Candace Parker Didn't Plan Pregnancy

In December, news broke that the WNBA's Jordan -- Candace Parker of the Los Angeles Sparks -- had eloped in Reno with fiancée Shelden Williams. The couple had been engaged forever, and the timing seemed odd. A month later, Parker confirmed reports that she was pregnant with her first child. A plan to spend four months playing in Russia during the offseason (for $1 million, no less) went in the drawer, and it's not clear if Parker (due this spring) will suit up for the Sparks this season.

The suspicion would be that the couple didn't plan to have a baby right now. Parker is the subject of the cover story in ESPN The Magazine this week, where she tells Allison Glock that the pregnancy was as much of a shock to her as it was everyone else. (The full cover can be seen after the jump.)

Parker tells Glock how she felt when she and Williams got the news.

"I was surprised," Parker says of the pregnancy. "But everything happens for a reason. It will be exciting to have my child share my career and to remember what I was like when I was young." She falls quiet for a few long seconds. "I'm not worried about it," she says finally. "I have nieces and nephews. Of course, Shel and I joke that we can't send this one home."

Spark coach Michael Cooper admits to crying when he found out, and the WNBA commissioner sighs when the topic arises. But the sponsors (adidas, McDonald's) seem to have taken it well. Her agent Aaron Goodwin makes a great point -- "male athletes don't get dropped when they father kids" -- while joking about killing Shelden.

Check out the story (it's good) and the cover (also good) below.