I can't think of anywhere else to put this, but is Candace Parker about to take womens basketball to the next level?
Women's sports as a whole don't get alot of respect, they're obviously inferior to men's athletic abilities, but there are a few womens sports that command alot of attention - take tennis for example.
Women's tennis seems pretty big. I know nothing about it, but when I think of women's sports I think of tennis. There are women household names associated with tennis - Sharapova, Kournikova, etc.
Candace Parker could end up being one of those types, and in turn bringing womens basketball up to being a somewhat respectable sport. It'll never be as huge as tennis, because basketball is a much more athleticism based game and women simply don't have the athletic abilities of men.
However, Candace Parker is a freak in terms of basketball. I don't care if she's a woman, she's a player I like to watch and I find interesting. She just finished out her junior season with Tennessee and posted averages of 21.3 points, 8.5 rebounds, 2.5 assists and well over 2 blocks/steals a game. Those are some pretty god damn impressive numbers for a female athlete. By the way, she just finished her college career by winning her second consecutive national title after dislocating her shoulder
twice before the title game, and turned to the next chapter of her career less than 34 hours later by being the first overall pick in the WNBA draft.
It's obvious she has the skills. But skills are not enough to make womens basketball a respected sport.
Here's the thing - she's incredibly marketable.
- She's the best player in the college game and probably the most exciting female player in history.
- This may not seem like much to NBA fans, but she has dunked on numerous ocassions. Casual NBA fans coem for the buzzer beaters, dunks and other highlight reel style plays. She is capable, from a womens standpoint, of making the most exciting plays womens basketball has ever seen.
- She left college early (rare in womens basketball), and won two national titles - consecutively, bringing her to the forefront of sports pages like ESPN, if only for a short while.
- She will be playing in LA, the city where stars and marketing plays a huge role in day to day life. She will also be taking the reigns from probably the most famous female basketball player, Lisa Leslie.
- A extremely important aspect or marketabitlity in womens sports - She's hot. Plain and simple. Think of the numerous women athletes that hit the bigtime and have become recognizable... Anna Kournikova, Maria Sharapova, Amanda Beard, Danica Patrick, Jennie Finch, Lauren Jackson - they're all goodlooking women. Looks are the key when it comes to marketing in womens sports. These are the female athletes you see on commercials, advertising everything from food to sports gear.
A female athlete can sell anything when she looks like this:
Candace Parker has an incredible mixture of skill, personality, exposure and looks that I think could bring womens basketball up there as a respectable sport. As I said, it probably won't reach the tennis level, but it could come close.
It won't be long till Candace starts appearing on billboards, advertising pretty much anything you can think of. She'll be a household name in due time - and with that comes the rise of womens basketball.
EDIT:
I wrote: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.
