Candace Parker - NBA Player? (Merged)

Post #61 » by **rsavaj** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:01 am

I was watching a special on Diana Tarausi("In My Own Words") and she said that she used to pwn Emeka Okafor whenever they'd go one on one. They then cut to a clip of Emeka with a huge smile/not denying it.

Taurasi>Candace Parker.

CITYOFANGELSX3 · Post #62 » by **CITYOFANGELSX3** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:10 am

what ever happend to lisa leslie? Its like she disappeared off the face of the earth.

That Nicka · Post #63 » by **That Nicka** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:18 am

CITYOFANGELSX3 wrote:what ever happend to lisa leslie? Its like she disappeared off the face of the earth.

she was pregnant last season

Post #64 » by **tkb** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:28 am

Happy to see Parker end up in LA.

Sparks will have a terrific front court duo in Leslie and Parker next season.

Post #65 » by **tkb** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 5:41 am

Flite wrote:If a non-popular sport has a player on magazine covers, billboards and commercials, you can bet that sport will gain popularity.

Look at what Michael Jordan did for the NBA in the 90's.

As I said, I don't see why Candace can't have the same impact for the WNBA. She could become a global icon of womens sports like Sharapova or Kournikove and in turn dramatically increase the popularity of womens basketball.

And I'm thinking like an American because the WNBA is an American league, and in America, sports/marketing go hand in hand.

I think Candace can sort of do that if the stars align for her like they did for Michael.

If the US doesn't decide to send basketball superstars to the '92 olympics and Nike doesn't decide to put up Michael Jordan posters the size of buildings over in Barcelona, he most likely doesn't blow up to the mega star he did internationally.

He'd still be a big star, don't get me wrong, but those two decisions made him explode to a global icon.

Candace will never be a global icon to the size Jordan was, that's just not going to happen. However, I think she has the potential to turn women's basketball around with her skill level, athleticism and marketability to become more popular than it is today.

ilikecb4 · Post #66 » by **ilikecb4** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 7:21 am

Yeah i played against a few college girls at Eastern Washington and absolutely killed them. I barely made my high school team in Canada.

J-Rich- · Post #67 » by **J-Rich-** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:48 am

damn shes hot

Paul Overt · Post #68 » by **Paul Overt** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 8:57 am

Candance Parker is LeBron James with long hair and defense.

Raskolnikov · Post #69 » by **Raskolnikov** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 9:22 am

In what strange world does anyone think Parker looks anywhere as good as Anna Kournikova? There is no reason to even think about drafting a girl who'd get trashed by Willie Green.

Wizardspride · Post #70 » by **Wizardspride** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 2:19 pm

If you guys want to see a player who will
change the face of the WNBA, I have one
name for you.....Maya Moore, UCONN. :nod:

Myth_Breaker · Post #71 » by **Myth_Breaker** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:12 pm

Flite wrote:
If you really think the NBA was unpopular sport before MJ (and I'm not talking about his personal fame and becoming the first NBA player marketed like tennis stars - but about the whole league), I've got only one advice: please rethink your position.

After the Bird and Magic battles of the 80's were over, the NBA looked like it was on a bit of a downward spiral. Instead, Michael took basketball to a level it had never been before.

Basketball was never as big as it was in the 90's.

Putting it this way is untrue since: a) Jordan appeared on global scene when Bird-Magic battles weren't over yet; b) his impact for NBA's popularity was continuation of Bird's/Magic's work (these two renejuvated the league after crisis from the late 70s), not revolution. And if we were to highlight any single turning point, it would be 1992 Olympics, in which all these 3 guys participated.

And the fanbase thing you edited in my post - that's what I'm trying to say. Her marketabilitiy could turn a very small fanbase into a much larger one (as I said, a smaller scale of what Mike did for the NBA), to say the size of womens tennis - which is very large for a womens sport.

Marketing and the media are everything to small groups (eg. Womens basketball). It get's them out there into the public eye, which in turn makes them grow. Having Candace as a household name and womens sporting icon can only result in a boom for womens basketball as whole. I don't see how you can't see this.

I don't see how you can't see I was focusing on tennis players, not Miss Parker. :-)

But if we are to talk about Candace: OK, perhaps she can do something for female basketball: getting her name recognizable outside the U.S. would be a good start. But for now: in Europe we're getting WNBA in package with NBA transmissions (I suppose it's the same in New Zealand), yet pretty much nobody gives a damn about that.

YaoisGodsAnswer · Post #72 » by **YaoisGodsAnswer** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:17 pm

I'd hit it.

Myth_Breaker · Post #73 » by **Myth_Breaker** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:21 pm

tkb wrote:Happy to see Parker end up in LA.

Sparks will have a terrific front court duo in Leslie and Parker next season.

I agree: it's time for the next LA dynasty under guidance of Coop, who'll become the greatest WNBA coach then! :-)

BTW, Parker is PF, right? Though I guess she can play some SF anyway: in female b-ball these positions are more interchangeable.

Post #74 » by **tkb** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:25 pm

The draft reports I read had her as a PF. Sparks are going to dominate next season.

magicfan4life05 · Post #75 » by **magicfan4life05** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:29 pm

how in the world did the sparks get the first pick dont they have leslie? and didnt they win b2b chips? (havent seen wnba since 2003ish)

Myth_Breaker · Post #76 » by **Myth_Breaker** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:37 pm

tkb wrote:The draft reports I read had her as a PF. Sparks are going to dominate next season.

It's not so far away. I suppose I'll be doing this again: watch some of WNBA stuff when I feel longing for basketball and trying to imagine that Lisa Leslie is Duncan, while Sue Bird - Nash. ;-)

Myth_Breaker · Post #77 » by **Myth_Breaker** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:40 pm

magicfan4life05 wrote:how in the world did the sparks get the first pick dont they have leslie? and didnt they win b2b chips? (havent seen wnba since 2003ish)

Leslie missed the whole season due to having a child, while Holdsclaw retired out of the sudden and another key player had season-ending injury. In other words, Sparks pulled 1997 Spurs and Leslie-Candace have a serious chance to become Admiral/Duncan of WNBA basketball. :-)

TsunamiZC · Post #78 » by **TsunamiZC** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 3:53 pm

Flite wrote:
What is basically equivalent of knowing about the NBA only due to Wally Szczerbiak and Mitch Richmond.

Huh? I'm not sure what you're trying to say.

Once again, I'm talking about marketability. Her actual skill level has very little to do with how she could take womens basketball to the next level. Sharapova and Kournikova are marketable, which is the only reason I even know of them.

I've never watched a womens tennis match in my life, yet I know of these two. If you're saying they weren't good, ok, I have no idea. I don't follow tennis. However, they are very marketable and are household names because of that.

Actually your references to Kournikova only prove how shallow you are, not how marketable she is when you completely ignore names such as Serena & Venis Williams, given their combination of success and marketability have been a vast greater assest to her sponsors and to the game of tennis in general.

Global recognization is given to winners, dominators of the game. Anna less marketable to the game of tennis, and more marketable to her own personal life.

Post #79 » by **TheSecretWeapon** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 4:30 pm

Flite wrote:
Let's see if the girl that can beat boys in a dunk contest can step up to the plate

She did. HS Dunk contest against guys like Darius Washington, JR Smith and Josh Smith.

Her dunks were nothing compared to theirs, but nothing short of insane for a girl.

EDIT: Keep in mind I'm talking about how her marketability can take womens basketball to the next level, not so much about her skill. She could do what Jordan did for the NBA in the 90's, although on a much smaller scale. When most think of the NBA, they think Jordan. I think that the mixture of everything she has will make her marketable enough for casual sports fans to say - hey, that's Candace Parker on the billboard. Eventually I believe she'll be the name you associate with womens basketball, which, if she becomes the star (not just in a basketball sense) I'm expecting, will mean alot more.

Wait a minute -- if this is the same dunk contest I watched, her dunks were weak and it was a joke that she "won" the contest. Basically, she got credit for being able to get a dunk to go down. There was no real style or flair. It didn't hurt her cause in that contest that the boys had all the personality of broccoli.

MrDollarBills · Post #80 » by **MrDollarBills** » Thu Apr 10, 2008 4:43 pm

I think its a crime against humanity that an ogre like Sheldon Williams is going to wed that beautiful amazon princess

A CRIME.