The Candace Parker Archive

Parker named top prep player:

ATLANTA -- Tennessee recruit Candace Parker has been selected as the 2004 Naismith Prep Basketball Player of the Year, the Atlanta Tipoff Club announced Wednesday. Parker helped lead Naperville Central High School to its second consecutive Illinois Class AA State Championship with a 33-2 record. Naperville Central won all 24 games she played, finishing the season with a total of 30 straight wins.

Parker Wins Dunk Contest

MIDWEST CITY, Okla. -- There are moments, stunning indelible moments, that transcend sport, crumble barriers and create icons.

There's Billie Jean King beating Bobby Riggs at the Astrodome in 1973. Brandi Chastain clinching the Women's World Cup in 1999. Annika Sorenstam teeing off at the Colonial last May.

Candace Parker's history-making victory in the 2004 Powerade Jam Fest will be aired
On Monday night, in a cozy high school gymnasium southeast of Oklahoma City, a 17-year-old high school senior named Candace Parker turned in the latest moment. Parker beat out five male competitors to win the Slam Dunk contest of the McDonald's High School All-American Game.

She won with aplomb, too, darting down the left side of the lane, covering her eyes with her left arm and flushing home a right-handed dunk. At 9:06 p.m. CT, Parker sparked a raucous ovation, chest bumps from her teammates and officially launched herself as the female answer to LeBron James.

The Next Great Thing?

NAPERVILLE, Ill. -- Since the day she dunked as a lanky 15-year-old sophomore, Candace Parker has lived with the lofty expectations of becoming the next big name in women's basketball.

So far, she's living up to them.

"Candace has the chance to be the greatest female player on the planet. I really believe that," said Andy Nussbaum, her coach at Naperville Central High School in suburban Chicago.