Sparks hope pick is magical

PALM HARBOR, Fla. -- The expectations are monumental, but so was the college career of Candace Parker.

When the Sparks selected the Tennessee star No. 1 overall at the WNBA draft Wednesday, the league seemed to take flight, much like Parker herself on one of her well-chronicled dunks.

“The WNBA needed a great player to come into a marquee city,” said Louisiana State Coach Van Chancellor, who won four WNBA titles with the Houston Comets. “It’s a great marriage.”

It is also a timely one for a league coming off its 10th anniversary but still fighting to grow its audience.

Parker looked surprised when her name was announced by league President Donna Orender, despite having been projected No. 1 for more than a year.

“Anything nowadays doesn’t surprise me,” said Parker, who led the Lady Vols to their second straight national championship Tuesday night in nearby Tampa. “So, I was like, ‘OK, I’m not going to believe anything until they say my name.’ ”

But would the Sparks use their pick on the 6-foot-4 Parker, who can shoot with either hand and play any position? They acknowledge taking a long look at Sylvia Fowles, the 6-foot-6 center out of LSU.

Ultimately, the Sparks found it too difficult to pass on Parker.

“The only difference was, do you take Magic or do you take Shaq?” said Penny Toler, the team’s general manager, referring to the former Laker stars. “Based on what we needed, we had to take Magic.”

Fowles was chosen second by the Chicago Sky, followed by Stanford guard Candice Wiggins to the Minnesota Lynx and Parker’s former teammate at Tennessee, guard Alexis Hornbuckle, who went to Detroit. With their second pick, the Sparks selected another former member of the Lady Vols, 5-foot-2 point guard Shannon Bobbitt.

All five Tennessee starters were drafted in the first three rounds.

Rebecca Lobo, a former Connecticut star who spent seven years in the WNBA, compared Parker’s arrival in L.A. to that of Tim Duncan being drafted No. 1 in 1997 by San Antonio, which was coming off a 20-62 record at the time. Two seasons later, the Spurs won the NBA title.

The Sparks ended 2007 tied for last place with a 10-24 record. It was a season in flux from the start. Lisa Leslie, a three-time most valuable player, sat out the season after giving birth to her first child. And after only a handful of games, Chamique Holdsclaw, the last Tennessee player to be drafted No. 1, unexpectedly retired.

With Leslie back, the addition of Parker makes the Sparks even more formidable.

“She’s pretty much the best women’s college basketball player in the country, if not the best player overall,” Lobo said of Parker. “She’s unbelievably gifted.”

Parker, who as a sophomore became the youngest player to win the Wade Trophy that is annually awarded to the nation’s top woman player, won instant fame as the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game.

About the only question mark has been Parker’s history of injuries. She twice had surgery on her left knee, has dealt with chronic pain in her right shoulder and then played the final two games of the NCAA tournament despite an injured left shoulder.

“The bottom line is, the talent is there,” Toler said. “You can fix an injury, but can you pass on a talent like that?”

And it wasn’t only the addition of Parker that has Orender feeling optimistic. Many consider this one of the deepest drafts in league history.

“It’s phenomenal depth,” Orender gushed. “I think I might have to add a few more teams because there’s no place to put all this talent.”

Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer, whose team lost to Tennessee in the NCAA final, agreed that this infusion of talent will give the league a boost, particularly because many of the players built a name for themselves at the college level.

“A lot of people have been able to watch these players since they were freshmen,” she said. “They’re not strangers.”

They may also help grow the WNBA’s audience.

The championship game on ESPN between Tennessee and Stanford was seen by an average of 2,871,000 homes, up 34% from last year’s 2,137,000. The game had a 3.0 rating, a 30% increase over last year’s 2.3 for Tennessee’s defeat of Rutgers, according to Nielsen Media Research. Overall, the 2008 tournament was the most-viewed ever on ESPN and ESPN2. ESPN averaged 1,367,000 homes, up 42% over last year.

Parker had another year of eligibility and said she thought about returning to try for another NCAA title.

“I think everybody wavers on decisions all the time, especially when you’re in the moment and there’s [Tennessee] orange surrounding you and people are begging you and telling you one more year,” she said. “But I gave my word and I just felt like it was time for me to leave and we left on top.”

Her mom, Sara, isn’t worried.

“Candace will do a good job,” she said. “She has always made good decisions and I don’t expect that to change.”

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dan.arritt@latimes.com

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(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

WNBA draft

The first round and locals chosen in the second and third rounds:

*--* First round No. Team Player, P, School 1. Sparks Candace Parker, F, Tennessee 2. Chicago Sylvia Fowles, C, Louisiana State 3. Minnesota Candice Wiggins, G, Stanford 4. Detroit-a Alexis Hornbuckle, G, Tennessee 5. Houston Matee Ajavon, G, Rutgers 6. Washington Crystal Langhorne, F-C, Maryland 7. New York Essence Carson, G-F, Rutgers 8. Atlanta-b Tamera Young, G, James Madison 9. Connecticut Amber Holt, F, Middle Tennessee State 10. Sacramento Laura Harper, F-C, Maryland 11. Detroit-c Tasha Humphrey, F, Georgia 12. Connecticut-d Ketia Swanier, G, Connecticut 13. Phoenix LaToya Pringle, F-C, North Carolina 14. New York-e Erlana Larkins, F, North Carolina *--*

Second round: 15. Sparks, Shannon Bobbitt, G, Tennessee; 20. Washington, Lindsey Pluimer, F, UCLA. Third round: 29. Sparks, Sharnee’ Zoll, G, Virginia.

a-from Atlanta via Seattle; b-from Seattle; c-from San Antonio; d-from Indiana; e-from Detroit via San Antonio.