Why one of the best female basketball players in history is retiring?

“The competitor in me always wants one more season, but it’s time.” Parker, 38, wrote on Instagram.

In November, Parker said she wanted to play another season after recovering from a foot injury that kept her out all last season…

“I promised I’d never cheat the game & that I’d leave it in a better place than I came into it... My HEART & body knew, but I needed to give my mind time to accept it.”

Candace Parker was the first pick in the 2008 WNBA draft and is a three-time WNBA champion and two-time Olympic champion. She played for Russian Yekaterinburg for a long time and also played in China twice and for a season in Fenerbahce.

Parker is a versatile player who mainly played in the forward and center positions. She won the 2003 and 2004 Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year awards in high school, becoming only the second junior and the only woman to receive the award twice. As a college player for Tennessee, she led the team to two consecutive national championships (2007, 2008), was named the Final Four’s most outstanding player on both occasions and was a two-time consensus national player of the year. As a redshirt freshman, she became the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament Game and the first woman to dunk twice in a college Game. After being selected in the WNBA Draft, Parker signed long-term endorsement deals with Adidas and Gatorade.

In 2016, Parker led the Sparks to their first WNBA Finals title since 2002 and won the WNBA Finals MVP Award. In 2021, she helped the Sky win their first title. Parker has won two WNBA Most Valuable Player Awards (2008, 2013), a WNBA All-Star Game MVP Award (2013), two Olympic gold medals (2008, 2012), and the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award (2008). She has been selected to six All-WNBA teams and five All-Star teams and was the first player to win the Rookie of the Year and the MVP awards in the same season. Parker became the second player to dunk in a WNBA game on June 22, 2008.

Candace Parker’s family members are also involved successfully in basketball, like her brother Anthony Parker, a two-time MVP of the Euroleague and a two-time Euroleague winner with Maccabi.