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Candace Parker WNBA star has become a nationally-known commodity now that she graced the cover of ESPN Magazine for their March 2009 issue. She has been a thrilling female athlete from her time at the college level, where she joined the other elite athletes as All American Basketball Players, to her new professional career with the Los Angeles Sparks. But now Parker has gained even more attention for being the first pregnant athlete to be on cover of the ESPN sports magazine.

It should have been expected that there would be a Candace Parker magazine cover. Her college career was record setting and she always has had a photogenic appeal with a warm smile. Parker enrolled at the University of Tennessee in 2006 joining the storied Lady Vols basketball program. In her first season she set a record for scoring points, won Rookie of the Year and hit the game-winning shot in the SEC Conference Finals Game. The next two seasons she lead the Vols to NCAA Finals victories and was named the Most Valuable Player for the Finals both years. She joins a short list of fabled female athletes to have accomplished this honor, such as Cheryl Miller. Parker was also one of the few national Academic All American basketball players during her time at UTENN.

Her debut season with the Los Angeles Sparks found Candance Parker on a mission to score for her team and break records. In her first rookie game she poured in 34 points which easily eclipsed the previous league record. Later in 2008, she became the second player to ever dunk during a WNBA game, after her teammate Lisa Leslie. She ended the season by winning both the Rookie of the Year award and the league Most Valuable Player Award. This dual honor has never happened in the WNBA and has only been accomplished by two other players in basketball: Wes Unseld and Wilt Chamberlain. After these accomplishments there was no doubt that 2008 brought Candace Parker on the national radar.

Parker was also able to land endorsement deals with the big three for athletes: McDonalds, Adidas and Gatorade. These contracts not only rewarded her with lucrative pay but also impressed the big wigs within the sports industry. When the green light was given for the Candace Parker magazine cover at ESPN Sports, no one knew that she was pregnant. They took the photos, wrote the story and prepared it several months in advance for publication in March, female athlete month. In January, when they realized that Parker was pregnant, they re-shot the photos and changed the story to fit her new situation and so Candace Parker became the first pregnant athlete to be on cover when the issue hit the stands. The Candace Parker magazine cover shows her in a white dress cradling her very expectant stomach with her winning smile. The question the Candace Parker magazine cover asks is how big can she get? It seems that no one can quite answer how far this emerging star will travel yet.