2014 LA Sparks Season Preview: The Quest for a Title
Last postseason ended in heartbreak, as Phoenix Mercury center Brittney Griner’s late turnaround jumper over Candace Parker sent the Sparks into an early offseason. In a decisive Game 3, they had lost by a single point on their home court, losing the chance for a Western Conference Finals rematch with the Minnesota Lynx.
It represented the second straight year, in which the Sparks finished 24-10 but failed to emerge from the West and make the WNBA Finals. In 2012, the Lynx similarly eliminated the Sparks by one point at Staples Center.
“To me as a coach,” said Sparks head coach Carol Ross, “I think heartbreakers are always the ones that stick with you the longest, and they have the greatest lessons to be learned.”
In sports, as tough as the defeat(s) may be, typically you have a chance for redemption, a chance to grow from your past failures. Well, the LA Sparks almost didn’t get that chance, at least in Los Angeles.
In December, Sparks owner Paula Madison notified the WNBA that her family could no longer afford to invest in the team. Thus, the WNBA took temporary control of the team. In the ensuing months, it became increasingly likely that the Los Angeles Sparks, one of four still-standing original WNBA franchises, would be bought by the Warriors’ ownership group and moved to the Bay Area.
In early February, however, an investment group led by Lakers legend Magic Johnson and Mark Walter swooped in and saved the day. The team would be remaining in the City of Angels, where it would have more opportunities to compete for titles.
“Magic buys the office lunch all the time,” said Sparks general manager Penny Toler, “and every time he’s getting ready to say his prayer, he’s always like, ‘Penny, the team gotta win, the team gotta win.’” Read more >>
2013 LA Sparks Season Preview
The Sparks Hope to Fight for a WNBA Championship This Year
The Los Angeles Sparks open their 2013 season Sunday evening with lofty expectations, one year removed from a tremendously successful season that was halted by the Minnesota Lynx in the Western Conference finals.
In 2012, Carol Ross’ first year at the helm, the squad improved by nine wins, a considerable jump in winning percentage from .441 to .706. Surprisingly, for a franchise that has experienced so much success throughout the WNBA’s history, it was its first 20-win season since 2008, Candace Parker’s rookie year. In fact, ’08 and ’12 are the only seasons Parker has played at least 30 games.
Last year, the Sparks cleaned up, winning most of the league’s biggest awards. Ross earned Coach of the Year honors, first-overall pick Nneka Ogwumike won WNBA Rookie of the Year and guard Kristi Toliver was recognized as the league’s Most Improved Player after increasing her scoring average from 11.2 to 17.5 points per game. Meanwhile, she managed to raise her field-goal percentage to 49.1, including 42.4 percent from three-point range. In the most important individual category, Parker finished second in MVP-voting, earning 253 points, just behind Connecticut’s Tina Charles, who got 345.
Parker put the team on her back last postseason, averaging 28.8 points per game on 57.3 percent shooting. In Game 2 of the Western Conference finals, the MVP runner-up played all 40 minutes and scored 33 points to go along with 15 rebounds, five assists and four blocks. Even so, the Lynx won by a single point, effectively eliminating the Sparks from title contention. Parker didn’t touch the ball once on her team’s final possession. Read more >>
Fallen Soldier
Jacki Gemelos Keeps Fighting Despite Five ACL Surgeries
This motivational William Quigley painting hangs in Gautier’s office; Gemelos keeps getting up. (Aaron Fischman/Slam Online)
At halftime of a Sacramento Monarchs game, 11-year-old Jacki Gemelos was asked to make six free throws in less than a minute. She missed her first shot, but calmly proceeded to swish the next six.
By the time she was 15, Gemelos had already committed to the University of Connecticut, the powerhouse school for which her favorite player, Diana Taurasi, played at the time.
As she prepared to enter college in 2006, Gemelos was nationally ranked as the No. 1 women’s basketball player in her class.
But ever since the final game of her McDonald’s All-American senior year at St. Mary’s (CA)—a season in which she averaged 39.2 points and 8.9 assists per game—her once-expectedly smooth path to the WNBA has become riddled with obstacles.
Seven years and five ACL surgeries later, including three surgeries to her left knee, she still hasn’t played a single WNBA game. Read more >>