MINNEAPOLIS -- Candace Parker and the Sparks jumped with joy on the court, joined in celebration by a guy named Magic Johnson who once made basketball championships a habit in Los Angeles.Parkers old college coach, the late Pat Summitt, was there in spirit too.Nneka Ogwumikes short jumper with 3.1 seconds left, off the rebound of her blocked shot, gave the Sparks a 77-76 victory over the defending champion Minnesota Lynx in the deciding Game 5 of the WNBA Finals on Thursday night for the franchises first title in 14 years.Parker had 28 points and 12 rebounds to earn MVP honors of the Finals and her first WNBA title, capping a trying year marked by the death of the beloved Summitt, with whom she won two NCAA championships at Tennessee.The journey to get here I wouldnt have wanted to do it with anybody else, Parker said. Its amazing when you surround yourself with good people how fun it is.Sparks coach Brian Agler started his postgame news conference by playing a recording of the Tennessee fight song, Rocky Top, from a phone in front of him at the podium. Parker cried as she leaned over to hug her coach.Ive never been around somebody that has been critiqued so hard, Agler said, and Ive never been around anyone Im happy for than Candace.Said Ogwumike: Shes been through so much. Shes probably the most misunderstood person in the league. I told her I wanted her to get one.Parker heard Summitts voice in her head, recalling the time-worn advice to focus on defense and rebounding.You cant control if shots go in or shots dont, but what you can control is defense and rebounding, Parker said.Rebekkah Brunson made one of two free throws with 23.4 seconds left to give the Lynx a 74-73 lead. Parker answered with a layup on the other end that Maya Moore countered with a jumper. Then Ogwumike hustled her way over to the loose ball after Sylvia Folwes blocked her first attempt. She coolly swished it.Lindsay Whalens heave from just inside halfcourt bounced high off the backboard, setting off the celebration for the Sparks and silencing the sellout crowd of 19,423.Moore had 23 points and 11 assists for the Lynx, who fell short of matching the WNBA record of four championships. The Houston Comets won four straight titles from 1997-2000. The Lynx played in the finals for the fifth time in the last six years. They won three.The team that won this game deserved to win the game, Moore said, so its just hard to have it come that close.Chelsea Gray reeled off 11 consecutive points for the Sparks, capping that run with a smooth up-and-under layup to put them in front 60-59 early in the fourth quarter. Parkers putback with 3:06 left gave L.A. a 71-63 lead, putting the Lynx in trouble.But Moore seized the moment with a 3-pointer that brought Minnesota within four points, and Parker forced an off-balance 3 on the other end. Whalen stole the ball from Kristi Toliver and finished the fast break with a layup to tie the game at 71, setting up the final flurry.On the next play, Ogwumike hit a jumper that appeared to come after the shot clock expired. The officials signaled for a review but never looked at the basket. Los Angeles led 73-71 with just over a minute left. Seimone Augustus answered with a jumper, but those points proved to be critical.Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, making sure to credit the Sparks for their performance was livid about the non-call afterward.Its not enough just to apologize and send out a memo that they got something wrong, OK? These players are so invested, and something must be done about the officiating in this league. Because it is not fair to these great players that we have, Reeve said.The WNBAs new postseason format with the field ordered by overall record regardless of conference sure worked well, leading to this classic matchup between the two teams that fought all summer for the top seed and featuring several of the leagues biggest stars.I hope that we gained a lot of fans from around the world and around this country, Augustus said.The game was remarkably close, with 24 lead changes and 11 ties with no team ever leading by double digits.CHAMPIONSHIP ATMOSPHEREThe sea of green T-shirts donned by almost everyone in the crowd produced a deafening soundtrack from start to finish befitting a game for the trophy.Even Johnson was there, wearing all black while sitting courtside to root for the Sparks team hes a part-owner of and spoke to after the loss at home in Game 4 on Sunday. His presence was all the more impressive considering the Dodgers, the other pro club hes invested in, were playing baseball in Los Angeles at the same time in Game 5 of their National League championship series.They had to believe they could do it on a tough home court. This team Minnesota is tremendous, Johnson said. We just beat the champions so I give them a lot of credit to.WOLF TRACKSThe Lynx had celebrity backing, too, with Timberwolves players including Karl-Anthony Towns, Andrew Wiggins, Ricky Rubio, Cole Aldrich and Nemanja Belica in the seats to support the women they share an arena with. Cheap Hydro Flask Free Shipping . Perez, 35, posted a 1-2 record with a 3.69 earned-run average in 19 relief appearances last season. His season ended Aug. 9 due to a torn ligament in his left elbow. Perez joins infielder Andy LaRoche and catcher Mike Nickeas with minor-league agreements for 2014 that include invitations to attend spring training. Hydro Flask Sale . To the surprise of many, it isnt the Wolverines but their in-state rivals the Michigan State Spartans. http://www.discounthydroflaskcheap.com/ . The 29-year-old from Port Colborne, Ont., has nothing but good things to say about former U.S. marine Liz (Girlrilla) Carmouche ahead of their co-main event Wednesday on the UFCs "Fight for the Troops" televised card in Fort Campbell, Ky. Discount Hydro Flask Cheap . -- Tony Stewart is 20 pounds lighter and has a titanium rod in his surgically repaired right leg. Hydro Flask Clearance .ca looks back at the stories and moments that made the year memorable. RIO DE JANEIRO - What is not to like about Sir Bradley Wiggins? Five Olympic gold medals to his name and three of other colours -- hes just a good, old fashioned ordinary superhero.His British teammates speak of an aura, but also of him being one of the guys, mucking around and joking at least as much as the rest. As he talked to the media after his latest stunning achievement, it was like he was addressing his mates in a pub. ?Wiggins and his British team had just won the team pursuit final for the third successive time, and yet again in a world record time. They had beaten their long-time rivals Australia in a pulsating race that was agonisingly close until the final few hundred metres, and he couldnt have been more relaxed. ?The way he stuck his tongue out on the podium on Friday night might not be to everybodys taste, but that was for his children, Ben and Bella, watching on the TV. To fans in the UK and so many others who like their sports stars grounded and accessible, he is really hard to beat. ?I wanted to go out with this, said 36-year-old Wiggins, who confirmed he was retiring from professional cycling shortly and the track immediately. I wanted it to end like this, not some crappy little race in the north of France in the rain. ? ?It was never about that [becoming Britains greatest, most decorated Olympian] for me. The first people I bumped into when I came off the track were Steve Redgrave and Chris Hoy. Theyre my heroes in Olympic sport. Just to be in the same breath as those guys is an honour. ?It [the race and victory] was more about personally what it meant to me. I take myself [back] to Sydney in 2000 and what that meant to me as a 20-year-old kid wandering around there, watching Steve win his fifth gold and thinking how incredible it was. ?Id come away with a bronze medal and thought thats it. If I have to go to the job centre on Monday morning, I can always say Ive got Olympic bronze. To be here 16 years on, with five gold medals myself, I never imagined that for one minute. Its just something to tell the kids about when theyre older. ?Thank f--- for that, was Wiggins overwhelming feeling at the end of the race, when the rest of the team were celebrating. He was relieved his decision to leave the road and his big Team Sky salary to return to the track two years ago, to tackle his doubters and just be a number again, had worked out so brilliantly. It had become a burden, and it was clear just looking at him that it had lifted. ? ?As a result, Wiggins will enjoy riding the Tour of Britain and the Six-Days race in Ghent. The latter will be his very last competition, a nostalgic ride full of childhood memories of watching his dad race there.Itll be a nice end to my career, back where I was born, back where it started, he said. ? ?But will he take part in those races thinking he is Britains greatest Olympian? Definitely not, he insisted, because Hoy has one more gold. Who counts bronzes and a silver, joked the rider, who has eight Games medals to Hoys seven. ?Wiggins could afford to be generous to his teammates but his tributes to the underrated Ed Clancy and Steven Burke, and the cool approach of Owain Doull, were genuine. ? ?He sat back from them at times as they talked to media in the Velodrome, let them geet their fair share of glory, and the friendly, and relaxed demeanour he adopted was no great surprise.dddddddddddd Wiggins has been tetchy with reporters and disagreed with them forcefully over the years, but much of the time it has been part of an honest exchange. ?There have been tensions with other riders, too, notably Chris Froome and Mark Cavendish, although they have seemed like par for the course for stars at the top of their sport.Wiggins wife Cath, to whom he is devoted, has said there is a selfish streak that sometimes surfaces. But in cycling terms, Wiggins has something of a genius about him, and there is often a flipside to brilliant or creative people at the top of their professions. Achieving all he has, after all, has required great dedication and brought great strain before he succeeded in his latest bid for glory. ?Regardless, what people seem to like about him is that he is very much his own man, different to so many platitude-peddling sports stars who take refuge in the sanitised public relations arena that the most popular professional games are played out in. ? ?When the Britons fame at home peaked in 2012, having become the first man to win the Tour and Olympic gold in the same year, he memorably celebrated at the Games in London by sitting on a throne at Hampton Court. That colourful character has seldom been far from view and it has fuelled his popularity, made him stand out. ?The media, in the UK at least, have loved his funny soundbites, the smiles as he delivered a risqué comment -- witness his colourful language in the Rio Velodrome on Friday night -- and the manner which makes people feel like they have been friends with him for years. ?The son of an Australian rider, he has earned the respect of the British teams greatest rivals, the guys who been pushing them so close, and occasionally beating them, over the last few years. ?When youre that confident and you throw it out there and you pull it off, well, congratulations, said Jack Bobridge.?We got beaten tonight by a better country, a better team on the track.?We could go back over and over it but theres nothing else we could have done. We left it all out there. ? ?The respect is mutual, with Wiggins saying: They [the Australians] are the reason we got out of bed in the morning, they motivated us.?They are the reason we have trained so hard over the last two years. ?We never underestimated them for one minute. I said it would take a world record to win an Olympic gold -- they were not going to go out and take silver and it was one of the best finals weve been in. ?Two world-class times in the final after putting in an hour and a half before - I have to congratulate them and thank them. They didnt make it easy for us and every session weve done in Manchester or wherever has been because the Aussies were out there doing the same thing. ? ?Australias team pursuit squad, however highly they regard Wiggins, will probably not be sad to see the back of him after he helped inflict so many Olympic disappointments. ?But the British sporting landscape and the cycling world will be a little less fun without him in the saddle. 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