Everyone knows Naperville Central’s national player of the year Candace Parker can play basketball.
Now they know the 17-year-old Tennessee recruit can dunk with the best of them too.
The 6-foot-3 Parker won the Powerade Jam Fest slam dunk competition in Midwest City, Okla., beating a field of male competitors that included at least two who could be playing in the NBA next season.
“I was saying earlier that I hope 10 years from now this isn’t a big deal,” said Parker, who won Illinois Ms. Basketball three times. “That would be my dream. That 10 years from now three or four girls enter the dunk contest and it’s not a big deal. It’s not like, ‘Wow, she won.’ I hope that happens.”
The event was held Monday as a prelude to Wednesday’s McDonald’s All-American games. (Parker is playing in the women’s game.) The dunk contest will air at 7 p.m. Wednesday on ESPN.
Fans watched Parker perform a right-handed slam in which she covered her eyes with her left arm during the final few steps. That earned her 79 out of a possible 80 points from the eight judges.
The winner upstaged a highly anticipated McDonald’s All-American boys’ game that will include as many as 12 players who could skip college and enter the NBA draft.
Parker outdunked Josh Smith, a potential NBA draft lottery pick, and Rudy Gay, who has committed to Connecticut next season. She also beat North Carolina recruit J.R. Smith, Memphis recruit Darius Washington and Kentucky recruit Joe Crawford.
Last season, Parker missed 11 games with a torn ACL before returning to lead Naperville Central to the state title. She is the daughter of former Iowa basketball standout Larry Parker and sister of 1997 first-round NBA draftee Anthony.
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Previous winners
Candace Parker joins an elite group of players who have won the McDonald’s slam dunk contest. A sampling:
1993: Jerry Stackhouse
1995: Vince Carter
1997: Baron Davis
2002: Carmelo Anthony
2003: LeBron James
It’s slam-tastic
A look at the dunk’s long and storied past:
1951: The NBA expands the lane around the hoop from six feet to
12 feet to limit the impact of 6-foot-10 star George Mikan.
1968: The NCAA outlaws the dunk after UCLA’s Kareem Abdul-Jabaar (then Lew Alcindor) dominates the game. The dunk is reinstated in 1977.
1976: The American Basketball Association has the first pro dunk contest at the All-Star game.
1984: West Virginia’s Georgeann Wells is the first woman to dunk in a college game. Two others have done it since.
1986: The 5-foot-7 Spud Webb electrifies the crowd by winning the NBA Slam Dunk Contest.
2001: Parker’s dunk as a sophomore is the first by a girl in an Illinois high school game and said to be the second in the nation.
2002: The L.A. Sparks’ Lisa Leslie throws down the first slam dunk ever in the WNBA.
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