Sparks land on Tennessee’s Parker in WNBA draft

The Sparks didn’t throw out any surprises and chose Candace Parker of Tennessee with the overall first pick in the WNBA draft today.

Parker, a 6-foot-4 redshirt junior who led the Lady Vols to their second consecutive NCAA title Tuesday night in nearby Tampa, is the first woman to enter the WNBA with college eligibility remaining.

She is on pace to graduate this spring with a degree in sports management and will play for the U.S. Olympic team in Beijing this summer.

Parker, the first woman to dunk in a college game, is primarily a power forward but played all five positions for Tennessee. She won the Wade Trophy as a sophomore, which is awarded to the top women’s player in the nation, as well as the John R. Wooden Award, and was voted the Associated Press most valuable player this season.

As a member of the Sparks, who finished 10-24 last season, she will join 35-year-old center and three-time WNBA most valuable player Lisa Leslie, who sat out last season after the birth of her first child, and former Tennessee teammates Sidney Spencer and Tye’sha Fluker.

Parker, who turns 22 on April 19, is the brother of Anthony Parker, a shooting guard on the Toronto Raptors, and is engaged to another NBA player, Sacramento forward Shelden Williams.

Parker is originally from Naperville, Ill.

dan.arritt@latimes.com