Candace Parker went viral earlier this month for debating the merits of “defensive switching”—an increasingly-utilized technique in today’s three-point-centric NBA—with Shaquille O’Neal. Most agreed Parker got the better of O’Neal in that exchange and Tuesday unfolded much the same way with the WNBA star again scoring a decisive victory over her TNT colleague on Inside the NBA.
During a break in the action Tuesday night, Shaq and host Adam Lefkoe changed venues, leaving the studio desk to hoist up shots on TNT’s on-set basketball court. Neither fared particularly well with Lefkoe and O’Neal shooting a combined 2-for-36 from three-point range (5.6 percent). Parker followed up that anemic display by casually sinking all five of her attempts from that distance, and did it in a dress.
A back-to-the-basket player if there ever was one, O’Neal was more known for his post play than his long-range shooting exploits in the NBA, cashing in on just 1 of his 22 career three-point tries (4.5 percent). Parker, on the other hand, boasted a 39.6-percent success rate from downtown with the Los Angeles Sparks last season. If they had held a free-throw shooting contest instead of chucking up threes, Parker likely would have won that too. She’s a lifetime 76.1-percent free-throw shooter, miles better than O’Neal’s disastrous 52.7-percent mark from the charity stripe.
Fourteenth on the WNBA’s all-time scoring list and one of only a handful of women to dunk in a game, is there anything the 6’4” Parker can’t do? Between Tuesday’s brick-fest and getting dunked on by the Utah state legislature over his unnecessarily harsh criticism of Jazz star Donovan Mitchell, it’s been a tough couple months in the analyst chair for Shaq.
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