Baby hair enthusiast / WNBA MVP Candace Parker will miss the 2009 season due to her pregnancy [she and husband Sheldon Williams are expecting their first child] but has plans to take her career in the struggling league to new heights.

“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 [husband and Timberwolves big man Shelden Williams] and I joke that we can’t send this one home.”

Getting pregnant was definitely not part of the Team Parker plan. But Candace has decided it is God’s plan. So what if the WNBA was counting on her to reinvigorate, if not rescue, the enterprise? So what if Russia and, more important, a slew of U.S. advertisers were waiting to capitalize on her fresh face and unsullied history? “I was lucky,” Parker says. “I didn’t start to show until after my commercials were shot.” [read entire article via Baller Alert]