Sparks don't need Candace Parker's dunks to please fans
Staples Center was buzzing Thursday, thousands of high-pitched screams and ponytails gathered on a night when the Sparks' amazing Candace Parker could dunk for a third consecutive game.
She couldn't.
Good.
The sports landscape was actually murmuring about the WNBA on Thursday, sports anchors everywhere waiting for the video of Candace Parker's dunk in a third consecutive game.
She didn't.
Good.
During a season in which the Sparks could grab the average Southland basketball fan like never before -- celebrity players, blue-jean wearing owners, two moms in the starting lineup -- the last thing they need is to brag about their dunks.
In women's basketball, to brag about a dunk is to deny your identity.
To brag about a dunk is to feed into every male stereotype about the WNBA as wannabes, celebrating not what the league is, but what it is not.
For women, to brag about a dunk is to shout, "Hey, we're one of the guys!"
They're not.
That's why they can be so much fun.
That's why John Wooden likes the WNBA better than the NBA.
That's why the Sparks have developed a solid fan base of about 9,000 fans that will only grow as the duo of Parker and Lisa Leslie grows.
On Thursday against the Washington Mystics, I'm guessing these fans didn't show up to see Candace Parker dunk.
They showed up to see Parker thread a pass between three defenders to tiny Temeka Johnson for a layup.
They showed up to see Parker set a perfect low pick for Leslie that resulted in another layup.
Then there was the six-pass possession that ended in Parker's turnaround jumper.
That wasn't Laker flashy, but it was Spark fun.
That's the sort of basketball we'll be seeing Parker and Leslie playing in Beijing later this summer when they will probably lead the U.S. team to an Olympic gold medal.
That same game will return to Staples Center next fall when the Sparks finish their season in a probable September playoff run that could capture a town.
Perfect passes and precise mid-range jumpers and teamwork that knows no scowls or public scoldings, that's the Sparks.
Not the dunks.
And thank goodness, the Sparks know it.
"Dunks are not what make our game exciting," said co-owner Carla Christofferson. "We're about so much more."
The Sparks ownership has no plans to celebrate Parker's two end-of-game, breakaway dunks, just as they have not overemphasized Leslie's previous dunk.
