Sport

Candace Parker’s goodbye, without cheating on the game, herself or her fans

James Brown

Candace Parker never wanted to cheat at the game.

From a player shaped by Pat Summitt and the legacy of the Lady Vols, one would expect nothing less. Through 10 surgeries. Her pregnancy and birth of his first daughter, Lailaa, after her rookie season. During offseasons he spent playing in Russia, China and Turkey, and then offseasons behind the desk at TNT, NBATV and CBS. Throughout a career that spanned 16 seasons and three cities in the WNBA, four years in Tennessee and two Olympic Games, it’s safe to say: Parker never cheated at the game. Instead, it almost seems like the game should have given him even more than it did.

Parker, 38, announced Sunday on Instagram that she had retired from the WNBA. From her home, a hotel or a gym somewhere, Parker quietly pressed send and let the world know that one of the greatest to ever step foot on a basketball court would never play again.

There were no advisories or warnings to the WNBA community or the players she has competed against for years. And there will be no farewell season or months-long march toward her retirement. He was quick and concise. And it was exactly how she wanted it: completely on her terms. After a career that was too often derailed by injuries, she owed him.

“I always wanted to leave the court without a parade or tour,” his Instagram caption read. “Only in private with those I love.”

That Parker’s last WNBA game was a 2-point loss on the road to Dallas in 2023 is a footnote in her history. That might have been her last game on her home court, but her last WNBA game was a league championship. Hers third of hers. She might have been at the end of the bench, without the right suit, but she was crucial for the Las Vegas Aces every step of the way. Parker came out as always: a winner, an incredible teammate, and an advocate for the game.

When reading Parker’s message, the first memory that comes to mind is not of his last season in Las Vegas, but of his last game of the 2021 season. He had returned to Chicagoland after 13 seasons in Los Angeles to bring a title to the city. It was the first offseason under a new collective bargaining agreement in which free agency was able to flourish and she was, appropriately as one of the players who helped build the league, one of the first to deliver shocking news about free agency. Months later, in October, in a decisive fourth game of the WNBA Finals, with five seconds left, Parker knocked down the last rebound of the 2021 season and began dribbling down the court. When time was up, she picked up the ball and ran to the corner of the court, where her family was waiting for her. She jumped into her arms.

He returned to center court to celebrate with his teammates until he saw Lailaa and moved for her to run. That’s when the tears really started to fall. Parker played part of his rookie season pregnant with Lailaa, and thus, Lailaa has been on Parker’s basketball journey since her birth.

“Look at the city, man, everyone showed up,” Parker said, looking out at the packed stadium with his arm around his daughter. “They all showed up.”

But Parker had always been a player people flocked to: fans, cities, her family, free agents. That season she had her own harbingers of a league that was changing rapidly as viewership and attendance increased. In that last game, Chance the Rapper and Scottie Pippen sat courtside, but it was Lailaa who she hugged the tightest after the game.

His basketball career spans the epic growth of the sport that has only accelerated in recent seasons. In 2003, she became the first basketball player to announce her college commitment on ESPN. She would later become the first player to dunk in an NCAA game. In the WNBA, she became the first (and still only) player to win MVP and Rookie of the Year honors in the same season. She then became the first player to win three league titles with three franchises.

She was one of the first players to test the limits of positionless basketball. Even in college, her unicorn abilities were undeniable. In the national title game during her senior year, play-by-play announcer Mike Patrick said, “This is almost unfair: someone her size with this kind of speed and this kind of ballhandling.”

But it wasn’t unfair. Parker was just different. Maybe ahead of his time. Maybe just in time. She pushed the boundaries of what people saw about female basketball players. And she would continue to do so as a WNBA player both on and off the court.

She became a broadcaster, investor, owner of a professional women’s soccer team, face of Adidas basketball, producer and mother (in addition to Lailaa, she and her wife, Anna Petrakov, are expecting their second child together). She did all of this while still battling career-threatening injuries but rehabilitating so she could continue to be one of the best players in the WNBA. Her commitment to the game never wavered. She refused to give anything less than everything. The memory of Summitt not hesitating to expel her from college practice for not giving her 100 percent remained fresh in her mind even two decades later.

In the wake of her retirement announcement, social media was flooded with photos of people — WNBA players, NBA players, athletes and fans — who admire Parker, both as a player and as a person.

“The most important thing is that she always did it her way,” said former teammate Courtney Vandersloot. The Athletic. “She was the type of player who changed the game. “What we see now is that Candace was doing it early.”

Parker never cheated in basketball. She changed it. And if anything, she owed him a few more attempts at a title and more wins while she was either fully healthy or had a full team around her. Regardless of her last game, her last win or her last title, Parker changed the expectations of a basketball player and the WNBA by being 100 percent herself. She stood on the shoulders of giants while allowing others to also stand on her shoulders simultaneously.

For 16 WNBA seasons, Parker played for her family, her city and her league. She proved that she could be almost as effective at that on the bench as a motivator and coach, when life too often needed it, as she was on the court. Even when she retires, her impact will be felt through the sport she helped grow.

Now, the girl who fell in love with “a little orange ball at age 13” can relax in her retirement knowing that she bounces back better for the next generation because of it.

(Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

By James Brown

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