'Defending her turf'
Parker's father says shaky officiating led to WNBA altercation
Cyberspace sold it as a brawl, WNBA spokesman Ron Howard called it an "incident" and Candace Parker's father, Larry, sided somewhere in between on the hardwood raucous.
No matter what Tuesday's altercation between the Los Angeles Sparks and Detroit Shock gets labeled next, the WNBA will continue to receive an unusual amount of attention until the dust settles.
(Jerry S. Mendoza/AP)
Jerry S. Mendoza / The Associated Press
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• Fight at a WNBA game
"(A) brawl is Indiana-Detroit in the NBA," said Larry Parker, referring to a 2004 melee between the Pacers and Pistons, which involved fans. "This was a shoving, pushing-pulling type thing, rather than that."
The often overlooked companion league to the more popular NBA is expected to issue several incident-related suspensions today to many high-profile players and coaches, including Parker and DeLisha Milton-Jones of the Sparks and Plenette Pierson and Rick Mahorn of the Shock.
Parker and Milton-Jones made this summer's U.S. Olympic team, and Mahorn is widely associated with the Pistons' "Bad Boys" teams of the late 1980s and early '90s. All three players and Mahorn - now an assistant with the Shock - were ejected from Tuesday's nationally televised game. But it never should have come to that, in Larry Parker's opinion.
"If Pierson doesn't walk over her, it doesn't happen," he said. "Candace would have got up and went back down the court and played for the remaining 4.9 seconds or something. It just wouldn't have happened. There's no reason why."
Pierson and Parker fell to the ground after tangling on a free-throw attempt with 5.2 seconds remaining. As Parker began to lift herself back to her feet, Pierson walked in full stride into a crouching Parker. From that vulnerable position, Parker used her right arm to swing Pierson behind her and to the ground.
From there, Parker got tackled by the Shock's Deanna Nolan. The Sparks' Lisa Leslie fell to the ground next, following contact with Mahorn. Milton-Jones responded to that by punching Mahorn in the back. Off to the side, the Shock's Cheryl Ford tried to contain Pierson and tore her anterior cruciate ligament in the process.
"To be honest, I don't recall exactly what happened," Parker told The Associated Press after the game. "I'll have to watch the tape."
Parker and her father spoke that same night, but she had yet to see a replay.
Larry Parker would not reveal what his daughter said to him but did offer this: "You have to draw some lines once in a while, and it's unfortunate it had to happen like that."
Larry Parker watched the second half of the game twice and felt the officials let it get out of hand. He cited a lack of over-the-back and pushing fouls called against the Shock, which was challenging the best rebounding team in the WNBA without penalty.
Right before they hit the floor, Pierson and Parker lined up in rebounding position for a free throw. Pierson forcefully used her hips to box out Parker, another example of contact that could have been whistled as a foul in Larry Parker's judgment. And doing so would have prevented the ensuing outburst as well, he said.
"I'm not defending Candace," Larry Parker said. "She probably, certainly shouldn't have grabbed the girl and thrown her down, but I don't quite know what else you can do when somebody walks up on you when you're sitting on the ground. I don't want to sound like I applaud it, that's for sure; I can understand it (though)."
The Sparks did not release any official statements Wednesday.
No matter what comes of the physical outburst, it's primed to happen again.
"Believe me, they're not the first team to try to rough her up and think that that's the way to do it. And they won't be the last team that does that," Larry Parker said. "I think she handles it for the most part pretty well, and I don't think Candace had lost her head or anything. I think she was just defending her turf."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
