Candace Parker (Naperville Central) returned to crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles, California on Sunday for special day as two of her former teams (Los Angeles Sparks and Chicago Sky) faced off.
Angel Reese’s double-double propelled the Sky to a big road win but the story of the day was the Spark’s honoring Parker by retiring her jersey and sending it to the arena’s rafters.
“I am extremely humbled to have number 3 up there amongst the greats and I don’t take that for granted,” Parker said during her speech to the Sparks-Sky game crowd.
Sparks used their number overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft. She went on to win rookie of the year and mvp in Year 1.
She went on to play 13 storied seasons in Los Angeles and won just about every honor imaginable. If you want to read the laundry list of accolades, visit her Wikipedia page and her Sports Reference page.
For the Sparks, she played 337 regular season games and 48 playoff games. She averaged 16.9 points on 48.2 percent shooting with 8.6 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 1.1 steals, and 1.6 blocks in 31.2 minutes per game during the regular season in Los Angeles.
Parker finished her career with two seasons in Chicago and one in Las Vegas- winning a WNBA championship in each of her first seasons with her new teams.
For her career, she played in 476 total games between the regular season and playoffs. She averaged 16 points on 47.9 percent shooting with 8.5 rebounds, four assists, 1.3 steals, and 1.5 blocks in 30.4 minutes per game.
The WNBA great may be retired but is active behind the mic working with several companies for their broadcasts. Come next NBA season, she will be an analysts for Amazon Prime Video’s first season of NBA coverage in 2025-26 which includes another Chicagoland legend in Dwyane Wade (Richards).
WNBA Box Scores
Las Vegas Aces defeated Phoenix Mercury, 84-81. Jewell Loyd (Niles West) started and had 10 points (3-6 FG, 2-4 3PT, 2-2 FT) with an assist, two turnovers, and a +2 plus-minus in 30 minutes.
Minnesota Lynx defeated Connecticut Sun, 102-63. Aneesah Morrow (Simeon) came off the bench in the loss. She had her second-straight double-double. She finished with 16 points (5-14 FG, 0-3 3PT, 6-6 FT), 11 rebounds (three offensive), five steals, a blocks, a turnover, and a -6 plus-minus in 27 minutes. Her steals total were not just a game-high but a career-high. She also matched her career-high in rebounds set her last game with 11.
Golden State Valkyries defeated Seattle Storm, 84-57. Kate Martin (Edwardsville) came off the bench and finished in double figures scoring for the third straight game. She 11 points (4-11 FG, 2-6 3PT, 1-2 FT) with three rebounds, two assists, two steals, two turnovers, and a +22 plus-minus in 26 minutes.
Icon Sports 
Leave a comment