Los Angeles Sparks Basketball Team

At 5-feet-11 and 203 pounds, Latasha Byears epitomized the power in power forward. She used her girth to set body-crunching picks that freed up Los Angeles Sparks center Lisa Leslie to score. On defense, she snatched rebounds and dogged the opponent's best shooter. If a player physically rubbed her or a teammate the wrong way, Byears exacted payback, committing hard fouls while helping the Sparks win back-to-back championships.

Candace Parker is wearing a simple white dress and the biggest smile imaginable. She is cradling her belly, which carries her unborn child, as she poses for this cover of a magazine aimed at readers who expect to see LeBron or Manny. But on the cover of the issue of ESPN the Magazine that will be on newsstands Friday it is Parker, the Sparks star, who will look the buyer in the eye beside the headline, "How Big Can Candace Parker Get?"

The WNBA suspended five Sparks players, including Candace Parker and Lisa Leslie, and five Detroit Shock players and assistant coach Rick Mahorn Thursday for their involvement in an on-court fight in Tuesday's game. As a result, the Sparks were without four starters, including Olympians Parker, Leslie and DeLisha Milton-Jones for their game against the Connecticut Sun on Thursday night at Mohegan Sun Arena. The Sparks lost, 87-61, to the Sun.

Six years ago, Sparks General Manager Penny Toler flew to Oregon to watch her WNBA team play the Portland Fire. Before the game, though, she had a stop to make. Her college coach Michael Abraham was nearby, off Highway 18 on Ballston Road. He had been an assistant coach at Long Beach State, where she starred 20 years ago. His last job, she knew only too well, was head coach at Cal State Northridge. When Toler arrived, she walked along the deep green lawn toward a low-slung building.

Before the host at the Marina del Rey restaurant even took a step toward seating her, Candace Parker, the WNBA's most prized rookie in 12 seasons, was approached by a middle-aged man with a cellphone pressed to his ear. "Can you sign my T-shirt?' " he asked. "It's for my friend on the other line.' " In those 12 seasons, members of the Sparks, other than maybe Lisa Leslie, could have worn their uniforms in public and still go unrecognized.

Take a short walk with Zheng Haixia, one of China's most famous personalities, and see how she is making an immediate impression wherever she goes. Walk the two blocks from Cleveland's Ritz Carlton hotel to Gund Arena for a workout, as her Los Angeles Sparks team did one day earlier this month. The team, dressed in shorts and T-shirts, walks through the shopping mall attached to the hotel. Zheng strides along, pony tail bouncing.

The Seattle Storm and Sparks did something rarely seen in the WNBA--they fought. With 9:51 left in the Storm's 79-60 win Thursday, Michelle Marciniak of the Storm and the Sparks' Latasha Byears were ejected. Byears was dribbling on a fastbreak when Marciniak fouled her. After Byears tossed the ball from close range off Marciniak's face, Marciniak came at Byears with her hands up before Byears shoved her to the ground.

Sparks Coach Michael Cooper is having discussions with USC about becoming the Trojans' women's basketball coach, Sparks co-owner Carla Christofferson confirmed today. "From our perspective, he's under contract to coach our season," Christofferson said. "We've confirmed with him he's coaching our 2009 season." The WNBA regular season runs from June through mid-September. USC's regular season starts in mid-November.

Sparks forward Chamique Holdsclaw, billed as "a female Michael Jordan" when she began her career in the WNBA in 1999, told team officials Sunday that she was retiring from basketball, effective immediately, after eight-plus seasons in the league. "I'm really happy about it because I was honest with myself," Holdsclaw said in a telephone interview Monday night. "I've been doing this for so long, I just want to do something else." Holdsclaw, who will turn 30 on Aug.

It became the turning point of her final WNBA season. In a locker-room meeting, three-time MVP Lisa Leslie went from teammate to teammate and dissected how each could help turn things around for the struggling Sparks. That included herself. "I asked each person, 'Is it OK for me to be honest with you? You guys can be honest with me,' " Leslie said. " 'If I'm not working hard and I'm not bringing it, tell me.' " The Sparks (18-16) closed out the regular season winning 10 of their last 13 games and secured a No. 3 seeding in the Western Conference playoffs.

Former Minnesota Lynx Coach Jennifer Gillom, who once starred at the University of Mississippi and won a gold medal at the 1988 Olympics, was named the Sparks' coach Monday, ending a months-long search for a successor to Michael Cooper. Gillom played seven seasons in the WNBA: six with the Phoenix Mercury and her final season, 2003, with the Sparks, in which she was a teammate of forward DeLisha Milton-Jones. The job search began as soon as the season ended, although it had been known since May that Cooper, who led the Sparks to two WNBA championships, was leaving to coach the USC women's basketball team.

Diana Taurasi and the Phoenix Mercury are heading to the WNBA finals, and Lisa Leslie is heading off to retirement. Taurasi scored 15 of her 21 points in the second half and added seven rebounds and three assists to lead the Mercury past the Sparks, 85-74, on Saturday night in Game 3 of the Western Conference finals. The Mercury, seeded No. 1 in the West, will open the best-of-five WNBA finals at home Tuesday against Indiana, top-seeded in the East and a 72-67 winner over Detroit earlier Saturday.

After the final buzzer sounded, Sparks forward Candace Parker untucked her jersey in frustration. She had seen the Sparks fluctuate between two phases: allowing Phoenix to dictate its fastbreak system before the Sparks fought to chip away the deficit. The end result -- a 103-94 Game 1 loss Wednesday to the Mercury in the Western Conference finals in front of 6,389 at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion -- was a reflection of what Parker described as "allowing them to play their game." It also resembled a broader theme, one she and other teammates noticed throughout the season when the Sparks sputtered to an 8-13 record despite boasting five Olympians.

This was the matchup Lisa Leslie had hoped the Sparks wouldn't have in the first round of the WNBA postseason. Yet, she also knew that facing the Phoenix Mercury was inevitable if the Sparks were going to win the West. The inevitable is now. Phoenix, seeded No. 1 in the West, visits the Sparks for Game 1 of the Western Conference finals at UCLA's Pauley Pavilion tonight, boasting the league's top offense (92.8 points per game). "I don't have any magical formula where we do one, two or three things and we'll win," said Leslie, who could be playing in her last home game before retiring after a storied 13-year career.

After playing for Pat Riley in the Lakers' Showtime era, Sparks Coach Michael Cooper says he has followed one philosophy regarding the postseason. "Coach Riley used to say the playoffs don't start until the other team wins on the other team's home court," said Cooper, whose team has a 1-0 lead entering Game 2 tonight at Seattle in the Western Conference's best-of-three semifinals. "We're trying to get this second one and hopefully we won't have to make adjustments after that."

While the team huddled together, Sparks Coach Michael Cooper was about to rip into his players. Before he could, though, his players took care of it. They had a 12-point lead with five minutes 14 seconds remaining in Game 1 of their best-of-three Western Conference semifinals matchup with Seattle. But with the way the Storm kept chipping away at their lead, nothing was safe. Hence, the discussion during a timeout. "Sometimes the team has to do that and take responsibility like a veteran team like we do," Cooper said.

It became the turning point of her final WNBA season. In a locker-room meeting, three-time MVP Lisa Leslie went from teammate to teammate and dissected how each could help turn things around for the struggling Sparks. That included herself. "I asked each person, 'Is it OK for me to be honest with you? You guys can be honest with me,' " Leslie said. " 'If I'm not working hard and I'm not bringing it, tell me.' " The Sparks (18-16) closed out the regular season winning 10 of their last 13 games and secured a No. 3 seeding in the Western Conference playoffs.

Once the game ended, a sense of relief permeated the arena. Sparks Coach Michael Cooper ran up to hug General Manager Penny Toler and discussed what he called a "friendly GM-head coach thing." Center Lisa Leslie hugged forward Candace Parker before making her way to her daughter, Lauren, and husband, Michael Lockwood. Forward Tina Thompson did the same with her son, Dyllan. The Sparks' 76-68 victory over the San Antonio Silver Stars on Tuesday in front of a crowd of 10,476 at Staples Center created a festive mood for good reason.

Win or loss, the Sparks huddle together after each game at center court. Following their 84-79 defeat to the Atlanta Dream in front of an announced 8,756 at Staples Center on Tuesday night, center Lisa Leslie provided a quick summation of what just happened. "We got worked on the boards," she told the team. Leslie led the team with 24 points, her eighth game in which she scored at least 20 points, but she blamed herself for the breakdown. The Dream had 20 second-chance points and grabbed 12 offensive rebounds.

After predicting that energy would be the decisive factor in the Sparks' matchup Sunday with the Connecticut Sun, Coach Michael Cooper saw that variable unfold in many ways. The Sparks displayed it when they stormed to an early double-digit lead. They lacked it when they allowed Connecticut to creep to within single digits in the second half. Cooper monitored it with center Lisa Leslie and guard Noelle Quinn, both of whom were ill with flu and fever, respectively, last week but were deemed well enough to play.