Ashlee Rezin/Sun-Times
No gluttonous goodbye tour, packed news conference, TV special or even a single interview for Candace Parker, a future Hall of Famer whose career warrants all of the above.
Instead, it was a lone image of a backward-hat-wearing peanut Parker, clad in a pink sweat suit and clutching a ball as big as her torso, accompanied by eight succinct paragraphs that delivered the retirement blow.
“No matter how you prepare for it,” Parker shared. “You won’t be ready for the gap it leaves in your soul.”
Life’s timing is a funny thing.
Pay too much attention to it, and a person can be left overanalyzing every decision and forcing things to fit. Ignore it completely, and opportunities are missed. Success is had by finding the sweet spot between logic-based decision-making and that inner voice.
Parker’s career is a master class on living in that harmonious balance. Even when her hand might have been forced or a decision was made that she was in complete disagreement with, Parker always prevailed. Maybe not immediately, either. But in time, Parker always came out on top.
In this instance, there is no summit. Certainly not in the way Parker envisioned.
But one thing about Parker, she always has understood timing.
On the court, Parker’s elite sense of timing has lent itself well to perfectly placed passes behind her back or between defenders’ legs, flawlessly guiding teammates to the rim. Or, in her strategic hesitations, masterfully misleading her opponents before embarrassing them with a driving layup.
This skill also has led to major life moments such as her decision to leave Tennessee and turn pro after three seasons and two NCAA titles. Or, 13 years later, when she left the Sparks — who drafted her with the No. 1 overall pick in 2008 — to sign with the Sky, her hometown franchise.
It’s no wonder then that in her retirement, Parker’s keen sense, too, played a role. After 16 years in the WNBA, 10 surgeries and a slew of records and accolades, it’s over.
The ending wasn’t perfect. A nagging foot injury requiring another surgery might have forced her hand. Regardless, it was time, and Parker did it her way — as she always has.
“Candace has never liked to be put in a box,” Parker’s mother, Sara, said. “No matter what it is. Tell her she can’t do something and watch.”
Parker fully committed to basketball at 13 after years of playing soccer and a couple more as a middle hitter in volleyball.
But when she fell in love with Spalding’s orange ball, she fell hard.
“I remember going to pick her up after practice her freshman year,” Sara Parker said. “I told her, ‘The car is leaving. If you want to walk home, then you can stay in here.’ ”
“Well, I have to get 10 free throws in a row,” Parker shot back.
Once Parker had a goal in mind, she couldn’t leave the gym until she accomplished it — even if that meant walking home. Parker’s pleas for five more minutes happened “all the time.” She may not have won those negotiations, but her parents knew it meant she was hooked on the game.
From the outset, she played it her way.
At that time, players with Parker’s height were banished to the block, forced to play with their back to the basket. In the Parker household, versatility was the highest form of currency.
It didn’t matter that as she progressed, coaches would continue to try to force her inside. Instead, she forced them to see she was positionless before it was trendy.
She created the trend and, as a result, is the only player in WNBA history to rank in the top 10 in career points, rebounds, assists and blocks.
“The one [play] that stands out as one of my favorites is when Naperville Central played Regina in the state championship,” Parker’s father, Larry, recalled. “She dribbled the length of the floor, went through all five of the players, behind her back and up to the basket.”
Ten days before her 22nd birthday, Parker was selected by the Sparks 15 hours after winning her second NCAA title at Tennessee, where she played for legendary coach Pat Summitt.
Despite having another year of eligibility, Parker knew it was time.
Parker was the consensus No. 1 pick for the 2008 WNBA Draft. The Sky, heading into their third season, undoubtedly wanted to bring the former Naperville Central star “home,” and there were whispers that they would get it done.
Ultimately, they kept the No. 2 pick, and the Sparks, who were coming off a 10-24 season, the worst in franchise history, stayed at No. 1. Parker was L.A.’s future, and she had the baton passed directly to her from one of the game’s greats — Lisa Leslie.
Parker lived up to the hype immediately, leading the Sparks to a 20-14 record in her rookie season. She became the first player in WNBA history to be named MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season. A feat no player has accomplished since.
In 2009, Leslie retired, officially marking a transition of power, not only in Los Angeles but also in the league.
The years that followed included box-office playoff meetings between Parker’s Sparks and Maya Moore’s formidable Minnesota Lynx, who featured Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson and Sylvia Fowles.
In 2016, Parker and the Sparks finally landed on the winning side of championship history.
It was a career-defining year.
Months earlier, she suffered quite an affront when she was left off the 2016 Olympic roster. She already had helped Team USA win gold medals in 2008 and 2012 and was coming off a stellar camp, during which she said coach Geno Auriemma told her, “You’re trying to be the best player in the world.”
And yet, she was omitted.
In the interviews that followed, including in recent years, Parker has spoken at length about the aspects of that decision that bothered her most. Lost time always has been among her answers.
“I was mad at my time spent away from my family,” Parker said in an interview with ESPN for her documentary, ‘‘Unapologetic.’’
Three months later, she led the Sparks past the Lynx with a dominant 28-point, 12-rebound performance in Game 5, which helped her earn Finals MVP.
“Her play in that game was huge,” former teammate Chelsea Gray said. “People need to go back and watch that game.”
Over the next four seasons, the WNBA landscape shifted again. After facing the Lynx in the Finals in 2017, the Seattle Storm, anchored by young point forward Breanna Stewart — another emulator of Parker’s playing style — won two titles in three years.
Meanwhile, the Sky were piecing together a contender. When former coach/general manager James Wade joined the organization in 2018, he knew he had a special team.
Over the next couple of years, rumors circulated that Parker was open to leaving Los Angeles. Wade thought about making a play for her, but the team wasn’t ready yet. He believed there were players who still needed time to develop and find themselves.
In 2021, the franchise still wasn’t ready for Parker.
The Sky were practicing out of a public recreation center in Deerfield, the same one they still practice out of today. Their arena and locker room were, and still are, shared with DePaul. But the roster was ready, and she just happened to be from Naperville. Had Parker grown up in Indiana, Connecticut, Seattle or New York, WNBA free agency could’ve had a different look in 2021.
There was also the aspect of retiring a Spark, but when she answered questions about what she needed, wanted and deserved, her decision was made.
“One thing I’ll say about Candace is that she gets cut from the Olympic team and turns around and wins a WNBA title,” said Justine Brown, VP of creative development and talent relations at TOGETHXR. “She gets benched in the playoffs, switches teams and turns around and wins another title.”
Alongside Courtney Vandersloot, Allie Quigley and Kahleah Copper, her second WNBA title was within reach. Her work ethic, habits and mentality — all of which have made her teammates better at every stage of her career— brought the title to fruition.
“She’s a cyborg,” Wade said of her habits.
Parker suffered an ankle injury at the start of the 2021 season. While she was out, the Sky went on a seven-game skid. When she returned, the Sky flipped it to a seven-game winning streak.
Quietly in the background during that season, Parker was flying on her own dime to see different trainers and specialists to help keep her body ready for peak performance. Without fail, Wade said she’d be the first to practice, oftentimes walking in with the coaching staff.
“To go back home,” Kahleah Copper said, “she took a risk. She went [for it], but she [expletive] won. She won.”
Parker’s timing may have never looked more perfect than in the waning seconds of the Sky’s Game 4 win over the Phoenix Mercury in the Finals. With four seconds left, her team up by six, Parker leaped in the air and grabbed Brittney Griner’s missed three-pointer with her right hand.
As time expired, she dribbled the ball down the left side of the court. When she reached halfcourt, she picked the ball up and broke into a full sprint toward her family sitting courtside. It was poetic that Parker closed the game
with the ball in her hands.
“When Candace decides she’s going to do something, she does it,” Sara Parker said.
Parker decided she was going to leave Los Angeles to win another title. The tears that fell on the shoulders of her mother and her wife, Anna, as she hugged them at that moment were testaments to the fact that she once again lived up to her word.
If Parker wanted her retirement to be perceived as perfect, she would have hung it up after that 2021 title. It’s hard to top standing on a scorer’s table, arms outstretched, as confetti rains and thousands watch.
The competitor in Parker brought her back for the 2022 season in an effort to win back-to-back titles in Chicago. After the Sky failed in one of the most shocking playoff collapses in WNBA history, the competitor once again pulled Parker back.
Parker gave birth to her daughter, Lailaa, after her rookie season. She has been her mom’s shadow at every stage of her career. When Parker decided to return for the 2023 season, being close to her home in Los Angeles as Lailaa began high school was the most important factor.
The Las Vegas Aces were able to provide proximity, an opportunity to compete for another title and the professional-athlete experience that had eluded Parker her entire WNBA career. For the first time, Parker had her own locker. One that could house her belongings for days, weeks or months if she wanted with her name etched on a placard.
Throughout her career, she spoke about leaving the game better than she found it. Her season in Las Vegas was an opportunity for her to see firsthand the reality of that being accomplished.
The Aces already were a juggernaut before Parker signed. Her addition made them nearly unbeatable. They went 19-2 to open the season, averaging 94 points while holding opponents to 78.6.
Parker played 18 games that season from May to July. In her last game, a two-point loss to the Dallas Wings, Parker had 10 points and six rebounds.
She had been playing on an 89% fractured left foot. An injury to her right ankle, which required an MRI exam, prompted her to get one on her foot, too. The Aces went on to make history, becoming the first team to win back-to-back titles since the Sparks in 2001 and 2002.
Parker became the first player in WNBA history to win titles with three teams.
The truth is, there is no perfect retirement story. Kobe Bryant scoring 60 points in his final game or Derek Jeter’s walk-off single in his last at-bat at home might be close. Neither of those seasons, however, ended with a playoff appearance, let alone a title.
The players who have come closest to the picturesque retirement are the ones with the best sense of time.
For years, Parker has played through pain, willing her body to give just a little bit more to the game that gave her everything. Even now, she wanted to do it again.
“When she was a freshman at Tennessee, we went down there, and they were showing us X-rays,” Larry Parker said. “When they told us she needed surgery, she sighed and said, ‘So now I’m going to have to sit around and walk around on crutches to every game.’ ”
Parker never wanted to be looked at with pity.
She always has been that way. It’s one of the reasons last season was so challenging. Yes, the Aces won back-to-back titles, and Parker contributed significantly to that accomplishment. But she didn’t contribute the way she wanted to.
It’s also one of the reasons a farewell tour was never in the cards. Parker never wanted people’s default admiration or forced celebration because her career was ending.
She wanted to be able to walk off the court with her loved ones, all of them knowing it was over and that fans showed up and applauded, not because it was her last game. But because she was great.
The reason Parker’s career appears as though it’s filled with moments of perfect timing is because she worked to make it so.
Her decision to leave college after three seasons doesn’t look perfect if she doesn’t put the work in to become the two-time league MVP, three-time WNBA champion and seven-time All-Star, a trailblazer for women’s sports and one of the greatest players of all time.
There’s no silver lining to being left off the Olympic roster if Parker doesn’t lead the Sparks to a WNBA title.
Signing with the Sky doesn’t have the makings of a movie if Parker doesn’t push her body to its absolute limit to stay healthy.
Right now, Parker’s retirement might not look perfect. But if her career has indicated anything, it’s that she’s working so that one day it does.
That’s what makes Parker a titan in the game.