NEW YORK (Reuters) -Seven-times All-Star Candace Parker called time on her career on Sunday, stepping away from the game after becoming the first to win the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) Finals with three different teams.
The twice most valuable player Parker won the trophy with the Las Vegas Aces last year but was sidelined for much of the season after undergoing surgery on her foot.
“I promised I’d never cheat the game & that I’d leave it in a better place than I came into it. 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 wrote on Instagram.
The first overall pick in the 2008 draft was the first to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same year when she averaged 18.5 points and 9.5 rebounds per game in her opening season with the Los Angeles Sparks.
She led the Sparks to the playoffs 11 times, winning the championship in 2016, before a short stint with the Chicago Sky to win the title in 2021.
“From teens with hoop dreams to legends!” eight-time NBA All-Star Dwight Howard wrote on X. “Congrats on a legendary career.”
“Congratulations on a brilliant career, Candace,” tennis great Billie Jean King wrote. “Looking forward to following the next steps in your journey.”
The future Hall of Famer Parker won Olympic gold with the United States twice and re-signed with the Aces in February but said that her foot was not “cooperating” in the off-season.
“It’s no fun knowing what you could do, if only,” said Parker.
“I’m grateful that for 16 years I PLAYED A GAME for a living & DESPITE all the injuries, I hooped.”
(Reporting by Amy Tennery in New YorkEditing by Toby Davis)
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