Strange...Candace Parker gets less that 12 hours after the championship to decide her future at UT and if you have a penis you have until April 29th.

Strange how the vaginally-capable basketball players' season (i.e., WNBA) occurs over the summer yet the penile-oriented players' season (i.e., NBA) occurs over the winter and spring and early summer. Maybe that explains the difference? Nah, must be sexism.

(link...)

She also said "This is where I want to be." I recall the Orlando Magic's Shaquille O'Neal saying the same thing days before he engineered a trade to the Lakers.

As with Roy Williams saying, "I don't give a s*** about North Carolina" before fleeing for Chapel Hill a couple of weeks later.

____________________________

People getting rich. Some people saying "Markets!" More death. Neil Young. Death.

and she is.

The whole issue was initially raised by several Connecticut alumni, who wished she might leave, but had absolutely no basis to think she might. When someone finally asked her, she said she was staying at UT.

ESPN's continuing to try to make it an issue, IMO, was completely disrespectful to Candace. Her response of "Why wouldn't I want to keep wearing orange?" was in frustration to the fact that she has said clearly she was staying, but certain people wouldn't let it go.

She is very close to her family, and her mother said last night that they had never even discussed the possibility of her going pro.

Candace has even said that the factual basis on which some conjecture she is eligible to go to the WNBA is incorrect. To be eligible, she would need to graduate by December. She has said she intends to graduate next May.

She's not leaving.

The real issue should be -- will she stay for her senior season the year after next?

Candace herself said she is not on track for graduation in December, so there's really no question.

Unless you count the Euro leagues or Russian leagues, which have no such requirement. 26 million rubles is still a lot of jack in US dollars.

____________________________

People getting rich. Some people saying "Markets!" More death. Neil Young. Death.

This discussion is DOA -- unless you want to be calling CP3's mamma and Pat Summitt liars.

Unclench, please. No one's calling anyone a liar.

All I'm saying is that it isn't unheard of in the sport of basketball for a featured player or beloved coach to say one thing and then surprise everyone by doing another.

For the sake of the LV's, I hope Parker stays. But $1,000,000 starting pay in the Russian leagues has got to be a compelling draw for any young player and their respective families. You have to honor that.

And I note that it's after 11:00 EDT and no formal announcement. I'm certain that there is or has been some 11th hour angling going on here on the part of professional clubs from all over the globe.

____________________________

People getting rich. Some people saying "Markets!" More death. Neil Young. Death.

I'm sort of tired of people refusing to believe sports figures who repeatedly say something straight out. It's disrespectful. It is calling them a liar.

Nope. It's pragmatic skepticism. Sports is big business. An injury can turn off the tap to the flow of dollars instantly. Alternative offers are a factor.

Example: As a Jayhawks fan, I got burned by believing Roy Williams. He said he didn't give a shit about North Carolina. Then he's leaving Lawrence without so much as a by-your-leave after their drubbing in the F4 a few years ago.

That doesn't make him a liar, I suppose. It does make him a jerk in my eyes from the perspective of being a Jayhawks fan. However, given the money involved and his history with the program and the personal pleas from Coach Smith, I can see why his words didn't match his deed.

But the Jayhawks have also benefitted from this sort of word-deed mismatch. UNC had Danny Manning fitted for his Tarheels uniform before Manning signed his LOI with Larry Brown. Many more stories like this exist in sports lore.

I suspect Parker will stay, but she's a great player, and great players will have this sort of ungrounded speculation and media love-hate throughout her career. For good or for ill, this is all part of the Big Time.

____________________________

People getting rich. Some people saying "Markets!" More death. Neil Young. Death.

I can't trust any beloved UT athlete's words after Heath Shuler. :(

Excuse me. I posted the update above re. ESPN2 and Phoenix's first pick at about 1:15 or whenever it was, two minutes after the pick, noting that Candace Parker was not there. And I don't know Jack Shit about any of this.

So, as Ivory Latta said to Shannon Bobbitt Sunday night: SHUT UP!!!"

NUKE: I love winning, Crash, you hear me? I love It. Teach me everything.

CRASH: It's time you started working on your interviews.

NUKE: What do I gotta do?

CRASH: Learn your cliches. Study them. Know them. They're your friends. Write this down:

"We gotta play 'em one day at a time."

NUKE: Boring.

CRASH: Of course. That's the point.

"I'm just happy to be here and hope I can help the ballclub."

NUKE: Jesus.

CRASH: Write! Write!

"I just wanna give it my best shot and, good Lord willing, things'll work out."

NUKE: "...good Lord willing, things'll work out."

CRASH: Yep.

____________________________

People getting rich. Some people saying "Markets!" More death. Neil Young. Death.

"Some days you win, some days you lose, and some days it rains."

(Note the update re. Spencer.)

A lot of folks said the Titans couldn't survive in Big Orange country, but they look like they are doing fine. I am not sure the same thing could be said for a WNBA team here though. It is hard enough to find more than a handful of people at the Women's Basketball HOF.

But if it meant a new civic center...

Hate to bring this up, but in the world of lucrative endorsements, having the most gorgeous face in her sport won't hurt Candace one bit. Look for her on the cover of Vogue and other fashion magazines, not just sports publications. Don't be surprised if her lifetime off-court earnings end up rivaling Anna Kournokova.

Nah, to get those kinds of deals she'd have to play up the sex kitten angle too much. She seems like too much of a team player and to have too much pride in her achievements as an athlete to sell out like that. Maria Sharapova might be a little more like it. Like Sharapova, she has the necessary looks to be successful in the endorsement game, but wouldn't wear the outfits or be shown in the types of poses that got Kournikova a lot of her ink.

Besides, at nearly 6'5", beautiful as she is, "sex kitten" becomes a rather tough card to play. Sharapova, at nearly 6'3", would have the same issue. You look at them and see beautiful female athletes. You look at Kournikova and you see Britney Spears with a tennis racket. Different type of beauty, different types and number of endorsment deals.

We're talking Madison Avenue here, so I presume everyone reading this understands my comments and those I'm responding to were both made within the context of today's reality, not what ought to be in terms of how male and female atheletes are perceived and portrayed in advertising.