Entertainment City
by Ella Noel
Wednesday April 29,2015
The Life of a Famous Athlete
Have you ever dreamed of growing up and being paid to do what you love? That’s exactly what twenty-nine year old Candace Parker does. With a height of six foot four and a weight of one-hundred and seventy-two pounds, she is a starting guard the WNBA’s Los Angeles Sparks. Not only is she a guard, but she also plays as a center and a forward. On the journey to the WNBA, she played basketball at a high school known as Naperville Central in Naperville, Illinois. After high school she went on to play at The University of Tennessee under head coach Pat Summit before her selection into the WNBA.
Candace’s life started on April 19, 1996 in Missouri where she was born. According to Candace’s parents, Larry and Sarah, they knew they had something special the day she was born. While being the only girl and the youngest of a basketball family, she was surrounded by basketball her whole life, but according to her dad, she really wasn’t interested in the sport. Her oldest brother, Anthony, went onto the NBA after college to play for the Cleveland Cavilers, while her other brother, Marcus, didn’t end up pursuing a basketball career. She is now married to former NBA player, Shelden Williams, with a daughter name Lailaa.
According to Candace she always had a family pushing her to do her best whether it was on the court, in the classroom, or anywhere. That is proven when you look at all of her accomplishments over the years. During high school, she was on Naperville Central’s Honor Roll every semester. Not only did she prove she was a great student, winning Rookie of the Year and MVP in her rookie season in 2008 with the Los Angeles Sparks, she also proved she was a great basketball player as well. In 2011 she was invited to her first All-Star game. In 2013, she was invited back and went on to win MVP of the game. She also has won four national / international championships. Two of the four came from college, winning the NCAA Women championship at the University of Tennessee twice. She is also a two time Olympic gold medalist. She has many achievements that take hard work to get, but she can also do something not a lot of women can say they can do. She is capable of dunking. In fact, she won the “McDonalds All-American” dunk contest right out of high school making her the first female to ever win a dunk contest. She was also the second woman to ever dunk in a WNBA game right after Lisa Leslie.
As we all know, nobody can play professional sports forever and will eventually need a job to fall back on. Candace says she would like a job as a TV announcer or broadcaster. She also majored in sports management at the University of Tennessee and also would enjoy a job in that field. She says either way she will stay connected to sports, but mainly basketball in any job she ends up doing.
Olympic game
Husband and daughter
Parents
The Home of Many Stages
Have you ever imagined playing or preforming in an arena many other famous people have performed/played in? There is a building at 1111 South Figueroa Street that is 400 square feet, 150 feet tall, with a width of ninety-four feet and a length of 200 feet known as the Staples Center that will let you do just that.
The Staples Center is home to three basketball teams, one hockey team, and one arena football team. The building can seat up to 19,067 people for basketball games and 18,118 for hockey and arena football. One of the basketball teams that plays there is the Lakers. On average they get about 18,737 fans to attend their games at the Staples Center. The other NBA team that plays there, the Clippers, usually get an attendance of approximately 18,997 people. The last basketball team that is home to the Staples Center is a WNBA team known as the Los Angeles Sparks. Not as many people attend woman’s game so they don’t get quite as many fans as NBA games, but on average they get about 12,947 people for a game. On the other hand of sports, the Los Angeles Kings hockey team average about 17,209 fans when they are at home for their games. The football arena team, known as the Avengers, usually gets a crowd of about 16,096 fans. The arena holds many more events throughout the seasons, but a couple of their most common are concerts and boxing matches. Concerts usually can hold about 20,000 people and boxing matches can hold up to 21,000 people. Not all seating in the arena is in a chair; in fact they have 160 luxury suites that can fit up to 132 people depending on the size of it. On top of that they have 2,500 premier suites. Two-thirds of the arenas seating is in the suites and lower deck. For the amount of people that attend the games, there obviously has to be parking. Outside of the arena there are 16,000 parking spots that open one hour prior to each event at the arena.
The arena first started being built in March of 1998 and was finished the following year on October 17, 1999 at a cost of $375 million. The Staples Center hosts over 250 events each year bringing in over 4 million visitors each year. According to many reviews on the Staples Center website, the arena is a very enjoyable place to go and enjoy yourself.
Staples Center
Email: staplescenter1111@gmail.com
Website: http://www.staplescenter.com/
Location: 1111 South Figueroa Street, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Phone: (213) 742-7100
Professional Sports Scores
Major League Baseball (MLB)
Toronto-11 Boston-8
Seattle-2 Texas-1
L.A. Angles-2 Oakland-6
Kansas City- 11 Cleveland-5
Tampa Bay-2 N.Y. Yankees-4
Detroit-2 Minnesota-3
Milwaukee-2 Cincinnati-4
N.Y. Mets-3 Miami-4
Philadelphia-5 St. Louis-11
San Francisco-2 L.A. Dodgers-1
Houston-14 San Diego-3
Washington-13 Atlanta-12
Pittsburgh-2 Chi. Cubs-6
Colorado-5 Arizona-12
National Basketball Association (NBA)
Dallas-94 Houston-103
San Antonio-111 L.A. Clippers-107
Taylor Swift Concert
Friday, Aug 21, 2015, 07:30 PM
Staples Center, Los Angeles, CA, United States
Top 10 Songs of the Week
1- See You Again-Wiz Khalifa ft, Charlie Puth
2- Uptown Funk-Mark Ranson ft. Bruno Mars
3- Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)-The Weeknd
4- Sugar-Maroon 5
5- Trap Queen-Fetty Wap
6- Love Me Like You Do-Ellie Goulding
7- Shut Up And Dance-Walk The Moon
8- Thinking Out Loud-Ed Sheeran
9- G.D.F.R-Flo Rida ft. Sage The Gemini & Lookas
10- Want To Want Me-Jason Derulo