Two-time WNBA MVP Candace Parker won’t end her career as a member of the LA Sparks, with which she won a championship in 2016. Chicago area Parker has pledged to play for Chicago Sky thereafter, according to a report by ESPN, she spent all 13 seasons of her career in LA to date.
Parker, who was # 1 in Tennessee in the 2008 WNBA Draft, is an unreserved free agent. The signing period for free agents joining new teams begins on Monday.
The Sparks were dying to sign the dynamic 6-foot-4 striker, said Derek Fisher, the team’s coach and general manager.
« We intend to make every effort to re-sign Candace Parker and to ensure that she completes her career in LA, » said Fisher in December. “We want to make sure that Candace never plays a game for another team. But we have to earn that from her, have the right conversations when the time comes. “
He and Parker, 34, had a tumultuous first season but they found common ground last season and he appreciated he’d been talking to the biggest star on his team – who is also a full-time analyst and commentator for the NBA at TNT and NBA TV is up – 30 times since the end of last season to discuss everything from improving the team to their personal goals and training.
Parker, a five-time All-Star player with a career average of 16.9 points and 8.6 rebounds, is the only player in WNBA history to win MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season, when she was also the second player to immerse a WNBA game. She was named WNBA MVP in 2013 and Finals MVP in 2016.
Now Parker is reigning WNBA Defensive Player of the Year and will help bolster a defense in Chicago that is in the lower half of the league with a defensive rating of 102.7.
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Last season, she flourished as the leader of a Sparks defense, finishing third in the WNBA with 98.8 points and keeping opponents in the color with 31.3 points per game, the second smallest in the WNBA. Individually, Parker averaged the best 8 defensive rebounds (and a total of 9.7 rebounds), 1.23 blocked shots and 1.18 steals in 22 games. She collected at least 10 defense boards nine times in a game.
Parker, who grew up in Naperville, Illinois, about 30 miles from Chicago, went out into the open with Chelsea Gray, Riquna Williams, Seimone Augustus, Reshanda Gray and Nneka Ogwumike as one of the Sparks’ five free agents Agency one.
Ogwumike is said to be prepared to return to LA, according to Winsider’s Rachel Galligan. She reports that the WNBA MVP agreed in principle to a multi-year contract with the Sparks in 2016 after meeting at least two other teams.
Nneka’s sister and teammate Chiney Ogwumike’s contract expired after last season, but the Sparks retain exclusive negotiating powers as they refused to play in the WNBA bubble due to medical precautions. Brittney Sykes is a restricted freelance agent.
Candace Parker dedicates the WNBA Championship to the late, great Pat Summitt (her college trainer and mentor) pic.twitter.com/y2sM10J6sg
That day 9 years ago … @ Candace_Parker was the 2nd player to dive into a #WNBA game! pic.twitter.com/pMgHiPnEKx
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