04-14-2008, 02:14 PM
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#1 (permalink)
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And here we go!
Join Date: Mar 2005
Location: My Own World - You're All Living In It
Age: 22
Posts: 17,749
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WNBA Gets Its Spark
Quote:
LOS ANGELES – The most marketable duo in women’s basketball locked eyes as if in a stare down.
Standing on opposite sides of their coach, Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker looked less like teammates than archrivals, as if the veteran star and the phenom already were vying for control of the Los Angeles Sparks, if not the entire WNBA.
“Good,” said the photographer, and the smoldering stares melted.
The staged expressions were part of a photo shoot last week during which it became clear the WNBA and women’s basketball got all it could hope for: a glamorous pairing with the requisite traits.
Beauty? Check.
Leslie has modeled for Armani, Tommy Hilfiger and Anne Klein. It’s only a matter of time before fashion magazines court Parker. (Bad news, gentlemen: Leslie is married and Parker is engaged.)
Brains? Check.
Leslie has a master’s degree in business administration from the University of Southern California. Parker has a 3.35 grade point average at the University of Tennessee and will earn a degree in sports management this spring.
Skills? Check.
Leslie has won three Olympic gold medals, three MVP trophies from the WNBA and two WNBA championship rings. Parker, the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft last week, just led Tennessee to its second straight national championship and for the second year in a row was the consensus pick as the women’s national collegiate Player of the Year.
Leslie stands 6-foot-5, Parker stands 6-foot-4, and both can dunk with ease. In fact, Leslie was the first woman to dunk in a professional game and Parker was the first to dunk in an NCAA tournament game. Maybe that had something to do with why Michael Cooper, coach of the Sparks, was beaming when asked about how he thinks the two will fit in together on the court.
“This is Showtime at its best,” said Cooper, a member of the Los Angeles Lakers’ “Showtime” teams that featured Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and a fast-paced style that led them to five NBA titles in the 1980s. Cooper said he envisions the versatile Parker as Magic, the fluid Leslie as Kareem and his team as one that will entertain fans of women’s basketball the way the old Lakers entertained NBA fans.
“We’re going to get up and down the floor, and it’s going to be fun,” he said. “We’re going to let it fly and rebound and play defense. And then do it again in another night in another city.”
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http://sports.yahoo.com/wnba/news;_y...yhoo&type=lgns
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“The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotion, spends himself in a worthy cause; who at best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement; and who at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who have never tasted victory or defeat.”
Bleeding purple & gold...
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WNBA Gets Its Spark
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