University of Tennessee Athletics
PARKER TRANSCENDING GREATNESS
March 30, 2007 | Women's Basketball
March 30, 2007
By Jeff Lippman
CSTV.com
DAYTON, Ohio - To err is human, to be Candace Parker is divine.
Parker needs water and oxygen to live, she bleeds when cut and must sleep when tired. The similarities to other human beings stop there.
Like a god, Parker isn't simply coming into her own as a player, she is becoming. Becoming something far greater than the next WNBA All-Star.
The WNBA is not a worthy stage for her greatness. No, the world will be her playground.
Every sport has its legends. Those players whose names are synonymous with both greatness and the sport they play. Michael Jordan and the NBA. Tiger Woods and golf. Lance Armstrong and cycling. Pete Sampras and tennis.
The kingdom of women's basketball has needed a monarch. And Candace Parker is ready reign over her subjects like the greatest rulers in history.
She doesn't have skills, as much as powers.
There isn't a position on the basketball court that can describe her game. She warrants her own position. Call it the CP.
At 6-foot-4, she has the inside game and rebounding skills of Kareem. She towers over her Tennessee teammates like the Eiffel over Paris.
With sweet handle, Parker would excel as a guard as well. And that sweet jumper and the ability to hit the three give you a sugar high just thinking about the possibilities.
If Lindsey Harding is a Porsche and Courtney Paris a Hummer, that would make Parker a 747 jet, soaring to the rim for dunk.
In her ability to slam home a basketball, she is unique to almost any other woman on earth. America has never been infatuated with women's basketball. It loves the flash and swagger of the game above the rim.
Take a good look at that rim America; you'll see Parker's head emerge.
Forget about her youth, only a 20-year-old sophomore, Parker would have dominated the WNBA at 16.
Her teammates compare her to Texas' Kevin Durant because she can play inside and out. That doesn't even do Parker justice.
As good as Kevin Durant will undoubtedly be, Parker is on another planet altogether.
Her on-the-court attitude and quiet confidence has shades of a young Kobe Bryant. And, like Bryant, Parker could score 40 points a night if she so pleased, but if that would compromise her team she wouldn't dream of it.
There isn't a woman in college basketball that can stop her, and the WNBA doesn't compare either.
In Tennessee's dismantling of Mississippi to advance to its 17th Final Four, Parker's line--in only 25 minutes of play--read: 24 points, 14 rebounds, 5 blocks, 3 steals, 3 assists and a partridge in a pear tree.
After rejecting one Ole Miss shot emphatically into the stands, Parker looked to her bench and demanded, "Are you kidding me?"
That's what we'd all like to know. Because she is at such a higher level than the players around her it is almost comical. Like if an NBA player went back for a pickup game at his high school.
However unlikely it is, there has been talk that she could become the first woman's basketball player to leave college early for the WNBA. The fact this is even a discussion shows just how much respect she deserves.
The main argument for women not to leave school early is the WNBA doesn't pay anywhere near as well as the NBA A woman would be far better off getting their degree for life after basketball.
It's obvious Parker is no ordinary woman. Extraordinary maybe. Superhuman could be.
Parker will not need the WNBA's salary. The endorsement deals and mega companies will be banging down her door.
Like Mia Hamm and Annika Sorenstam, she will be the face of her sport. And the fact is, Parker isn't just a ferocious athlete, she's also modelesque in stature and grace.
Like a gift from the heavens, Parker descended on the world for the first time at the McDonald's High School All-American slam dunk competition in 2004. Like it was scripted, she flew to the rim, slammed it home and hoisted the winner's trophy. And for that, she became a household name.
After a tumultuous freshman season at Tennessee when she blew out her knee and was forced to red shirt, she returned, more primed than ever to take her place in women's basketball immortality.
And now, as her team gets ready for the Final Four in Cleveland in its attempt at a seventh national championship, Parker is ready to be born again.
The true sign of transcendence in sports is to be identified by a word or nickname only. The Babe. MJ. Tiger.
Yes, the world is ready for Candace, and Candace is ready for the world.
Immortality awaits.
