WNBA Icon Candace Parker Has Announced Her Retirement After 16 Seasons

Iconic three-time WNBA champion Candace Parker has introduced her retirement after 16 seasons. 

The 38-year-old shared the information in a prolonged Instagram publish on Sunday, which included a touching publish of a younger Parker holding a basketball, a testomony to what she’d develop into. 

“Dear Summer, I know you gon miss me,” she started the caption, quoting a line from Jay-Z & Memphis Bleek’s “Dear Summer.” 

“I’m retiring. I promised I’d never cheat the game & that I’d leave it in a better place than I came into it. The competitor in me always wants 1 more, but it’s time. My HEART & body knew, but I needed to give my mind time to accept it,” the two-time Olympic gold medalist shared.

Again in November, Parker hinted at not pushing herself past her boundaries after a foot harm noticed her benched final season. Whereas she did share that she wished to play one other season, Parker mentioned she would solely accomplish that if her foot was in higher form.  It appears that evidently a July 2023 surgical procedure didn’t fully heal the harm, and it was this month that Parker performed her last recreation. 

Parker spent her first 13 seasons within the WNBA with the Los Angeles Sparks, securing her first championship with this staff, earlier than securing a second with the Chicago Sky in 2021 and a 3rd with the Las Vegas Aces final season, changing into the one WNBA in historical past to win a title with three separate groups. The Aces issued an announcement after Parker’s retirement information unfold, thanking the mom of two for her contributions to basketball. 

Now, it seems Parker will flip her consideration to her household and persevering with her broadcast profession.

A press release from the Las Vegas Aces. pic.twitter.com/2kzuj1ZCFA

— Las Vegas Aces (@LVAces) April 28, 2024