The Ball Briefing: The Biggest Free Agency Signing In WNBA History Just Happened
On Candace Parker going to Chicago as well as the Royal Rumble, the crazy ending to Wizards-Nets and Paige Bueckers. Plus some dope links!
The Ball Briefing is our quick recap of what has been captivating us in the sports world. Every week, you’ll get a blog post, some quick-hitters and links to our favorite articles about men’s basketball, women’s basketball, historical subjects and/or whatever has captured our attention. Subscribe to get the Ball Briefing every week and everything else we do using the button below!
Candace Parker to Chicago is MASSIVE
There are some seminal moments in sports that immediately change how the sport functions. On the NBA side, Lebron’s Decision to take his talents to South Beach fundamentally altered the league and kicked off the past decade of player empowerment and movement. Well, the WNBA may have just had one of those moments with Candace Parker leaving the Los Angeles Sparks for the Chicago Sky in free agency.
Parker has been one of the faces of women’s basketball for almost two decades now. That may actually be an understatement. Since winning the McDonald’s All-American slam dunk contest in high school, she has received the lion’s share of attention in this sport. Even people who don’t watch basketball at all know who she is. Perhaps more than any other player, Parker has helped take women’s basketball from point A to point B in terms of mainstream recognition.
Her move to Chicago may take the sport from point B to point C by ushering in a new era of player empowerment under the WNBA’s new CBA. Under the old CBA, the Sparks could have designated Parker as a core player. The core designation gives teams exclusive negotiating rights to a player, kind of like the NFL’s franchise tag. However, the new CBA reduced the number of times that a player could be “cored” from four times to three (to two starting next season). Parker had already been cored three times, so the Sparks could not keep her from unrestricted free agency.
We saw superstars like Angel McCoughtry, Skylar Diggins-Smith, DeWanna Bonner and Tina Charles change teams last offseason. But the latter three were traded, and McCoughtry was allowed to leave due to Atlanta’s decision not to core her. Simply put, WNBA stars of Parker’s caliber still playing at an elite level just don’t switch teams in free agency. Let’s use some hard-ish data to prove this point. All of this research is powered by Her Hoop Stats and Across The Timeline.
Parker is one of six WNBA players to win multiple MVP awards. Only one other player on the list, Sheryl Swoopes, changed teams in free agency and that happened when Swoopes was winding down her legendary career at 37 years old. Elena Delle Donne forced a trade to Washington then won her second MVP. Both situations are very different from Parker signing with Chicago at age 34.
Parker just won the Defensive Player of the Year, in addition to winning Finals MVP in 2016. No DPOY since Swoopes (who won in 2000, 2002, and 2003) has outright signed with another team after winning the award. Alana Beard signed with LA and then won DPOY twice, and Sylvia Fowles forced her way out like EDD did. No Finals MVP has switched teams since 2009, besides Seimone Augustus who left Minnesota last offseason.
As Augustus and the other players who moved last year, the WNBA has been in the era of player empowerment. The difference with Candace Parker is two-fold. First, her star power outside of the women’s basketball world will help bring more attention to the league’s free agency like Lebron did for the NBA. Second, Parker had true freedom in her decision. The only person that she had to consult was herself and her family. She alluded to this in her introductory press conference.
“I’m not leaving kicking and screaming, I left on my own terms,” said Parker. “I’m not disgruntled, I’m just exercising my right as an unrestricted free agent.”
Parker’s expression of true freedom is a big deal for a league where most great players didn’t have that freedom. Her move could be the tipping point that allows other WNBA superstars to do the same, and may just change the league forever.
Fast Breaks
If you can’t stand WWE because it’s fake or whatever, then this newsletter might not be for you because it’s time to talk about the Royal Rumble pay-per-view. The Rumble is always a delight because, even without fans in the stands, it brings out the most ridiculous parts of wrestling. Approximately 70% of the 5-hour show is around 15 men and/or (now!) women pretending to be dead in the ring as two people actually wrestle. My favorite part of this year’s Rumble show came during the Roman Reigns-Kevin Owens Last Man Standing match for the Universal Championship. The announcer pleaded with Owens to “think about your wife, think about your family” before he tackled Reigns through a table. Owens was promptly run over by a golf cart and then jumped off a forklift onto Reigns through a table. “Fuck them kids”~Kevin Owens. WWE just took the exit on the Road to Wrestlemania (which is in two months).
I took a quick break from the Rumble to watch the end of Wizards-Nets, and what a decision it ended up being. I picked up the game with 41 seconds left to see Russell Westbrook hit a layup to tie the game, but it stayed tied only briefly before Kyrie hit a jumper. After a Bradley Beal miss and some Nets free throws, the Wizards were down 5 and pulled off the dumbest miracle this season.
Beal’s three is impressive, but normal for the NBA’s leading scorer. Then, Garrison Matthews being almost totally nondescript finally pays off as Joe Harris fails to see him and throws the inbound directly into his hands. Matthews then finds Russ, who naturally takes a pretty ill-advised three. But he nailed it! Despite almost blowing it on the final play by forgetting to cover the rim, the Wizards finally won a game after 20 days of COVID and losses.
Paige Beuckers would not be a top 5 PG in the WNBA right now, as NBA/WNBA basketball trainer Alex Bazzell claimed this week. She’s not even the best PG in college and has a ways to go physically. I don’t think Bazzell’s opinion is crazy or offensive, especially considering his basketball knowledge. The interesting part of it was how he defined point guard so narrowly. He said that Skylar Diggins-Smith is a combo guard and therefore not a point guard. I think that’s pretty crazy considering Skylar has played as the primary ball handler and defended ones her entire career. The term point guard is meaningless if Skylar is not a point guard just because she’s a scorer. Positions are becoming antiquated, so maybe the term is actually meaningless now. Any way you slice it, Beuckers has a lot to prove before getting this lofty praise.
Lobbin’ Links
Our podcast debate on Luka Doncic vs Giannis Antetokoumpo. Listen on Apple podcasts and Spotify.
GameStonk Rocket Rocket Rocket by Matt Levine for Bloomberg
If you are a conscious human being you have likely heard something about GameStop, but people are wildly speculating online about NBA Cards too! 🙌💎🙌💎🙌💎🚀🚀🚀
The rise of Luka Doncic happened faster than anyone predicted by Tim MacMahon for ESPN
In Defense of RoboDuck, by James Vos for Ditch Rich
The LeBron crater: Inside Cleveland’s devastating season after ‘The Decision,’ by Jason Loyd for The Athletic ($)
An oral history on the saddest team in NBA history. A bit too many Ryan Hollins comments but hey, nothing is perfect.
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