(BEFORE THEY WERE SUPERSTARS)
(CANDACE PARKER, AGE: 20 DATE: FEBRUARY 2007)
(SPORT: BASKETBALL LOCATION: KNOXVILLE, USA)
This is the American city of Knoxville,
home to the University of Tennessee.
Back in 2007, Candace was playing for
their women's basketball team.
I've grown up around basketball.
Ever since I was born, I've had a basketball in my crib.
The Tennessee team were then coached
by the late, great Pat Summitt,
a legendary figure in American basketball.
I love what I do so that's my motivation.
(PAT SUMMITT, COACH)
My motivation is working with young people.
I love working with these young women,
and helping them strive to be the best they can be.
Candace was in her second year playing for Tennessee,
and Coach Summitt knew that she had on her hands
a very special talent.
First of all, she's multi-dimensional, offensively.
She has a post-up game, she has a face-up game,
she can play off the dribble.
She can dunk the basketball.
She can block shots, defend with the likes of a guard,
so that allows her to play a lot of positions
and a lot of roles for us,
and how good can Candace Parker be?
She can be the best to ever play the game.
Hailing from Illinois,
Candace began playing competitively aged six.
She became the first person to win the prestigious
Naismith High School Player Of The Year award twice.
Fendi, come here.
Look! Look, Fendi.
She doesn't listen. Come here!
I feel like basketball's been in my blood.
My dad played basketball at the University of Iowa,
'72 through '76.
My brother played,
my oldest brother played at Bradley University.
Then he went on to play in the NBA,
and then he went overseas, and now he's back in the NBA
playing for the Toronto Raptors.
There had been an intense recruiting battle
amongst numerous US colleges to sign Candace,
but there was only one place she wanted to go.
The University of Tennessee
is just a great historical programme.
Pat Summitt has brought it, you know, to where it is right now,
and just the fan support, obviously, the tradition,
that's what made me come here.
With Candace on their roster,
the Lady Vols were attracting huge crowds.
For their last game of the 2007 regular season,
24,000 fans were in attendance.
They were hoping to see Tennessee
end their Southeastern Conference season
without losing a single match.
Go hard. Go to the paint. Go inside.
Now, you've got a chance to do something
you haven't done in a while.
What's that?
Go undefeated in this conference.
Undefeated in this conference.
And you do that, you make a big statement,
and you obviously lock up your number one seed,
which is a goal of ours... has been.
And we're 40 minutes away.
All right? Hopefully, not 45! Let's go!
Let's go, Lady Vols.
Like many Tennessee matches that season,
the game turned into the Candace Parker show.
The Lady Vols cruised to yet another victory.
Here in Tennessee, they expect
a National Championship every year, and if you don't win it,
then it's kind of like a failure.
So I feel like we have the right parts to do it,
and we just need to put it all together
and just accomplish that goal.
Candace and the Lady Vols
went on to win the 2007 National title,
and then they repeated the feat in the following year.
Candace then turned professional,
and went on to star in the WNBA.
She helped Team USA to win gold
at both the 2008 and 2012 Olympic Games.