Sports
'I'm Retiring:' Candace Parker Plans Next Moves Amid Retirement
The WNBA star and Naperville native announced her retirement Sunday via Instagram.
NAPERVILLE, IL — Candace Parker is retiring from basketball, with her sights set on eventually owning her own WNBA and NBA teams, the Naperville native announced via Instagram Sunday.
She wrote, in part, "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."
Parker continued, "I always wanted to walk off the court with no parade or tour, just privately with the ones I love. What now was to be my last game, I walked off the court with my daughter. I ended the journey just as I started it, with her."
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Parker had sat out the remainder of the 2023 season after she had surgery to repair a fracture in her left foot.
She added that "this offseason hasn't been fun on a foot that isn't cooperating. It's no fun playing in pain (10 surgeries in my career) it's no fun knowing what you could do, if only... it's no fun hearing "she isn't the same" when I know why, it's no fun accepting the fact that you need surgery AGAIN."
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Parker added that she was "grateful" to her fans, teammates, trainers, doctors, coaches and family members for their support over her 16-season career.
She then suggested that she has her sights set on delving into other aspects of basketball.
"This is the beginning...I'm attacking business, private equity, ownership (I will own both a NBA & WNBA team), broadcasting, production, boardrooms, beach volleyball, dominoes (sorry babe, it's going to get more real) with the same intensity & focus I did basketball.
In December, Parker announced that she and her wife Anna Petrakova were expecting their third child.
When Parker left the Chicago Sky to join the Las Vegas Aces
at the start of 2023, she emphasized that her family was her priority
"I need to be there for my daughter, for my son, for my wife. I can’t be without them for parts of the season when Lailaa is in school and I won’t miss her volleyball games or school dances simply because of distance."
Petrakova is due in May.
"Forgive me as I mourn a bit," Parker wrote in her retirement announcement, "but I'll be back loving the game differently in a while."
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