Sparks star Candace Parker remembers former coach Pat Summitt

LOS ANGELES >> Candace Parker cut through the lane to kiss the ball of the glass for the Sparks first basket of the night in their eventual 89-84 win over the Dallas Wings on Tuesday.

Then, she pointed to the sky.

Pat Summitt, the coach she had won two national titles with during her three seasons at Teessee, had passed away that moing at the age of 64, following a five-year battle with Alzheimer’s Disease. This was Parker’s tribute to her.

The two-time WNBA MVP led a 22-point comeback, scoring 25 of her 31 total points in the second half against Dallas. She added a season-high 13 rebounds, all while wearing Teessee orange sneakers with the word “rebound” scribbled on the right toe as a reminder of the way her former coach would glare at her when yelling at her to do just that.

“She is my coach, she will always be my coach,” Parker said following Thursday’s win over the Atlanta Dream.

Parker had visited Summitt recently, flying to Teessee between road games against Miesota and Coecticut. While she has said she doesn’t want to discuss the details of that visit out of respect for the wishes of the Summitt family, she hardly paused before answering “I love her” when asked what she had come away with after her short time in Knoxville.

“I have a tremendous amount of respect for the way in which she lived,” she said. “A lot of people can go around and talk the talk, but she walked the walk everyday. There’s very few people in this world that can do that.”

That feeling of love for Summitt isn’t hard for Sparks head coach Brian Agler to understand. During his 17 years with the WNBA, Agler estimates he’s coached more than 10 of her former players—and her impact on them has been consistent throughout.

“They all keep Coach Summitt right up there,” Agler said. “They talk about her as they would talk about their family or their parents or their grandparents. That’s the kind of influence that she’s had.”

Summitt’s impact on the individual is something Parker regards highly, equal parts to her impact on the game as the wiingest coach in men’s and women’s college basketball history.

“She not only affected the game, but she changed individual lives,” Parker said. “She’s had a tremendous impact on the way I live my life and the way I’m going to continue to do that.”

While it has been eight years since Parker forwent her final season of collegiate eligibility to play professionally, it’s in the network of former Teessee players that she has found refuge in the days since Summitt’s passing.

“It’s something I feel she’s prepared us for through her teaching to lean on family,” Parker said. “That’s what the Lady Vol nation is doing.”

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