And she wants it before she retires. So Candace Parker better hurry up and recover from having her baby, because Lisa Leslie is planning on retiring at the end of this season.

Lisa Leslie is hoping to win a WNBA championship this season. Candace Parker is the key.

Parker is a key component to the Los Angeles Sparks‘ success. She’s the reigning WNBA MVP and was voted rookie of the year last season.

“I think Candace is going to come in when she knows she’s effective and she can contribute,” Leslie said, according to ESPN.com. “I think the beautiful part of it is that she is young enough that she will be able to do it faster than any of us here that have been able to do it. I would say by the end of June she would be in practice.”

In addition to Parker, Leslie also has Tina Thompson, Betty Lennox and DeLisha Milton-Jones at her side. Her teammates want to send her out on a high note and a WNBA championship certainly isn’t out of the realm of possibility for the WNBA veteran and most recognizable face of the Sparks.

Los Angeles opens the season at home on June 6 against Detroit, the defending champions.

Image: Zuma

Tamika Catchings, Kara Lawson and DeLisha Milton-Jones are the three reportedly selected to round out the U.S. Women’s Basketball team, according to a post from Matt Stout of the Norwich Bulletin and Matt’s Connecticut Sun Blog.

Tamika Catchings, DeLisha Milton-Jones and Kara Lawson have earned the final three spots on the U.S. women’s national team, “a person familiar with the choices” told the Associated Press Wednesday. According to the report, the person spoke on condition of anonymity because an official announcement was planned for Thursday.

The report did not say who would be named alternates, but Whalen seems like a no-brainer to be named.

The official notice is expected to happen tomorrow during a Team USA conference call. We’ll have confirmation when we get it.

Image details: WNBA Playoffs X served by picapp.com

Normally, you’d wonder whya team would do such a thing, but as you will read in posts below, the Sparks are kind of a big deal again and may not need the scoring punch from Taj McWilliams-Franklin as much (all of her 11 points per game, but still). While researching the post below about Lisa Leslie, I came across a trade notice from the Sparks, who announced that they acquired former Sparks forward and WNBA All-Star Delisha Milton-Jones from the Washington Mystics for McWilliams-Franklin and a 2009 draft pick.

Milton-Jones returns to the Sparks, where she helped lead the team to back-to-back championships in the early part of the decade.