Current:Home > StocksCandace Parker, a 3-time WNBA champion and 2-time Olympic gold medalist, announces retirement-InfoLens
Candace Parker, a 3-time WNBA champion and 2-time Olympic gold medalist, announces retirement
View Date:2024-12-23 14:42:21
Candace Parker always said she’d know when it would be time to retire. That day came Sunday.
The three-time WNBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist announced on social media that her career was over after 16 seasons.
“The competitor in me always wants 1 more, but it’s time,” Parker wrote in an Instagram post. “My HEART & body knew, but I needed to give my mind time to accept it.”
Parker, 38, had told The Associated Press in November she wanted to play another season if she could get healthy from a foot injury that kept her off the court last season. But she cautioned that she didn’t want to “cheat the game,” or herself, and expressed the same in announcing her retirement ahead of the Aces’ attempt to win a third title in a row. Parker has had 10 surgeries over her career.
“I promised I’d never cheat the game & that I’d leave it in a better place than I came into it. ... I always wanted to walk off the court with no parade or tour, just privately with the ones I love,” she wrote. “What now was to be my last game, I walked off the court with my daughter. I ended the journey just as I started it, with her.”
Parker played her first 13 seasons in the league with the Los Angeles Sparks, establishing her dominance early as a No. 1 pick who won Rookie of the Year and league MVP in the same season. Parker was the only WNBA player to accomplish that feat, averaging 18.5 points, 9.5 rebounds and 3.4 assists while helping the Sparks to a 10-win improvement in 2008.
Parker earned her second MVP award in 2013 and won her first title in 2016 with the Sparks. She’d go on to win a second title with the Chicago Sky in 2021 and a third with the Las Vegas Aces last season. She’s the only player in league history to win a championship with three different teams.
“The memories Candace Parker created for a generation of women’s basketball fans will remain ingrained in our collective conscience forever, but she has given so much more to the game beyond her accolades and statistics,” The Aces said in a statement. “As a teammate and mentor, a mother and wife, a baller, broadcaster, and businesswoman she has inspired countless young people, both boys and girls, to chase and achieve their dreams.”
Parker played for the late Pat Summitt’s last two national championship teams at Tennessee in 2007 and 2008. She then left with one year of eligibility remaining.
She won Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012 before shockingly being left off the 2016 team.
“I think obviously Candace has had an amazing career. I’m a little bit sad about it because you love going up against her, the legend that she is,” Liberty star Breanna Stewart said. “What she has done on and off the court has been amazing for our league. Appreciate all she’s done to help me get to where I am. We’ll definitely miss her this season.”
Liberty coach Sandy Brondello coached Parker overseas in Russia for a few years during the winter.
“She’s a trailblazer. Just a wonderful human being and what she’s done for this sport,” Brondello said. ‘Hopefully it’s celebrated. I’ve got a lot of respect for her. Our kids grew up together when I was coaching in Russia. It’s kind of sad. Everyone knows when it’s the right time.”
Parker began working in broadcasting during her playing career. She has worked as an analyst for the NCAA Tournament with CBS Sports and for NBA TV.
She had surgery on her foot in July 2023 and told the AP it still pained her at the end of last year.
“This offseason hasn’t been fun on a foot that isn’t cooperating,” she wrote in her post Sunday. “My mission in life, like Pat Summitt always said, is to ‘chase people and passions and you will never fail.’ Being a wife & mom still remains priority #1 & I’ve learned that time flies, so I plan to enjoy my family to the fullest!”
___
AP Sports Writer Ryan Kryska in Hoboken, New Jersey, contributed to this report.
___
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
veryGood! (82)
Related
- Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly are expecting their first child together
- Horoscopes Today, March 25, 2024
- Dollar Tree to increase max price in stores to $7, reports higher income shoppers
- When your boss gives you an unfair review, here's how to respond. Ask HR
- Kid Rock tells fellow Trump supporters 'most of our left-leaning friends are good people'
- Celebrity Lookalikes You Need to See to Believe
- Imprisoned ex-Ohio Speaker Householder indicted on 10 new charges, one bars him from public office
- Lollapalooza 2024 releases day lineup featuring headliners SZA, Tyler, the Creator, more
- Glen Powell Addresses Rumor He’ll Replace Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible Franchise
- Feds search Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ properties as part of sex trafficking probe, AP sources say
Ranking
- Benny Blanco Reveals Selena Gomez's Rented Out Botanical Garden for Lavish Date Night
- Maryland middle school students face hate crime charges for Nazi salutes, swastikas
- Veteran North Carolina Rep. Wray drops further appeals in primary, losing to challenger
- A list of major US bridge collapses caused by ships and barges
- Surprise bids revive hope for offshore wind in Gulf of Mexico after feds cancel lease sale
- Introducing TEA Business College: Your Global Financial Partner
- Texas AG Ken Paxton is closer than ever to trial over securities fraud charges
- Georgia officials pushing to study another deepening of Savannah’s harbor gets a key endorsemen
Recommendation
-
Glen Powell responds to rumor that he could replace Tom Cruise in 'Mission: Impossible'
-
Chargers coach Jim Harbaugh: Fifth selection could be like No. 1 draft pick
-
Women's NCAA Tournament teams joining men's counterparts in Sweet 16 of March Madness
-
TEA Business College The power of team excellence
-
Louisiana mom arrested for making false kidnapping report after 'disagreement' with son
-
National monument on California-Oregon border will remain intact after surviving legal challenge
-
Walz takes his State of the State speech on the road to the southern Minnesota city of Owatonna
-
Deion Sanders issues warning about 2025 NFL draft: `It's gonna be an Eli'