had played at the
University of Iowa during 1970.
Parker was born on April 19, 1986 to parents Natasha, who is a front desk office of the Chicago Bulls and Larry, who works for an insurance company. Her parents already had two boys, Anthony Parker and Marcus. She was their third
and final child. Her family loved basketball and they were great fans of the Bulls.
Parker earned national recognition during a spectacular high school career at Naperville Central High School, from where she graduated at the age of 18. The uniquely talented Parker became the first female player at high-school
level and only the fifth woman at any level, to dunk a basketball in an empowered game.
After a successful high-school career, Parker attended the University of Tennessee. She made her debut for the Lady Vols in the season 2005-06 and won the South-Eastern Conference Rookie of the Year award. She hit a game-winning
shot at the buzzer as Vols won the SEC Tournament Championship in 2006, one in which she was declared as the tournament MVP. During the next two years, she remained the starter for the Vols, helping them to two consecutive NCAA Women's Championships and winning
MVP award each time.
Parker was selected first overall in the 2008 WNBA Draft by the Los Angeles Sparks. Since then she is playing for them. She recorded a double-double with 34 points and 12 rebounds in her debut against the Phoenix Mercury in May.
The player also dished out eight assists that night. The 6-foot-4 player won both the WNBA Rookie of the Year and WNBA MVP award in 2008. She married in the same year and went on a maternity leave in early in 2009.
Parker, the centrepiece of the Los Angeles, returned to the floor early in July and led her team to the Western Conference Finals.
In June 2010, the Spark’s leading scorer and rebounder dislocated her left shoulder in a game against the Minnesota Lynx and missed rest of the season.
Now, in the current season, she played just seven games for her team. She injured her right knee in Sparks’ 77-67 defeat to New York Liberty Sunday, June 26. The forward player is under day-to-day observation and is hopeful to
rejoin the squad before the playoffs. She recorded four double-double in this season. She was averaging 17.7 points, 9.9 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.1 steals and 1.1 blocks per game prior to her injury.
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