Former Los Angeles Sparks player Margo Dydek has died after suffering a heart attack a week ago and being placed in a medically-induced coma.
Cathy Roberts, the operations manager for the Northside Wizards in the Queensland
Basketball League, where Dydek was head coach, told The Associated Press that Dydek,
37, died early Friday.
The Poland-born Dydek, who was pregnant with her third child, suffered the heart attack
on May 19 and collapsed at her home in Brisbane. Roberts said that Dydek was at an
early stage in her pregnancy and that her unborn child had also died.
Dydek was the No. 1 pick in the 1998 WNBA draft by the Utah Starzz. She also played for
San Antonio and Connecticut.
The 7-foot-2 Dydek was once said to be the tallest active professional female
basketball player in the world.
She held the record for most blocks in a WNBA career, with 877 in 323 games, and led
the league in blocks nine times, from 1998 to 2003 and again from 2005-07.
On August 27, 2008 Dydek signed with the Sparks following time away from
basketball due to the birth of her first son in April 2008.
An entry on Dydek's Facebook page says she was born on April 28, 1974 in Warsaw, Poland
to a 6-7 father and a 6-3 mother. She had two sisters, and her elder sister, Kashka
used to play for the Colorado Explosion of the now defunct ABL, and in Poland.
Tina Thompson, a former teammate of Dydek's on the Sparks, said on the WNBA's Twitter
feed: "My condolences to the family of Margo Dydek, may she rest in peace!"
The Brisbane-based Wizards posted a statement on their website Friday.
"Always in our hearts - Margo," it said. "With great sadness we acknowledge the passing
of ... Margo Dydek. Margo suffered a heart attack just over a week ago and passed away
Friday 27th May, peacefully and surrounded by her family.
"You were a much-loved member of our community and we will miss you greatly. Our hearts
go out to your family, David and your beautiful boys xx."<
She is survived by her husband, David, and two sons, David, 3, and Alex, seven
months.

Margo Dydek, the Polish-born center who last played for the Sparks in 2008, had a heart attack Thursday morning in Brisbane, Australia and is currently in a medically-induced coma.

The 37-year-old is in her second season as a coach in the D-League section of the Queensland Basketball League. She lives in Brisbane and is three months pregnant with her third child.

Dydek, who is 7-foot-2, was drafted No. 1 by the Utah Starzz in 1998 and played for the Starzz, the San Antonio Silver Stars and the Connecticut Sun before joining the Sparks. She currently holds the record for most blocks in a WNBA career, with 877 blocks in 323 games.

The Sparks are having a pep rally to kickoff the WNBA season, 2-4:30 p.m. Sunday, May 23 at The Grove (189 The Grove Drive in L.A.).

Hall of Fame coach Jennifer Gillom, Olympians Candace Parker, Tina Thompson, DeLisha Milton-Jones and the rest of the team and coaching staff will meet with fans, sign autographs, take photos and play shooting games. The Sparks will also raise money to support the March of Dimes by giving fans the opportunity to shoot with a player on the sport court.

The Sparks' home opener is Friday night against Washington at Staples Center.

Needing only one win to keep Lisa Leslie's WNBA career going, the Sparks fell to the Phoenix Mercury 85-74 in the Western Conference semi-finals - ending LA's season and Leslie's career. With the win, the Mercury advance to the WNBA Finals against Indiana, who defeated Detroit to advance in the East.

Leslie, who announced her retirement before the start of the season and reiterated it several times during the year - including on Friday - finished with 22 points and had nine rebounds before fouling out of the game at the 1:39 mark in the fourth. Betty Lennox added 19 points, while Leslie's former USC teammate Tina Thompson had 13 for the Sparks and Delisha Milton-Jones seven. Candace Parker only scored six points but had nine rebounds in the loss.

Diana Taurasi led the Mercury with 21 points while Le'Coe Willingham had 17 and Cappie Poindexter scored 12.

Lisa Leslie scored 19 points in her final home regular season game for the Sparks and lead the charge in a 90-61 blowout win over the Minnesota Lynx.
Leslie and former college Tina Thompson - who also had 19 - led the team in scoring while Delisha Milton-Jones had 16 and Candace Parker scored 13 points and had 14 rebounds and five assists.

Leslie was honored before Friday's game by the Sparks and by Laker legend Magic Johnson, who called Leslie "a legend that was born right in front of our eyes." President Donna Orender added about Leslie, ""Her leadership and her passion have made her the leading icon in women's basketball today."

The Sparks are now a firm third seed in the playoffs with a record of 17-16 and finish the season in Phoenix on Sunday - with a 3 pm tipoff.

Lisa Leslie scored 18 points as the Sparks clinched a playoff berth with a 76-68 win over the San Antonio Silver Stars on Tuesday night.

The Sparks (16-16) entered the game with a one game lead over San Antonio with three game left to go in the season. The Sparks had lost three games in a row and were just defeated by San Antonio last Saturday.

UCLA grad Noelle Quinn had 15 points and Tina Thompson added 13 points. Candace Parker had scored 12 points and grabbed 13 rebounds for the Sparks. With San Antonio leading at the half 38-30 The Sparks outscored the Silver Stars 46-30 in the second half.

Shanna Crossley led San Antonio (14-18) with 16 points. Sophie Young and Ann Wauters each scored 13 points.

Lisa Leslie plays her final regular season home game on Friday against Minnesota.

Lisa Leslie scored 24 points, Tina Thompson had 19 points as Los Angeles falls to Atlanta 84-79 on Tuesday night.

Candace Parker added 15 points and 14 rebounds, to record her WNBA leading 11 double-double.

Iziane Castro Marque scored 27 points including 12 in the fourth quarter to lead the Dream. Sancho Lyttle added 14 points and seven rebounds.

The Sparks (15-15) were leading 61-58 going into the fourth quarter and were outscored 26-18 in the quarter. Lead by Marque who hit back to back 3-points to give the Dream (16-14) the lead for good.

The Sparks have a home and home with fourth place San Antonio starting Friday, which could decide the seeding heading into the playoffs.

Tina Thompson had 21 points, nine rebounds and three blocked shots, Candace Parker returning to the lineup after missing Thursday's game due to personal reason added 20 points and 13 rebounds as the Los Angeles Sparks hold off the Connecticut Sun 91-81 Sunday night. Parker equaled her season high in rebounds for the year and recorded her WNBA leading 10th double-double.

Delisha Milton-Jones scored 11 points and Marie Ferndinand-Harris came off the bench to score 12 points, including six in the fourth quarter.

Anete Jekabsone-Zogota scored 21 points and Tan White added 20 points for Connecticut. The Sun have lost four games in a row.

The Sparks led 47-27 at the half only to see the Sun cut the deficient in half by the end of the third quarter.

The Sparks end the month with a 10-4 record. They end their four game homestand on Tuesday against the Atlanta Dreams. Sparks have five games remaining including three at home

In the absence of Candice Parker, who missed tonights game due to personal reasons. Lisa Leslie scored 23 points, Betty Lennox added 18 as the Sparks ended their six game winning streak with a 98-90 lost to the Phonix Mercury Thursday night.

Tina Thompson had 17 points and Noelle Quinn added 12.

Leslie scored 15 first quarter points to give the Sparks a 34-19 advantage. Which was a season high point total for a quarter for the Sparks. But the Mercury used a 13-0 run to cut the score to 34-32 with 6 minutes and 54 seconds left in the second quarter.

Cappie Pondexter scored a game high 26 points and Diana Taurasi added 20 points.

The Sparks are 9-4 for this month, including 6-4 at home. They have six games remaining with four more at Staples Center. Starting point guard Kristi Harrower also missed the game due to person reason. So the Sparks operated with a short bench.

The Sparks play Connecticut Sunday at 6:30.

SAN ANTONIO (AP) _ Candace Parker had 17 points and 12 rebounds to lead the Los
Angeles Sparks to a 67-66 overtime win against the San Antonio Silver Stars on Friday
night.
Noelle Quinn (UCLA) scored all four of the Sparks' points in overtime to give them the margin for
victory. Her layup with 2:14 in overtime proved to be the difference in the game.
Sophia Young, who scored a career-high 31 points, responded with a three-point play with
2:02 left to cut the deficit to 67-66, but both teams went scoreless the rest of the
way.
Becky Hammon's layup with two seconds left fell short.
Lisa Leslie (USC) and Tina Thompson (USC) both had 14 to help Los Angeles win in San Antonio for the
first time since July 26, 2006.

Sparks center Lisa Leslie was selected by fans to start in the WNBA All-Star game for the fifth time in her career, on Tuesday.

Leslie has been injured for all but five of the Sparks 11 games this season and isn't sure yet whether she'll be able to play in the July 25th game at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut. Before the season, she announced that this season would be her final year in the WNBA.

``It's just such an honor to be voted in by the fans,'' Leslie said. ``I'm pretty anxious to get back out there. It's obviously not my ideal finish, being injured in my last year. But I'm just trying to look at the positive side and staying hopeful that it'll be about how we finish the year, not how we started it.''

Leslie received 80,748 votes in the fan voting. Indiana's Tamika Catchings was the leading vote-getter with 94,316.

Leslie, the WNBA's leader in career points and rebounds, is no stranger to the WNBA All-Star game having been selected as a Western Conference All-Star eight times. In the inaugural WNBA All-Star game in 1999, Leslie led the Western Conference All-Stars to victory and won the first of three All-Star game MVP awards. She later won the award back to back, as a reserve in 2001 and as a starter in 2002.

Of Leslie's eight All-Star selections, she has been named to the starting lineup five times, (1999, 2000, 2002, 2003, 2009), and has career All-Star game averages of 14.6 points, 6.9 rebounds and 1.4 blocks.

She will start for the Western Conference alongside Seattle's Swin Cash, Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson, and San Antonio's Becky Hammon.

The Eastern Conference starters are Indiana's Katie Douglas and Catchings, Washington's Alana Beard, and Chicago's Sylvia Fowles and Candice Dupree.

NEW YORK LIBERTY QUOTES

Head Coach Pat Coyle

On early in the game:

"You know it's only frustrating that we didn't continue to do what we needed to do, to keep that lead and to build on it. That's what's frustrating."

On tonight's loss:

"We shoot the ball a lot in practice. I would attribute some of it to their defense but you know, we were going off looking to get hit and we didn't get hit or we were looking for calls and we didn't get any calls. You know you can attribute it to a lot of things."

On the play of Betty Lennox & Tina Thompson:

"(Betty) Lennox coming off the bench scoring 20 is unacceptable, unacceptable. You know Tina Thompson, Tina Thompson is a great player in this league. You know you expect that is what she's going to do. You know the same thing with Lennox but we missed some assignments. You know they got two 3's. We were supposed to switch. You know to me, that's a difference in the ball game if it goes from six to twelve like that."

Shameka Christon

On playing against Betty Lennox:

"Betty is one of those players that when she gets going, she's going far, and I think she got going early. But if Patty (Coach Coyle) says that it's unacceptable, then it's unacceptable."

On losing the early lead:

"I mean I really have to see the video. Right now I'm upset that we lost and I don't know exactly what mistakes we made so I have to watch the video."

On tonight's loss:

"It all comes down to focus. We have to execute our assignments and we didn't. We made a lot of mistakes. It's frustrating, but we got to keep fighting. Somehow or another we got to keep fighting and get things off the ground."

On playing Candace Parker:

"In one of her interviews she said it's all about timing and I agree with that. So we don't know what she's capable of. In time I'm sure she'll be back, she's only 6 or 7 weeks out of giving birth."

LOS ANGELES SPARKS QUOTES

Head Coach Michael Cooper

On improving game by game:

"We played well starting in Phoenix four games ago and came up a little bit short on that one. Then the next night after that we went up to Seattle and I thought we played extremely well and lost that game by two. So I saw it coming and then we go home and lost a tough one to Phoenix, so yes this was a great game for us to win especially after letting New York get off to an 11-0 start."

On getting contributions from other people:

"This team wasn't built on just two or three or four players. Obviously having four Olympians helped, that's not going to get it done if you're not playing together and I thought our bench came in, Betty came in off the bench and did a superb job. We had been lacking some energy coming off the bench and she supplied that immensely tonight. We're still in that stage of trying to find each other. With silk back and playing the way she is, we still need to get smooth back."

Candace Parker

On being close to 100%:

"I'm not trying to estimate that. I just know that I can take a step forward every game and I feel like I did take a step forward this game from last game. My legs are getting a little bit under me and things are working out that way. I'll probably start to measure that maybe in two or three weeks."

On the team coming together despite Parker and Leslie missing time:

"I think so. We're learning where everyone wants the ball. We're learning what it takes to be a team. One person can play great defense and have some other people not playing well. We're learning how to play team defense. We got killed on the boards in Phoenix, but we came out here and dominated the boards."

Tina Thompson

On when the Sparks took control of the game

"New York is a talented team and they have a lot of weapons. We anticipated them coming out quickly, but we didn't anticipate coming out so slowly. I think we just weathered the storm in the first quarter and I think the second quarter was a lot better and we gained a little momentum. New York is a tough team and they always play hard for forty minutes but if we can stay close then in the third and fourth quarter we can kind of get a lead."

The Mercury scored 36 points in the third quarter to blow open the game against the Sparks and they eventually won it 104-89 at Staples Center.

Phoenix (8-4) spoiled the return of Candace Parker, who played for the first time this season after returning from maternity leave. Parker didn't start the game but had six points, four rebounds and two assists in her return.

Parker came in for the first time with a little more than five minutes left in the first quarter and looked a little rusty and was used as a decoy frequently. She scored her first two points from the free throw line. Sparks coach Michael Cooper played her sparingly in her return and she played a little more than 20 minutes in the game.

Betty Lennox and Tina Thompson both had 17 points for the Sparks (3-6) while Delisha Milton-Jones added 15 and Marie Ferdinand-Harris scored 13.

The game was close in the first half - with several of the high scoring Mercury in foul trouble - but Phoenix made adjustments in the third quarter and ran away with it with scoring outbursts by Diana Taurasi (who finished with 20 points) and Cappie Ponndexter, who had 21.

Thompson, Ferdinand-Harris and Milton-Jones are shouldering the load for the Sparks as Parker returns to form and Lisa Leslie continues to sit out due to a knee injury. Leslie should be returning to the lineup around the All-Star Game which is in late July.

Wild, going-out-of-bounds shot by Noelle Quinn ends the first half to put the Sparks up 51-45.

Tina Thompson's transition pass with less than five seconds gets to Quinn in the corner

Parker ends the first half with 6 points and much of her play is doubled, which gives her teammates open opportunities.