IF SHE DUNKS IT, THEY WILL COME IT MIGHT NOT BE WHAT THE WNBA GAME IS FUNDAMENTALLY BUILT ON, BUT PARKER'S SLAMS ARE WHAT THE LEAGUE NEEDS TO DRAW THE CASUAL FANS IN.

Byline: RAMONA SHELBURNE 

It was NBA draft night, and Darrell Bailey's favorite team, the Clippers, once again had a lottery pick. Draft central for Clipper Nation was at the Nokia Theater, across the street from Staples Center in downtown Los Angeles.

By 7 p.m., the Clippers had their man, drafting Eric Gordon with the seventh overall pick. Most of the crowd left soon afterward, satisfied with the evening.

But Bailey, known affectionately to just about anyone who has ever attended a Clippers home game as "Clipper Darrell," stuck around. Not for the end of the lottery picks, or the end of the first round. Not even to see who the Clippers would take in the second round.

Clipper Darrell had other plans across the street.

"I just had to see Candace," he said.

Candace Parker, that is.

Of the Sparks.

In the WNBA.

Clipper Darrell has seen every Clippers home game this decade. Sat through every minute, wearing his trademark half-red, half-blue satin suit with a Clippers logo on the back, leading the cheers from his season seat in section 107.

But until Thursday he'd been to a total of just one WNBA game. And that was 11 years ago in the league's inaugural season in 1997.

"It was OK," he said of his first WNBA experience. "But they were still kind of prim and proper."

Now, with Parker in town, casual fans like Bailey are curious again. Curious enough to find out when the team is playing, how to buy tickets, curious enough to actually go to a game on a Thursday night.

"Oh man, she's nice," he said. "Everyone said she can play, but I wanted to see it for myself and I saw it tonight. She plays like a guy. I think she can go to the other league. She's got game."

The dunks help, of course.

In two consecutive games last week, Parker took the total number of dunks in a WNBA game from one to three. But they aren't everything, just the headline atop the marquee outside the theater that gets fans like Bailey in the door.

If she dunks it, they will come.

There are some who say promoting Parker's dunks cheapens the sport. It's not the women's game, or that they're being disingenous, the argument goes.

All valid points. Dunking isn't the women's game, nor will it ever be a big part of it. Parker and her teammate Lisa Leslie are the only two women to dunk in a WNBA game.

But the goal for women's basketball shouldn't be to play more like the men's game. Quite frankly, they can't. And trying to convince fans that their eyes are deceiving them isn't good business.

The women's game should play to its strengths. A cozier, fan-friendly atmosphere, a more fundamental, strategic game, athletes who embrace their opportunity to be role models.

Where else but the WNBA would a star player grab a microphone at the end of a game and apologize to fans for a subpar performance, as Sparks forward DeLisha Milton-Jones did after Thursday's game?

About 9,000 fans come out regularly to Sparks games for all of those reasons. They're sold. No dunking necessary.

But the biggest hurdle the women's game has faced in its first decade of existence is building more than that 9,000-a night base. Average attendance figures for the league have stayed within 7,490-10,869 all 12 seasons.

To expand on that, the league needs to make itself relevant on a nightly basis. Fans outside of each teams' core of 9,000 need to care whether the Sparks are a game and a half up on the San Antonio Silver Stars for first place in the Western Conference, whether Parker dunks again, or whether Diana Taurasi makes a no-look pass.

Local television stations need to show highlights of the games, radio stations need to include their scores.

But no one does anything out of obligation or because it's the right thing to do. You can't make people care. They either do, or they don't.

That's where Parker comes in.

After she dunked in consecutive games, just about every sports talk radio station in the country did a segment on it. SportsCenter ran highlights.

Fans like Clipper Darrell bought tickets.

She dunked, and they came.

They came because they wanted to see if she could do it again, or to see if she was really that good, or what this women's basketball thing was all about.

And once inside, they found a product a whole lot better than the one they might have peeked at 11 years ago.

"Dunking is an exclamation point to the WNBA," league president Donna Orender said. "But the brand is built on fundamentals, teamwork and outstanding skills."

The game gets faster and more entertaining every year. The players are more talented and skilled. Parker didn't dunk Thursday night, but Washington Mystics guard Monique Currie made a behind-the-back ball fake and spin move that would make any guy at Rucker Park smile.

"That would've been cool if she could've dunked," Clipper Darrell said about Parker. "But it didn't bother me. I sat here and enjoyed all four quarters of this game."

Parker's fiancee, Sacramento Kings forward Shelden Williams, has a courtside seat for every Sparks game. Since his relationship with Parker has become more well-known, he's been getting a lot of calls from people curious about Parker. Friends, guys in the league, fans. They all want to know if she's really as good as they've heard.

He was the same way at first, too.

"Once we started working out together, I knew," Williams said. "We'd be playing pick-up games during the summer and she'd pull out these moves I'd never seen before. Moves I didn't know (a woman) could do. She's got a hesitation move, she's got an up-fake, and of course her patented one-handed crossover dribble.

"She'll get you up in the air on that fake every time. Normally, there's a way guys play and a way girls play. But it's not like that with her. You have to watch her all the time, you know."

That's the point. You have to watch her. You have to pay attention. She might dunk, she might make a crazy spin move you've only seen on an And-1 mix tape before, she might hit a 3-pointer to win the game at the buzzer.

But you're curious enough to pay attention. Maybe even to catch the game on television, or find out how to buy a ticket.

What will Candace do tonight?

Well, here's guessing if she keeps dunking, they will keep coming.

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SPARKS

TODAY vs. New York, 12:30 p.m., Staples Center.

TV: FSN Prime.

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3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) no caption (Candace Parker)

Left: John McCoy/Staff Photographer, Right: Noah Graham/NBAE via Getty Images

(3 -- color) Candace Parker, left, and Lisa Leslie are the only players who have dunked in a WNBA contest.

Garrett Ellwood/NBAE via Getty Images