WNBA icon Candace Parker on overcoming challenges, career highlights and her journey beyond the court

CBS News

03-06-2025

WNBA champion Candace Parker is one of the league's most celebrated players, winning championships with three different teams over her 16-year career.
Her success on and off the court goes back to her determined nature during her childhood.
"I fell in love with the game as a result of my family, honestly. Most Saturdays, it was spent going to the basketball courts," Parker said.
Although 10 years younger than her siblings, Parker was a fierce competitor.
"Being the little sister was really hard because I was looking up to these two amazing role models and I worried if I would be able to do what they did," she said.
But the two-time Olympic Gold medalist had her first dunk, which would eventually became her signature, at the young age of 14.
"I will never forget it," Parker said about her first-ever dunk. "I don't even think my feet really landed on the ground and I was already pulling out my flip phone, you know, the flip cell phone, and dialing my brother and telling him at the next Thanksgiving, when we're all around the table, I'm gonna say, 'Whoever dunked at 14, you know, can step forward' and my brothers had to take a huge step back."
Before her professional career, Parker dominated in college, winning two national titles at the University of Tennessee for legendary coach Pat Summitt, who also inspired her off the court.
"You're gonna live longer than the ball is bouncing, God willing, and so there's a whole lot of life after basketball. So you kinda have to learn how to be a good human and, I can't think of a better person than coach Summitt that modeled that," she said.
Challenges during WNBA career
Even as the No. 1 pick in the 2008 WNBA draft, the low salaries of WNBA players were a huge hurdle.
When Parker became pregnant, paid maternity leave did not exist in the league.
"I'm not proud of the fact that when I was pregnant, the most joyous moment of my entire life, I've always wanted to be a mom, was met with my hesitation of how am I gonna tell my organization that I'm pregnant?"
Her daughter, Lailaa, was born after her rookie year. To make ends meet, Parker played overseas on teams in Russia, China and Turkey during the offseason, raising Lailaa on the road with her mom's help.
"Like it's the happiest moments of my life, but it was met with like, wow, this is — this is the reality of it," she said.
Lailaa is now 16. Parker and her wife Anya, both retired basketball players, have two sons, Hartt and Airr.
New book and life beyond basketball
Parker's new book, "The Can-Do Mindset: How to Cultivate Resilience, Follow Your Heart, and Fight for Your Passions," focuses on her failures and successes in basketball and beyond.
She shares her struggles as a female athlete, writing, "Society told us to be strong, but not too muscular, be competitive, but don't be emotional, be independent, but still subservient, and dream, but within the confines of a box society constantly puts you in."
"So I think it's just the double standard of the way society views women, and especially views women within sports," she told CBS News.
The basketball legend is now a sports commentator. Amongst her trophies and special memorabilia, there's one treasure that stands out from the rest.
"First WNBA Championship, I think is like a picture's worth a million words and my daughter is telling me that we did it," she said.