Candace Parker has been on the go since she announced her retirement from the WNBA in 2024.
From broadcasting college and pro games to taking over as the president of Women's Basketball for Adidas, the future Hall of Famer has been busy. She's also had more time for what she calls her most important job — being a mom to her daughter Lailaa and sons Airr Larry and Hartt Summitt.
“I am doing more now than I have. I used to be able to use basketball as a crutch,” Parker said in an interview with The Associated Press. “Now it’s like, you ain’t going to rest up for nothing. I think this first year of retirement has kind of been my like ‘What do I want to do more of in this first year?’ My main priority is being there for my family. My daughter’s going to be a junior next year and is going to start to get recruited for volleyball.”
Next up for Parker is the Los Angeles Sparks game on Sunday to have her jersey retired. She brought a championship to the franchise in 2016 and the Sparks will be playing Chicago, Parker's hometown team that she went to and helped win a title for in 2021.
The Sky will retire her No. 3 jersey later this summer, making her only the second WNBA player to have her number retired by two different teams. Lindsay Whalen had her jersey retired by both Connecticut and Minnesota.
“It's surreal to be honest,” Parker said of the two jersey retirements. “I would be lying if I didn’t say that when I go into an organization, I want to be one of the best. I want to be remembered as one of the best. And sometimes one of the best doesn’t always get their jersey retired.”
Parker, who also wrote a book "The Can-Do Mindset" that was just published, said when she was drafted by Los Angeles No. 1 in 2008 she wanted to win championships there.
“My main thing when I look up into the rafters is like, I want to hang a banner, I wanted to hang banners,” she said.
She brought one title to Los Angeles.
Coming to Chicago she wanted to help her hometown win its first championship. It was something she accomplished in her brief time there.
“To be able to do that and walk around the city and know you have a championship, I think is super special for me,” she said.
Parker never wanted a retirement tour when she decided to end her playing career before the start of last season.
“I never got a chance to stop and like, really live in the moment and be where my two feet were,” she said. “Now I’m able to. And because of that, I realized how much I missed out on by not stopping and, like, smelling roses. And so now I’m, like, smelling every flower, every rose, every letter.”
One area that Parker is trying to get into, but hasn't had success yet is WNBA ownership. She was part of the expansion bid put in by Nashville.
“I can’t think of why the league wouldn’t want a team in Nashville. I feel like it’s kind of the birthplace of women’s basketball,” Parker said. “In terms of Pat Summitt and what she’s meant to the rest of women’s basketball, why can’t or why shouldn't we have a team in Tennessee. I think it would be a state team and wouldn’t just be a team from Nashville.”
If Nashville was to get an expansion team, that would just add more to Parker's plate which is quite full right now.
She's busy trying to make women's basketball at Adidas into the next big thing.
“Where women’s basketball is in general, it was looked at as a negative balance, and now it’s actually looked at as a business. It is the future of where sports are. We at Adidas have to be on our horse and make sure we understand the power of the dollar sign behind women. Women sell the numbers. That’s the thing that’s changed with women's sports. It went from being looked at as a charity to now it’s a runway.”
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
FILE - In this Aug. 4, 2017, file photo, Los Angeles Sparks' Candace Parker celebrates her basket against the New York Liberty during the second half of a WNBA basketball game in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong, File)
