A Star and Stripes
(Photo:LASparks.com)
Candace is a bad girl
In the midst of these 2008 NBA Playoffs, a major shift in the professional basketball paradigm happened yesterday. Its equivalent to the type of force that moves mountains. Candace Parker, “CP3″ in her own right, signed an undisclosed deal with Gatorade, and Adidas.
As a 5′7″ 8th-grader Parker’s father had her playing the point guard position, so that by the time she grew into her now 6′4″ frame, there would be nothing that she couldn’t accomplish on the basketball court. She earned the Gatorade and Naismith national awards as a high school junior and senior.
Now she will earn a multi-dollar salary from Gatorade. Not bad for the 22-year old two-time NCAA Champion, and WNBA first-round overall pick. She will now lead the Los Angeles Sparks into a very optimistic future. I know I’m biased, however this story sounds vaguely familiar.
Let’s start with the Los Angeles Sparks. Penny Toler the GM that drafted “CP3″ is also the woman that scored the first 2 points in the WNBA as a member of…you guessed it…the Sparks. With that start to their franchise, the fledging team, with the leadership of Lisa Leslie, DeLisha Milton-Jones, and Nikki Teasley they won back-to-back championships (The first in 2001 without Teasley, the second with her).
Leslie also became the first women in WNBA history to dunk in a game. (July 30, 2002) Add to the championship club with the history, lore, and all that is Hollywood, the best overall player (Parker) the game has ever seen, and you will witness more wins and more success. Trek back if you will to 1996, and a young national Gatorade high-school player of the year was drafted as the 13th pick of the NBA lottery draft by the Charlotte Hornets.
After a discussion with the NBA logo, Lakers GM Jerry West, the Hornets traded their pick to Los Angeles. Kobe Bryant, (whom signed with adidas coming right out of high school), went on to navigate through his rookie season with the help of acclaimed Laker guard Byron Scott. The maturation process of “KB8″ and the addition of Shaq and Phil Jackson, led to more wins and more success for the once storied Lake Show.
Philly booed him for this win in February 2002
Its no secret that the footwear and apparel industry leaders, Nike and adidas have been at war over global sales, and top athletes for the past 30 years, so with basketball giant Nike, landing the top players year in and year out, adidas, RBK, and the like have had to fight for 2nd place more often then not.
It’s like hearing the phrase, you’ll have sleep for dinner, and you will like it, every year. I thought for sure, Nike basketball would sign Candace Parker. I thought that way back when, before she attended Tennessee. Now that they didn’t land her, things will change for the better for the brand with the three-stripes.
She is the most marketable athlete in the world. Notice, I didn’t specify saying female athlete, I said ATHLETE. She has and will continue to change the game…and I’m not just saying basketball. I could go into depth about the sneaker battles over people and places, however I feel that I will just allow this article to open everyone’s eyes to what is about to happen, rather than write a novel about it.
Just know that the University of Tennessee is an adidas school, and that David Beckham and his global star, plays for the Los Angeles Galaxy and he also endorses the brand with the three-stripes. Its not a coincidence, its big business at its best, and when the Candace “ACE” or “CP3″ Parker line hits the stores, and courts, I won’t say I told you so.
P.S. - Shout out to John “Johnny” Simmons, hang in there fam!
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April 23rd, 2008 at 5:57 pm
Unless you got a picture of her from King or SI (Swimsuit Edition) why even put up a article about Parker. Seriously.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Because it ain’t all about you brotha
Candace Parker will change the game.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:04 pm
Put down the KY, and slowly back away.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
LOL
Ay man…you don’t have a DMac at gun point do you? You know how he is with guns. Just a joke DMac don’t get started.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:10 pm
I bet you $1, I’ll send it through Paypal, that she won’t increase the ratings for the WNBA until she puts on a nice bikini and it bent over a car or on the beach with the oil and the sun glistening off of her.
Want to take me up on that one ;).
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:14 pm
Dmac, you already had this discussion over at Cossellout. Please don’t start here, I am coming off my calming pills.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:14 pm
C’mon bruh. You are lucky Michelle, Miranda or Co Co isn’t on. The ratings increased as soon as the National Final was concluded.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:26 pm
I’m sorry what is the National Final? What sport are you talking about ? What channel do they show the WNBA, Oxygen and Lifetime right? They can’t even get sports channels to spend money on them, that tells you all you need right there.
I didn’t catch the answer though, on my bet. Will you take me up on it
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:43 pm
Candace doesn’t strike me as the type, besides the women who normally have to do those things aren’t dominant at their sport. See Kournikova, Anna and Patrick, Danica. Candace is, so she won’t have to resort to such things to get noticed. Plus, men who don’t watch or care about women’s basketball think she’s dope. She has a large fan base and she could very well take the WNBA to the next level.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:52 pm
I am friends with a lot of sports lovers, especially b-ball lovers and the non-b-ball lovers don’t know who she is, and the b-ball lovers don’t know what pro team she is on, the only thing they said is she is the girl from Tennessee.
Unscientific? Yes, but so is you take, refering to Co Co.
WNBA is dead, sex appeal can revive it, but not enough to save the dying brand. Even Lisa Leslie tried to sex up her ugly ass image to gin up interest, but it the product is weak. Candace looks a lot better than Leslie, so she would probably be more successful.
She looks like she got that freak in her, plus if she is with Sheldon Williams she probably isn’t that wholesome. She needs to start taking it off, if she does, I know I’ll start watching.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:11 pm
The WNBA, DavidMac, since you asked is broadcast on ESPN, ESPN 2, and ABC. I would know I used to work for the National Basketball Association. Do your homework!
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:18 pm
Candace Parker represents everything that is right in young women and girls sports. Come on man, why would you rain on the Candace Parker parade?
This is a big moment and you are making something it isn’t with all the sex talk. I coach in the famed Sonny Hill League in Philadelphia. I help to mold the young boys and girls into better athletes and people.
“CP3″ is a role model for us all. Educated, and talented.
Does the phrase young, gifted, and black mean ANYTHING? We have come so far, and you are taking us back to 1971, before Title 9. If you seek KING magazine, then go and make a purchase, however leave Parker out of your “hoop dreams”
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:18 pm
DavidMac,
The more things change, the more they stay the same. Damn shame.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:19 pm
My ignorance of the WNBA broadcasting doesn’t speak ill of me, it speaks ill of the WNBA. Obviously they need to put out a better product that will get people interested in their organization enough that they can stop leaching off of the NBA.
I wonder how many years the WNBA could operate if they weren’t being subsidized by the NBA? Can you help me out with that one Anthony Gilbert, you know since you used to work for the NBA.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:24 pm
How Candance Parker getting drafted by the WNBA a big moment? I guess Darko getting drafted in the NBA over Melo was a big moment to?
She hasn’t done anything in her “professional” league yet so I don’t see why I should be jumping and shouting for her. She is a nice girl player, congrats, but she isn’t going to bring life into the WNBA and make it successful, sorry.
I am only offering advice that is helpful to the WNBA.
As for Title 9, I only wish we could go back to before that sexist law was enacted.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:27 pm
AXG don’t do it. I fell into the same trap w/this dude when I first came on TSF.
Trust me when I say it isn’t worth the energy.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:31 pm
Nothing happens overnight. Things need to be built up, and with players like Candace Parker entering the league…these are the building blocks that add strength and stability. You must know that the NBA is 61 years old, while the WNBA is just a baby.
History teaches us that the NBA didn’t do so well when it first began showing games on television. Did you know that the games used to air hours after it was played? That is as recent as the 1970’s.
The only thing that is constant in this world is change, and this change is good. You have your opinion of the WNBA and women in sports and I have a TOTALLY different view.
To each their own, as for me and my house I like to build and uplift our people.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:37 pm
Was the NBA subsidized by ticket sales, merchandising, and selling of tv rights, or did the MLB support them.
Thats my main problem with the WNBA. Its not thriving because of the market, the market actually has rejected it. It is only around because the NBA wants to be “diverse” so they fund the league, which is actually a money loser.
I have no respect for a league that can not stand on its own. I respect women’s softball, women’s college b-ball, even though it is inferior, women’s hockey, women’s soccer, but Women’s pro b-ball is a joke, because they try to present a image that is fake and force acceptance of their product on to the masses.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:10 pm
AXG
You are allowing the scourge of the internet to drive you (and all the rest of us, by extension) off course. Jolly Nigger Dave LIVES for these types of encounters. Like Sankofa said, he pulled out of his ass the same weak arguments about this very same topic at Cosellout.
Look, man, don’t even worry bout it, let a ho be a ho.
Back to Candace Parker and her remarkable achievements - I wish her the best because contrary to the dim lit alleys and dusty back roads on which one can always find the Jolly Nigger Dave, “streets is watching” fem CP3 on this one… And the MSM will give her the chance it once gave Michelle Wie not so long ago…
Again, I don’t know what kind of nitwits Dave the Jolly Nigger hangs around with (judging by the rampant sexism, racism and all-around stupidness of his own claims, I’d say he hangs with australopithecus and homo erectus - the latter having a double-entendre for our boy the Jolly Nigger who can’t wait to get his KY jelly, his rosy palms, and see Ms Parker in a 3X movie!), but er’body I know who’s in the know calls her “Beyonce without makeup.” So, yeah, she’s got a chance to do that thang…
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:49 pm
I’m jolly ole nigger, pervert of the shadows, and all the other crap, because I know the WNBA needs sex appeal to sell their product. You can’t be serious Temple3. Candace needs to figure out what Sharapova, Kournikova, and Serena have mastered.
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:49 pm
My bad not Temple3 , but TheLastPoet.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:04 pm
Unfortunately DavidMac hits on a point that we should really delve into. This is the objectifying of our mothers, sisters, daughters and lovers. It is a reality in the world we currently live in and not just in the “White White West”.
Somewhere along the way, both the male and many females have grown upside down in Amenta (Temple3 will over stand), creating isfet for so many young females who aspire to be recognized for their talent and intelligence. Like any honest straight man, I enjoy observing an attractive female frame, but admiration is not the same as the gutter filth mentality DavidMac is espousing. This is what separates man from beast. I think the movie quest for fire is really a psychological indicator of the disrespect that many a male have crapped on women today. Maybe TSF can do a piece on the objectifying of female athletes, calling out some of the brothers who shout “racism” while they practice their own oppression of those who “hold up half the sky”.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:17 pm
“Look, man, don’t even worry bout it, let a ho be a ho.”
HAHA TLP brother you are wild.
Man oh man davidmac just when I thought yo coulnt anything crazier you surprise me.
Oh and I root for that sista Ms. Parker I wish her well. Plus she from Naperville I got to support the sista. I’m gonna get a poster of her and put it on my lil daughters wall right next to her Serena and Venus posters.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:18 pm
Well said sankofa.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:19 pm
I’m gutter but you have admiration, get out of here. Its pathetic. Now women hold up half the sky, boy this is disturbing. Nothing is wrong with women selling their sex appeal, its not objectifying or exploiting them, it is empowering them.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:26 pm
First things first…Candance needs to win. She held it down int he NCAAs, she needs to bring that same success to the WNBA so we can avoid those Kornikova (sp) type comparisons.
Second of all, I don’t think the WNBA needs to sell sex in order to become successful. Why? Honestly because I don’t think they have the same type of “product” that main stream America finds beautiful and appealing. I feel this way because look at Serena Williams. She’s flat out a sexy woman, but how many times do you hear/read of her being called fat, she needs to lose weight, or other negative comments written about her? The Maria’s and Anna’s have the “LOOK” that deems sex appeal.
Hell…if people were mad with Beyonce being on the cover of SI last year, that should tell you something. She’s the current definition of sexy…or one of them…but people were still offended to look at her. However when SI had the issue with 8 ( i believe it may have been more) white models with NO racial diversity no one said a thing.
So again…it goes to be said. The WNBA is in a pressing situation. But I don’t think the sex appeal isnt what will save it. They don’t have the numbers of athletes that have that “beautiful look” of a Maria or Danica to use that angle….
But something must be done….
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:27 pm
And I don’t agree with the sex appeal empowering them…I would want my daughter being known for being a flat out mental genius or great athlete before being “good on the eyes”
The same way you see it as empowering…some can see it as belittling (sp)
April 24th, 2008 at 12:07 am
DavidMac…I want to refrain from talking about you, even though you are a bitch ass pig! I am honest enough to say that I do not conscribe to this “feminism”, women’s lib stuff that some people use to effeminize males while masculinize females and get us fighting with each other.
What I do ascribe to is truth and justice and righteousness.
I am real enough to say I admire a woman’s frame without acting like a louse; it’s unnecessary and indicates to me that you have no game, no rap and probably no stamina. I know many a cats like you who buy Viagra and Cialis, put coke on your dick just so you can impress. Each and every day you grow to hate the fact that you cannot talk to any woman outside of asking “how much for the dirty, dirty”.
Also you can only handle a woman ass up to the sky, because you would stumble and fall down if you ever tried to have an actual conversation with an intelligent woman.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:09 am
Very true CEvidence……..folks were actually sending hate mail to SI.
Yeap thats the racial aspect of it and what is considered beautiful in America.
Yes and Serena is fine as he!!…………..remember how she wore that cat suit and the good old boys almost lost their mind. The next day all you heard was how her butt was too big…………..all that was missing were the 2 white girls from sir mix alot baby got back saying Seren is just sooooo BLACK!!!!!
April 24th, 2008 at 12:10 am
If my daughter disappointed me to be a female professional athlete wouldn’t have a problem with her posting up her revenue by modeling on the side, tastefully, but this would be my daughter and Candace Parker aint my daughter.
Like I said earlier Cevidence, red bones are liked by whites and blacks, and she looks relatively ok, with the right team behind her she would be a super sex symbol and add that with good play you have a marketing dream.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:27 am
I’m so proud of Candace and I’m sure she’s intelligent enough to know that being an eye-ho is not necessary to accomplish her goals.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:35 am
DMac –
Thus proving my case. “Red Bones” are liked by white men more openly than dark skinned women. Exactly why the WNBA would have a hard time marketing in “sex appeal” because of the makeup of their players.
The attractiveness of Black women is often downplayed in the media in every way possible. Look at the lack of major minority models. And when’s the last time you heard any African American female athlete’s looks touted about like Danica’s or Maria’s? It’s sad but that’s whats acceptable in this country.
And that is sad. When Alana Beard posed for Playboy…I was DISGUSTED at the press claiming she is so attractive. PLEASE…PLEASE. I’m so glad that neither of the Williams sisters have stooped that low in any way shape or form.
Its sad that a very very very skilled African American WNBA soon to be star (who happens to be close to “fair-skinned”) has to pose nude or close to it in order to gain the respect of so many.
Hell…I wish I could ball like her….
April 24th, 2008 at 3:04 am
Well said CEvidence I couldn’t agree more. What you said is soo true on so many levels.
A black womens beauty is always played down. Especially if she is dark skin.
Sad.
April 24th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Shelden F**king Williams is hitting that? Are you kidding me? Anyway, I am very curious to see how her and Leslie co-exist on the court.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:07 pm
yes Rashad: Sheldon Friggin Williams is dating Candace Parker.
And to DavidMac: Go away now. The joke is not funny. And if you hate something, why do you bother to talk about it and make yourself seem like a gulf through which empty wind blows?
And i’ve figured out, after watching the show several times, Sankofa’s secret identity.
April 24th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Okori, if you don’t like what i’m saying ignore it. I’m not going away because of you.
As for Sankofa, clearly he has problems, and is really putting his life on me. If that is what you have to do to get off Sanokofa I feel sorry for you, you need help.
April 25th, 2008 at 3:25 pm
Actually Rashad…………Sheldon is engaged to her.
April 25th, 2008 at 4:37 pm
Boy is Sheldon Williams out of his league there.
And DavidMac: you should go away not because of me, but because you clearly have deep-seated issues with misogyny that you might need to address. God forbid a woman be successful and not as some piece of beef for you to judge over and drool at, but rather as a legitimate athlete at the pinnacle of her chosen profession.
April 25th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
Okori, go end yourself. Nothing I have said is misogynistic, I have not cut down or ridiculed women at all.