Candace Parker

Fun Facts: Aside from being a WNBA star, Parker hopes to one day become a television broadcaster.

Claim to Fame: parker is best known as the first female to dunk in an NCAA tournament game. She is also the second woman to dunk in a WNBA game. She currently plays for the Los Angeles Sparks.

Candace Nicole Parker is an All-American basketball player for the WNBA's Los Angeles Sparks and is also the younger sister of NBA player Anthony Parker. She was drafted to the team from Tennessee in 2008. She may be best known for being the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game and the first woman to dunk twice in a college game —she set both milestones as a redshirt freshman on March 19, 2006. She also became only the second player to dunk in a WNBA game on June 22, 2008.

A versatile player, she is mainly a forward, but was listed on Tennessee's roster as a forward, center, and guard. She was a starter on the Lady Vols basketball team, winners of the 2007 and 2008 NCAA championships.

Candace won the 2009 Nickelodeon Kids' Choice award as the favorite female athlete in the sports category.



Like older brother Anthony Parker, who is currently playing guard for the Cleveland Cavaliers, she attended Naperville Central High School in Naperville, Illinois; she graduated in 2004. While in high school, Parker led her basketball team to state titles in 2003 and 2004 and amassed numerous accolades.

She is the only two-time award winner of the USA Today Player of the Year, winning the award in 2003 and 2004. Parker won the Naismith and Gatorade Awards as national basketball player of the year during her upper high school years. She won the Gatorade award again in her senior year to join only Marion Jones and LeBron James as the only back to back winners. Parker was named a WBCA All-American. A sports management major who had a 3.35 grade point average as of December 2007, she was named University Division Academic All-American of the Year in women's basketball for 2008 by the College Sports Information Directors of America.

On April 8, 2008, Parker led the Lady Vols to their second straight NCAA women's title, the eighth championship for Tennessee. She was also named the MVP for the second consecutive tournament, joining Cheryl Miller, Chamique Holdsclaw and Diana Taurasi as the only female players to have done so. She won the honor despite suffering a dislocated shoulder during her team's regional finals win, but returned and led the Lady Vols to the title. While at Tennessee, she complied a record of 101 wins and 10 losses.

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