Candance Parker, U.S. women take hoops gold
Leslie and U.S. do it again, while Parker admits she learned Olympic lessons
BEIJING -- Only a few seconds left in the gold medal game, with the blowout already set and the U.S. women’s basketball players already celebrating, Candace Parker decided to do it.
No woman has dunked in the Olympics. And Parker, who has designs on becoming what Mia Hamm was to young girls, an international sports icon, can do it. So she got the ball, made her move to the hoop, jumped, and. . .
Didn’t do it.
Well, the U.S. won the gold medal Saturday, beating Australia 92-65. And the snapshot to remember about Parker will be her going straight to Lisa Leslie, who is finished with the Olympics after winning her fourth straight gold, and giving her a long and emotional hug.
This was supposed to be the international coming out for Parker, of Naperville. Instead, it never happened. And the moment belonged to Leslie, still the standard-bearer for her sport in play and class.
They placed the gold medal on Leslie, and then she draped her other three with it. When the National Anthem started to play, Leslie did not break down in tears, but instead opened up with an exuberant singing display.
"Out of tune," she said.
I doubt it. Nothing is off with Lisa Leslie.
"I’m exhausted," she said afterward, still lugging all that gold around her neck. "This is just a blessing for me. I had to fight to get all those medals, no lie."
The great Parker elevation is going to have to wait. Don’t doubt that it will happen. And she came to win gold and she won gold. This year also included an NCAA title and the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft.
But in Beijing, the missed dunk was the symbol of her play. She did not dominate the Games, did not even play well, really, until the gold medal game. And if she’s going to be a breakthrough athlete for women’s sports, pumped up by a heavy marketing campaign, and then bought into, that might have to wait another four years.
This was the place to do it, as the WNBA doesn’t provide the worldwide platform.
"I didn’t play as well as I wanted," she said. "My teammates really encouraged me to stay positive. I learned a lot of lessons in this Olympics."
Parker did have her best game Saturday, scoring 14 points. But if any young player had an emergence, it was Sylvia Fowles of the Chicago Sky. She is a beast, and was the team’s leading scorer.
Other teams simply could not deal with her size and strength inside. And she and Leslie teamed up to beat, elbow and hack the daylights out of Australia’s Lauren Jackson.
Or as Leslie told the team beforehand, "There’s only one Lauren Jackson, and there’s five of us."
Years ago, Jackson pulled the hair extension right off Leslie during a game. It was the beginnings of beautiful rivalry.
The U.S. has beaten Australia in the past three gold medal games. This was the year Australia thought it could finally do it. Two of its players missed the first half of the WNBA season to train for the Games. Then Jackson left the Seattle Storm two week early to join the team. But it didn’t matter.
Have you ever noticed that the women don’t need a Redeem Team? This is four straight golds for the U.S. women’s team, and 33 straight victories in Olympic Games. The last loss came in the 1992 Barcelona Games.
One generation of U.S. basketball passed on to Leslie. Now Leslie is passing it on to Parker and Fowles.
Honestly, I was expecting Parker to jump right past that stage.
Why didn’t she?
"It’s a very physical game," Leslie said. "Candace has to learn, adjust to the physical game. Candace just. . .she’s going to lead the world. Sylvia as well."
That’s not to say that Parker was moping around after winning gold. She said her first experience at the Olympics was more than she had hoped for, in terms of support from fans and also the men’s team.
The women’s team itself, she said, was close-knit, and, "I can’t wait for the next four years."
Was she really thinking about her play, even as the U.S. was beating everyone by 30 points? The team had just one close game, against Russia in the semifinals. Actually, that was just one close half.
"A little bit," she said, "but about the gold medal moreso."
U.S. player Kara Lawson also attributed Parker’s struggles to a lack of international experience.
"I think she did a great job," Lawson said. "She did what we asked her to do, which is defend her position, rebounding the basketball.
"There is a learning curve for international play. For Sylvia and Candace, I don’t think it’s the sage of the Olympics. It’s the stage of the Olympics. It’s scary to think what happens when she masters this."
So Leslie gets a thrilling farewell. She said that when she walked off the court, though, she wasn’t thinking about her career, but rather about Parker and Fowles, about how they are ready to take the torch.
Well, later is never as fun as now. But it’ll have to do.