Candace Parker
Candace Parker is perhaps best known for her role as forward for the Los Angeles Sparks. When not playing for the WNBA, Parker spends the off-season playing for UMMC Ekaterinburg in chilly Siberia. As a professional athlete, Parker spends much of her time traveling the globe for games — even winning a gold medal during the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Not a bad souvenir.
HuffPost Travel caught up with the 25-year-old basketball player on her Christmas break back in the States to talk travel, her favorite spots and just how cold it really gets in Siberia.
Huffington Post Travel: Where do you travel most often while playing in Siberia?
Candace Parker: I play for UMMC Ekaterinburg, which is east of Moscow via a two-and-a-half-hour flight. We travel constantly to play the EuroLeague and the Russian Premier League — we go to Spain, Istanbul, France, Germany and Poland. One of the big problems with playing in Russia is that every flight is 6 to 7 hours. When I go back to Russia [in January], we play in Istanbul and I’m so excited.
HPT: What do you enjoy most about playing in Russia?
CP: I love that everyone from my team is from a different place, so I just sit in the back of the plane and chat with my teammates about where they are from.
Category : Blog
In this episode of 35th Hour, watch KD catch a football game at his alma mater the University of Texas, play in a charity game with Justin Bieber, and hang out in Baton Rouge during the filming of his new Warner Bros. movie. Candace Parker, TJ Ford, Big Baby Davis, and Brandon T. Jackson (Tropic Thunder) also make appearances in this episode.
Category : Blog
Photo of Candace Parker and her daughter Lailaa with Glee star Jane Lynch at the Los Angeles Sparks game last night.
Category : Blog
Here’s a look at Candace Parker’s road to recovery this season. With Focus, Determination, and Hard Work Candace Parker fights to recover from a right meniscus tear in late June 2011, and help her L.A. Sparks clinch a playoff spot.
Category : Blog
NEW YORK, Aug. 22, 2011 ““ A pair of former No. 1 overall draft picks and Rookie of the Year award winners ““ Angel McCoughtry of the Atlanta Dream and Candace Parker of the Los Angeles Sparks ““ were named the WNBA’s Eastern and Western Conference Players of the Week, respectively, for games played Monday, August 15 through Sunday, August 21.
McCoughtry’s 23.7 points per game ranked second in both the WNBA and the Eastern Conference as the surging Dream, winner of 10 of its last 14 games, posted a 2-1 mark on the week. Within the conference, the 2009 Rookie of the Year also ranked third in blocks (1.3 bpg), fourth in assists (4.3 apg), fifth in rebounds (8.3 rpg) and tied for fifth in steals (2.33 spg).
For the season, McCoughtry ranks second in the league in scoring (20.4 ppg) behind Phoenix’s Diana Taurasi (21.0 ppg). Her 5.4 rebounds and 2.6 assists per contest are 11th and 12th best, respectively, in the Eastern Conference.
The University of Louisville product and Baltimore native put together her best outing of the week in a 94-88 win over the Connecticut Sun on Aug. 19, when she recorded a double-double with 26 points and a season-high 12 rebounds. She sent the game into overtime when she blocked a shot by Allison Hightower on the final play of regulation and then scored a pair of key baskets in the extra period. Three days earlier, in a 84-79 road victory over Los Angeles, she scored 23 points and contributed five assists. McCoughtry closed out the week with 22 points, nine rebounds and four assists in a loss at Connecticut.
The Player of the Week award is the third of the year for McCoughtry and the fifth of her career.
Parker, meanwhile, earned the honor for the first time this year and the fifth time in her four WNBA seasons.
For Parker, the 2008 league MVP and Rookie of the Year, the Player of the Week award capped a solid return to action after she was sidelined for 15 games due to a knee injury.
The Sparks’ center/forward tied for second in the Western Conference in scoring with 18.5 ppg while helping Los Angeles to a 2-2 mark on the week. She also ranked third in field goal percentage (.565 on 26 of 46 shooting), tied for third in three-point shooting (.667 on 8 of 12 from beyond the arc), was fourth in rebounding (8.3 rpg), and ranked among the conference leaders in minutes, averaging 32.8 mpg.
In her return to the court, the University of Tennessee product and Naperville, IL native recorded her fifth double-double of the season (15 points, 10 rebounds) in a narrow loss to the Dream. She then tallied 18 points, six boards and five assists in a 75-70 win over the East-leading Indiana Fever and another 18 points and 8 rebounds in a loss at Minnesota. Parker closed out her week by leading the Sparks past the Tulsa Shock, 73-67, with a game-high 23 points, nine rebounds and two steals.
Other candidates for WNBA Players of the Week were Chicago’s Sylvia Fowles, Indiana’s Tamika Catchings, New York’s Cappie Pondexter, Phoenix’s Penny Taylor, Seattle’s Sue Bird and Washington’s Crystal Langhorne.
Category : Blog
