In the LA Sparks 77-63 victory over the Indiana Fever last night, Candace Parker became just the second woman in WNBA history to dunk in a game. But no doubt, their will be some who say it wasn't a "true dunk." And I've got a tiny problem with that.
It's not that I don't understand the critics. It is true that all those years of watching Michael Jordan hang on the rim after a tongue-wagging diabolical dunk has defined our perception of what a dunk is. However, I'm not going to compare Candace to MJ. It's not fair, not because she's a woman but because it's not fair to compare anyone to MJ. Oh, and it's also not fair because she is a woman and the two sexes approach the game differently. That is a fact, not a misogynistic statement.
Many of Candace's dunks in college were criticized for various reasons. The two she made against Army during the 2006 NCAA Tournament were dubbed "slam lay-ins" by critics like columnist Jason Whiltock over on ESPN's Page 2, who also compared Parker's dunking ability to that of an 8th grade boy. A little harsh, especially coming from the portly Whitlock, who might be able to accomplish a "slam lay-in" if he had a trampoline and replaced one of the sandwiches in his hands with a basketball.
And don't think I'm taking ugly potshots at Whitlock. I can't dunk. I'm so short I couldn't even even touch the rim back when I wasn't 20 pounds overweight. So, my hat's off to Candace. I'm just saying that people in glass houses shouldn't throw bricks.
I will admit that the dunks against Army were not earth shattering. Last night's dunk against Indiana wasn't either. I don't think we'll ever see a monster, glass-shattering dunk in the WNBA or women's college hoops. And that's fine with me because women approach the game with more finesse than men. That's a compliment, by the way and is the main reason I won't compare Candace's dunking to that which we see in the men's game. Clearly to dunk in the WNBA mean's something different than to dunk in the NBA.
The only fair way to compare Candace is to put her up against the only other woman to have dunked in the league, her teammate Lisa Leslie. Let's be the Supreme Court for a minute and assume that Leslie established precedent when she dunked in 2002. If so, then it's clear after watching the videos below that if Leslie dunked, Candace dunked. To go a bit further, if Leslie's dunk in 2002 set the precedent for dunking in women's basketball at all levels, then Candace dunked twice against Army while at Tennessee.
Leslie's dunk, 2002:
Candace's dunk, 2008:
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