Milton Makes Sparks Fly

One of the 10 sexiest female athletes in America wears a headband and a glare.

She throws elbows. She talks smack. Saturday afternoon she nearly started a nationally televised fight.

One of the 10 sexiest female athletes in America--according to no less an authority than Esquire magazine--was asked to model tight biker shorts for the photo shoot at her cousin’s backyard goal.

But her mother and uncle and half the tiny town of Riceboro, Ga., were watching.

So she apologized to the photographer, ran to her house, and changed into some old baggy basketball shorts.

“Are these OK?” she said.

And then she dunked.

One of the 10 sexiest female athletes in America plays for the Sparks, but it is not Lisa Leslie, it is 6-foot-1 power forward DeLisha Milton.

This is progress.

“This blew my mind,” Milton said.

This blows out stereotypes the way Milton blows up tempers.

Check it out, Esquire’s August edition, sandwiched between alluring photos of track stars and triathletes, a snapshot of a small-town girl jamming a ball through a netless rim nailed to a tree.

A decade ago, many in this country would consider that a photo of a tomboy.

Today, it is sexy.

A decade ago, a magazine like Esquire only runs that photo if it is accompanied by a photo of the same woman dressed in silk and pearls.

In this issue they indeed ran another photo of Milton.

But in it, she is palming a basketball in her niece’s living room.

Esquire made official what has long been suspected.

Women’s sports are not only cool to the millions of women who participate in them.

They are also becoming cool to the type of men who have long made objects of those women.

Sexy has changed. People like DeLisha Milton, 25, are helping change it.

“All those girls in high school who were shapely and popular and got all the guys, today they are just a Twinkie away from being overweight,” Milton said.

“But girls like me, who were tall and teased and picked upon and got no play at all . . . today we’re the divas.”

One of the 10 sexiest female athletes in America has the looks for it, but she has never worked those looks.

She has never won a beauty pageant, never been a homecoming anything, and is completely nonplused by the manner in which her coach refers to her.

“That’s D-Nasty,” Michael Cooper said.

Oh, and forget the long legs. Milton’s best assets are her long arms, which she uses to swat and steal basketballs while scraping the tired paint off old ideas.

Sexy is not just walking down some runway, it’s charging the lane.

Sexy is not cheering at the games, it’s winning them.

The Sparks won at Phoenix on Saturday, 77-63, to clinch the best record in the WNBA and home-court advantage for the playoffs beginning next weekend.

Sexy is winning 11 consecutive games on the road.

Sexy is being in such great shape, you are 9-1 in games decided by six or fewer points.

Because of a Laker hangover, and their own usual marketing and publicity mess, the Sparks have achieved most of their 27-3 record in secret.

Now might be the time to take notice.

After enduring 11 years without a Los Angeles professional championship, sexy would be two titles in a span of two months.

Cooper’s team practices like his old Lakers, tries to think like his old Lakers. Work harder than anyone. Fight longer than everyone.

“[Cooper] has such a respect for the game, he thinks we can do anything like the men,” Milton said.

While the team is led in the box score and headlines by Leslie, this attitude starts with Milton.

“She has that killer instinct,” Cooper said. “She can take this team over the edge.”

On Saturday, just when the Mercury was closing the gap in the second half, Milton shoved Michelle Griffiths after the whistle. jumped in her face, and both were given technicals.

Some wondered whether this didn’t mean the Sparks were unraveling.

As usual, it was quite the opposite.

“My gear shift is stuck in overdrive,” admitted Milton, who will leave it there next month when she and Leslie play for the U.S. Olympic team.

“I only know one speed.”

Even that speed increased recently when she heard about the Esquire cover announcing, “A Portfolio of America’s 10 Sexiest Athletes.”

While she remembered the photo shoot, she said she had no advance notice of the theme.

“I thought they were just doing a story on Olympic athletes,” she said. “Then the magazine came out and I got a call from friends who said, ‘Congratulations on being one of the sexiest women!’

“I said, ‘Me? Wow! Times sure have changed.’ ”

She and her boyfriend raced to the nearest supermarket to check out the issue. Even then, it was hard to believe.

“I said to my boyfriend, ‘Baby, do you think that headline is true?’ ” she recalled.

“He did. He was really pumped.”

Sexy is being so cool about your sudden fame, you only buy two copies of that magazine.

Sexy is having the perfectly indignant answer to an archaic question.

“People come up to me sometimes and say, ‘Do you model?’ ” Milton explained. “I say, ‘No. I play basketball.’ ”

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.