On Candace camera
BEIJING -- Candace Parker stood there in the row, as if she could simply blend in with the best women’s basketball team on earth. She has passed that point now, but this was just good manners Thursday, as someone had to be the gracious speaker for the U.S. women’s basketball team. And Lisa Leslie has handled that job perfectly for years.
``I just want to say it’s just an honor to have our USA team here in Beijing,’’ Leslie said. ``The people have just been amazing thus far. The facilities are awesome, and. . .’’
Let’s stop here. Leslie said all the right things, as usual. But the Beijing Olympics need to be Parker’s.
This is her start. Sure, she starred at Naperville Central, won an NCAA title and was picked first in the WNBA draft. Fine. Great. The Olympics are still the big moment for women’s basketball.
And this is where we start to find out how big Parker can really be. Can she be as big as Leslie, who is in her last Olympics?
Think bigger. Parker is going to stand on Leslie’s shoulders and reach for the moon.
Someone asked Parker about her endorsements, and if it’s true that she has surpassed plenty of men’s players in her deals. This is where she gave a hint as to where she thinks this might be going.
``I’m very excited to be representing Adidas and Gatorade,’’ she said. ``I saw what they did with Mia Hamm, and how they made her into a global icon.’’
Mia Hamm? Global icon?
It seemed only a couple years ago that I bumped into Parker and her Dad at the Jewel, and no one noticed her.
No, Parker has already become the face of women’s basketball, and with a sport that still hasn’t gotten to the mainstream, that carries with it an extra burden. But this will be her welcome onto the world stage.
``I still see myself on the couch watching the Olympics,’’ she said. ``I can’t see myself being in it.’’
Oh yes she can. That’s the vision. And not just once or twice.
For Leslie, who’s 36, this will be her fourth Olympics, which she described as ``just a blessing to be young enough to do it one more time, yet veteran enough to say this will be my last Olympics.’’
Several members of the women’s team talked about seeing a video about a potential 2016 Chicago Olympics, and Parker said that while she was watching, she thought this:
``Now, that’s eight years away. I’ll be in my third Olympics.’’
She’s 22 now, and will be 30 then. Does she see herself in four Olympics, like Leslie, taking her to 2020?
``I can see that,’’ she said.
This is her first, and it’s important that she do well, that the team wins gold.
Parker said she’s learning from Leslie, who teases her about passing the torch. They are WNBA teammates in Los Angeles.
But Parker was drawn into a fight two weeks ago against Detroit, and it was a bad image blasted all over ESPN and Youtube. Leslie, also involved as the skirmish grew, described the whole thing as ``embarrassing. We hate that. We want to be good role models.’’
Did you take her aside, in passing the torch, and tell her she can’t charge after someone, no matter who’s instigating?
``I thought it was important she defend herself,’’ Leslie said. ``You can’t let people push you around.’’
Yes, but casual sports fans don’t remember, but only that Parker was fighting. Maybe, too, that Rick Mahorn seemed to push down Leslie, even if only accidentally.
What if someone roughs up Parker in the Olympics? Will she fight again?
``I have put that out of my mind,’’ Parker said. ``It’s not something I’m proud of. I don’t want to represent the league like that. I don’t plan on anything happening like that in these Olympic Games.’’
She said she has played thousands of games, and had this happened only once.
Cappie Pondexter, another Chicagoan on the U.S. team, remembers watching the 1996 Atlanta Olympics as a kid, and thinking for the first time that she could be in the Olympics someday. That 1996 team, she said, made a breakthrough winning gold with a new generation of stars, including Leslie.
Pondexter, who’s 25, knows that 13-year olds will watching this team, too, and that she might be part of the next generation, which could also include Chicagoland’s Tamika Catchings and the Chicago Sky’s Sylvia Fowles.
Parker will lead that group. But can she really reach Hamm’s heights? A woman’s basketball player hasn’t gotten that high.
Hamm was the hero of every little girl, especially suburban ones. She broke through to a popularity beyond even her sport’s. But kids were playing soccer, and I wonder how high a platform Parker needs to jump from.
She says women’s basketball is growing, but I’m not sure. If she’s going to make the jump, then Parker will have to elevate the sport even more. She said she’s comforted in knowing that it’s not all up to her, that generation next will be there.
Honestly, it is up to her. And this is her start.
But for now, you don’t see the pressure in her, but instead a kid’s exuberance about being here for the first time.
``I was really excited about meeting the beach volleyball players and the gymnasts,’’ she said. ``I remember the gymnasts, the Magnificent 7 in `96.
``After that I was doing flips outside in the backyard and my parents were like, `You’re going to be 6-4. You’re not going to be a gymnast.’’ No, Parker might be much bigger than that.