Article: Lady Vols’ Candace Parker No. 1 in WNBA draft

“You dreamed of this,” he told her. “This is what you’ve wanted your entire life.”

Parker smiled and agreed. She skipped her final year of eligibility to fulfill her dream and take advantage of Los Angeles, a large media market, holding the first pick.

“It’s been really hard. Obviously, I’ve wavered,” she said. “I think everybody wavers on decisions all the time, especially when you’re in the moment and there’s orange surrounding you and people are begging you and saying, ‘One more year!’ I just felt like it was time for me to leave and we left on top.”

Williams made the trip Wednesday from San Francisco, where his Sacramento Kings played Golden State the previous night. Williams met Parker during her official recruiting visit to Duke, where Williams starred in college. Williams said that Parker is expecting a significant number of endorsements with the WNBA.

“A lot of her stuff is going to be about marketing, and you can’t get any better than L.A.,” he said. “That’s one of the biggest markets. That’s what we were hoping for and fortunately it worked out.”

The Associated Press -- Tennessee’s Candace Parker reacts as she is selected by the Los Angeles Sparks as the number one pick at the WNBA draft Wednesday.

Tennessee’s entire national championship starting lineup heard their names called Wednesday. Guard Alexis Hornbuckle went fourth overall to Detroit after Parker, LSU’s Sylvia Fowles and Stanford’s Candice Wiggins. She’ll play for former Pistons star Bill Laimbeer.

“I haven’t talked to Coach Laimbeer yet,” said Hornbuckle, who joked with Fowles about her last-second shot to beat LSU last Sunday, “but I hear he’s a pretty interesting guy.”

Point guard Shannon Bobbitt and center Nicky Anosike went back-to-back to start the second round and Alberta Auguste went 35th overall to New York. Georgia’s Tasha Humphrey went 10th overall to Sacramento.

Bobbitt will join Parker in Los Angeles along with former teammate Sidney Spencer.

“Isn’t that crazy?” Spencer said. “I’m excited to kind of be able to take them under my wing and kind of show them around the ropes of the league and the city, because L.A. can be intimidating. I’m excited about rejoining our group. It’s almost something that it’s impossible that it happened.”

Added Anosike: “The L.A. Sparks are going to become the University of Tennessee Lady Vols.”

Parker will play her first WNBA game May 17 at Phoenix and her second in Atlanta on May 25. Parker said her injured shoulder “just needs some rest” and expects to play in the season opener.

That’s when WNBA personnel hopes Parker’s broad appeal and smooth game will advance the league, now in its 12th year.

“I feel like now it’s the responsibility of our class to raise the bar,” said Parker, citing Fowles, Wiggins and Erlana Larkins. “I think this class is capable of doing that. We raised the bar in college drastically. I feel like in the WNBA, it’s going to be the rivalries. It’s going to be Candice Wiggins vs. Candace Parker. It’s going to be Sylvia Fowles vs. Erlana Larkins. It’s going to be great for the game.”