{"id":75230,"date":"2024-04-28T15:11:59","date_gmt":"2024-04-28T19:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/?p=75230"},"modified":"2024-04-28T15:11:59","modified_gmt":"2024-04-28T19:11:59","slug":"wnba-legend-candace-parker-retires-after-16-seasons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/28\/wnba-legend-candace-parker-retires-after-16-seasons\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Legend Retires After 16 Seasons"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On Sunday, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/p\/parkeca01w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Candace Parker<\/a> announced her retirement from the WNBA after 16 of the most memorable seasons in the league\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">Breaking: Candace Parker announced she is retiring from basketball after 16 seasons in the WNBA<\/p>\n<p>What a career from one of the BEST to ever do it \ud83d\udc4f <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HighlightHER?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">@HighlightHER<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ePz0wLCcRu\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/ePz0wLCcRu<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BleacherReport\/status\/1784640329582309862?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">April 28, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>A three-time WNBA champion, two-time league MVP, and seven-time All-Star, Parker has been one of the faces of women\u2019s basketball since starring at Tennessee.<\/p>\n<h2>Candace Parker Retires After 16 Seasons<\/h2>\n<p>Selected first overall by the Los Angeles Sparks in the 2008 WNBA Draft, Parker left the Volunteers as one the most successful and decorated players in NCAA history.<\/p>\n<p>While being coached by the legendary Pat Summit, Parker led Tennessee to two NCAA championships in three seasons. Parker had a clean sweep of conference awards, winning 2006 SEC Rookie of the Year, 2007 SEC Player of the Year, and 2008 SEC Tournament MVP. A three-time AP All-American, two-time Wooden Award winner, Parker also won NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player, USBWA Player of the Year, AP Player of the Year, and the Naismith Award in 2008.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Candace Parker highlights: WNBA legend&#039;s first title run at Tennessee\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nIjn7Y1sgeM?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>20th all-time in career points (2,137) and 12th all-time in career blocks (275) in the SEC, Parker has the 12th-highest scoring average (19.4), 16th-highest rebounding averages (8.8), and eighth-highest block average (2.5) in SEC history. While having the highest rebounding average in Tennessee women\u2019s history, she ranks second in career points, blocks, and blocks per game. Notably, she\u2019s also their career leader in free-throws (526), defensive win shares (16.9), offensive win shares (17.9), and player efficiency rating (40.0).<\/p>\n<h3>The Legend Continues<\/h3>\n<p>Parker was just as dominant at the next level and not just because she won MVP as a rookie.<\/p>\n<p>Accolades aside, she was simply one of the most complete players in WNBA history but still an elite scorer. At 6-foot-4, Parker could take her opponents off the dribble or score out of the post. Her footwork inside, touch from all three levels, and pure scoring instincts allowed her to average at least 15 points per game in 10 of her first 11 seasons.<\/p>\n<p>Factor in her basketball IQ, which lends itself to her two-way playmaking. The intensity that gave her the desire to takeover on the biggest stage. While players like Indiana Fever guard <a href=\"https:\/\/www.basketball-reference.com\/wnba\/players\/c\/clarkca02w.html\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Caitlin Clark<\/a> are rightly recognized for <a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/2024\/04\/08\/lebron-james-dawn-staley-speak-out-future-no-1-pick-caitlin-clark\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">pushing women\u2019s basketball forward<\/a>, Parker helped set the stage for those future phenoms.<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Highlights from Candace Parker\u2019s debut with Las Vegas Aces | WNBA on ESPN\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/Wdk0FosniYw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Later in her career, Parker took her foot off the pedal so far as scoring, choosing to play more of a complementary role with her all-around ability. However, she remained capable of bringing it offensively, averaging 12.5 points per game in her last five seasons. In that time, she won a championship with the Chicago Sky and another with the Las Vegas Aces.<\/p>\n<p>Bidding adieu to such a magnificent player is always hard. Fortunately for basketball fans, Parker has taken to sports media, offering insights and analysis on TNT.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On Sunday, Candace Parker announced her retirement from the WNBA after 16 of the most memorable seasons in the league\u2019s history. Breaking: Candace Parker announced she is retiring from basketball after 16 seasons in the WNBA What a career from one of the BEST to ever do it \ud83d\udc4f @HighlightHER pic.twitter.com\/ePz0wLCcRu \u2014 Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5008,"featured_media":75233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1608,3],"tags":[1869],"class_list":["post-75230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-basketball","category-news","tag-candace-parker"],"modified_by":"Quenton S Albertie","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5008"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/basketball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}