The Los Angeles Sparks are a professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California, United States. LA Sparks is said to have the Best Players. The Sparks are a member club of the Western Conference of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was created before the start of the league’s debut season in the year 1997. The Sparks, like some other WNBA teams, are not associated with an NBA team, even though the market is shared by the Los Angeles Lakers and the Los Angeles Clippers. The Sparks are the most recent franchise to win back-to-back championships as of 2020.
Jerry Buss, the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers, controlled the Sparks from 1997 to 2006, when Williams Group Holdings bought the franchise. It was once known as the Los Angeles Lakers’ sister team.
In their twenty-four years in Los Angeles, the Sparks have qualified for the WNBA Playoffs more than any other team in the league. Best Players have played for the LA Sparks, including 6’4″ Tennessee center Candace Parker, flamboyant point guard Nikki Teasley, and nearby USC alums Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson. The Sparks reached the WNBA Finals in 2001, 2002, 2003, 2016, and 2017. They won the championship in 2001, 2002, and 2016, defeating Charlotte, New York, and Minnesota, respectively, but lost in 2003 and 2017 to Detroit and Minnesota.
List of Best Los Angeles Spark Players
| No. | Player |
|---|---|
| 1. | Nneka Ogwumike |
| 2. | Candace Parker |
| 3. | Liz Cambage |
| 4. | Jasmine Walker |
| 5. | Brittney Sykes |
| 6. | Chennedy Carter |
| 7. | Kristi Toliver |
First Best LA Sparks Players – Nneka Ogwumike
Chinwe Nnemkadi Victoria “Nneka” Ogwumike is a Nigerian-American basketball player who plays for the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was picked first overall in the WNBA Draft in 2012. Ogwumike inked an endorsement agreement with Nike shortly after being picked. Chiney Ogwumike, who also plays for the Sparks, is her older sister. In the year 2016, Ogwumike was crowned WNBA MVP after winning the WNBA Finals, and in 2021, she was termed to The W25, the league’s ranking of the top 25 players in the league’s first 25 years. She also plays for Russia’s Dynamo Kursk. In the Igbo language of Nigeria, where her family is from, her name “Nneka” means “Mother is Supreme.”
She stands 6’2″ tall and is a power forward. She was a senior at Cy-Fair High School in Cypress, Texas, where she led the team to a 5A State Championship. Nneka helped the Stanford Cardinal reach the Final Four four times during her stay there. In 2016, Ogwumike was chosen as President of the WNBA Players Association, and in 2019, she was re-elected to a three-year term.
Second Best LA Sparks Players – Candace Parker
Candace Nicole Parker is a professional basketball player in the Women’s National Basketball Association for the Chicago Sky (WNBA). The Los Angeles Sparks selected her as the first overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft.
Parker is a versatile player who primarily plays forward and center. Parker was only the second junior and the only woman to win the Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year award twice in high school, in 2003 and 2004. She was a two-time consensus national player of the year and led Tennessee to two consecutive national titles in the years 2007, and 2008. Parker was awarded the Final Four’s most outstanding player on both occasions.
She made history as the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game and the first woman to dunk twice in a college game as a redshirt freshman. Parker was instrumental in the Sparks’ first WNBA Finals championship since 2002 in 2016.
Third Best LA Sparks Players- Liz Cambage
Elizabeth Folake Cambage is an Australian professional basketball player for the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Sparks (WNBA). Cambage’s 53-point performance against the New York Liberty on July 17, 2018, is the WNBA single-game scoring record.
Between 2009 and 2021, she was a member of Australia’s national team, the Opals, winning gold at the 2018 Commonwealth Games, silver at the 2018 World Cup, and bronze at the 2012 Olympics.
4. Jasmine Walker
Jasmine Walker is an American professional basketball player for the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Sparks (WNBA). She formerly represented the Alabama Crimson Tide women’s basketball team in college.
The Los Angeles Sparks selected former Alabama women’s basketball standout Jasmine Walker eighth overall in the WNBA draught. In 27 games as a senior, the 6-foot-3 forward averaged 19.1 points and 9.4 rebounds. She made 39.8% of her 3-point attempts.
5. Brittney Sykes
Brittney Sykes is an American professional basketball player for the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Sparks (WNBA). In the 2017 WNBA draught, she was selected with the seventh overall pick.
Sykes became the first woman to be drafted in the history of the Orange women’s basketball program.
During the WNBA offseason, Sykes, like many other WNBA players, participates in a foreign squad in addition to her WNBA club. Sykes is a member of Petah Tikva’s Israeli Women’s Basketball Premier League team. Alexis Peterson, a former Syracuse University teammate who played for the Seattle Storm in her WNBA rookie season in 2017 and is now with the Indiana Fever, is also on the team.
6. Chennedy Carter
Chennedy Carter is an American professional basketball player for the Women’s National Basketball Association’s Los Angeles Sparks (WNBA). She was a member of the Texas A&M Aggies basketball team in college. Carter was awarded an honorable mention of All-American by the Associated Press in April 2019. The Atlanta Dream selected Carter fourth overall in the 2020 WNBA Draft.
She was eligible for the 2020 draught because she turned 22 in 2020. Chennedy Carter declared for the WNBA draught on March 29th, foregoing her final year. The Atlanta Dream selected her fourth overall in the 2020 WNBA Draft on April 17th.
Well, in the later stage of her career she became Texas A&M’s highest-drafted player in the history of the school. She scored 35 points against Seattle with a score of 8/6 in her debut season, becoming her the youngest player in WNBA history to score 30 points at 21 years and 266 days.
7. Kristi Toliver
Kristi Renee Toliver is a professional basketball player in the Women’s National Basketball Association who plays for the Los Angeles Sparks (WNBA). Toliver got an endorsement deal with Nike during her debut WNBA season.
Toliver was moved to the Los Angeles Sparks shortly before the 2010 season began in return for a second-round draught pick in 2011. She was the team’s backup point guard behind Ticha Penicheiro in her debut season with the Sparks. In 34 games, she averaged 8.6 points.
With Penicheiro’s departure in 2012, Toliver took over as the Sparks’ starting point guard and had a breakout season. Toliver scored a game-winning 3-pointer at the buzzer against the Tulsa Shock in May. She was termed to the All-WNBA Second Team and won the WNBA Most Improved Player Award after averaging a career-high 17.5 points per game, ranking 9th in three-point field goal percentage, and was termed the Western Conference Player of the Month for August. Her offensive prowess carried over to the playoffs, where she averaged 20 points per game over four games.
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