Candace Parker: The Real Deal for the Los Angeles Sparks

I'm a true-flag-blue UConn women's basketball fan through and through, so the Tennessee Lady Vols don't rank too high on my list. I fall on the "Pat's a Petty Priss" side of Recruitergate. Like Diana Taurasi, when I see orange I get a little worked up.

So it's been a little hard to bear the Candace Parker hype machine, driven mostly by the marketing department of the WNBA: the media spots, the mass-production of number three jerseys, the endorsement contracts. She was, knowingly or not, becoming everything I despise about selling women's basketball: a commodity only because "she's attractive and she can play basketball!" As if the former validated the latter.

Then I watched Parker's debut on ABC yesterday. Her Los Angeles Sparks edged the defending champs Phoenix Mercury 99-94.

Her line: 34 points on 63% shooting. 12 rebounds. 8 assists. Two assists short of a triple-double in her first ever game in the WNBA.

The game was tight to the end. With 20 seconds to go, Cappie Pondexter drained a three to shrink the Sparks' lead to one, 95-94. On the ensuing possession, who did the Sparks give the ball to in those waning seconds to put the game away? Multi-MVP, all-world center Lisa Leslie? Nope. They fed the ball inside to a rookie who effortlessly drained a silky, left-handed hook shot.

I watched CP3 play with Tennessee. No doubt she was really good, but her play lacked...something. In orange, she was never 100% passionate, she took plays off, and she spent as much time crying to the refs as she did draining jumpers. She was still by far the best player in college basketball, but she wasn't her best. She didn't have to be--even a lackadaisical Parker was good enough to lead the Lady Vols to two titles.

Yesterday, though, Parker was other-worldly. She made the Mercury's Taurasi, who was given the daunting task of containing Parker, look like a traffic cone. She moved like liquid through the lane, pulled down rebounds she had no business getting, and made the other nine players on the court look like they were stuck in slow motion.

The next level brought the next level out of Parker. Parker was on the floor with Leslie and Taurasi--arguably the two best players in the world. And she was easily the player of the game.

Beauty and hype aside, Parker lets her game talk. And I think it's safe to say that CP3 is the next level.

But I have to say, CP3 looks a lot better in purple than orange.

Photo: Barry Gossage/NBAE/Getty Images