Before the WNBA’s 27th season-opening weekend, two-time league champion Candace Parker promised fans they wouldn’t be disappointed. 

“I am excited about this season as I am every season. It is obviously a different environment, a change and an adjustment for me on the court in a new city and new team,” said Parker, who signed with the Las Vegas Aces in free agency. 

“In the league, I think the level of play just continues to go up every year. And it won’t disappoint this year.” 

Parker then promptly went out and made good on that promise, finishing with 12 points, four rebounds, five assists, and three blocks on four-of-nine from the field to help her new team defeat the Seattle Storm, 105-64.

She also made history in her Aces debut, passing the recently retired Sylvia Fowles for ninth place on the league’s All-Time Scoring List. After Saturday’s win, Parker had 6,424 career points, 28 points behind Katie Smith for eighth place and second only to Diana Taurasi among active WNBA players. 

Ahead of her 15th year in the league, the two-time league MVP – who won championships with the Chicago Sky in 2021 and the L.A. Sparks in 2016 – talked with WNBA.com about her greatest achievement, calling NBA games for TNT, Saturday mornings with her family, the return of Brittney Griner, being a mother and more. 

The WNBA, Parker says, was incomplete without Griner, who returns to the league after being detained for ten months in Russia, where she was playing in the offseason. The Mercury Center was arrested on Feb. 17, 2022, at Sheremetyevo International Airport near Moscow, where Russian officials said they discovered vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. She was sentenced to nine years in a Russian prison in August but was released on Dec. 8 in a prisoner swap to return to the United States.

“We weren’t a complete 144 without her,” said Parker. “For us to have her back and to especially have her continue her career and play, it speaks volumes to the foundation that they put in place, the support she feels, and really, it shows how important basketball is. 

“I think people forget how important basketball is to us and how much we love the game of basketball. With her return, I feel like the fans are excited she is back and will be able to show her love.”

This season, per Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, the WNBA will focus on women’s health and maternal health, issues that Parker applauds, adding that access to information is the key.

“My biggest thing with being a pro athlete as a woman is, essentially, the prime of your career is during the age you would have children,” said the 37-year-old mom. “Having gone through the journey of fertility and IVF, there’s a lot of info I don’t think a lot of people know, and so I would like to make it more accessible to people to understand their different options so they can plan.

“Whether you want to have kids or you don’t, being able to have options, I think, is important,” Parker continued. “So for me, for maternal health, it’s getting all that information and getting what is available to you to have the options after you are done playing to be able to have kids if you want them.”

The 6-4 forward/center and 10-time All-WNBA honoree is mom to 14-year-old Lailaa, whom she shares with ex-husband Shelden Williams, and son Airr (born Feb. 1, 2022) with wife Anna Petrakova.

Being a professional athlete and a mom and the lessons each role teaches goes hand in hand, said Parker, who says she’s always wanted to be a mom.

“I definitely think that I’ve always wanted to be a mom. Even as a kid, I always dreamed about it,” Parker recalled. “I played house until I was 13, 14 years old because I wanted to be a mom so bad, and I wanted to have a little sibling, and my parents were like “no,” so I dreamed of being a mom and having my own. 

“So I think being both – the professional athlete and mom – goes hand in hand.

Being a professional athlete teaches me about tough days, that losses aren’t final, about getting back up, continuing to evolve and get better,” Parker said. 

“I think being a mom has allowed me to treat people the way I want my daughter to be treated, and I think handle adversity and also the relationship aspect of things. Being an athlete makes me a better mom, and being a mom makes me a better athlete. It goes hand in hand. 

As Parker knows, being a top pro athlete and a mother calls for great juggling skills. She juggled those roles during the WNBA offseason, which she spent as a popular NBA analyst and commentator for NBA on TNT.

“I love basketball. I’m a basketball fiend, so it’s always on in my house regardless of if I am working or not,” Parker admits. “I am the person who watches the game. Then after the game is off, I watch all the highlights and reporting and all that. 

“So being able to transition into covering basketball was to me the second best job in the world – the first being playing basketball – and so that is definitely something I want to do after I am done playing,” Parker said of going into sports broadcasting. 

“I think it does help me stay around the game, and it helps my brain continue to look at new ways to play the game and to add to my game. When you are in the studio watching basketball for 10 hours, and you’re covering certain teams and players, there is a key to success, and I think I get a cheat sheet of being able to watch it every single night and break it down and figure out what that is and what it looks like.”

When she’s not hooping or bantering about on the TNT set with Hall of Famers Dwyane Wade and Shaquille O’Neal, Parker spends time with family and friends and relishes in what she calls her greatest achievement: the people around her. 

“I’m extremely proud of my circle and the people I have around me. I don’t believe in ‘yes’ people. I believe in being told what I should hear and what I need to hear and know,” she said. “I think I am very lucky to be able to have solid individuals in my life whom I’ve had a relationship with for an extremely long time and that are still in my circle. 

I’ve got an amazing wife and two kids that I love more than anything in the world, and being able to show up for them every single day is probably my greatest achievement because I remember what it looked like for me when I was able to see the example I had growing up.”

And it’s with this close-knit group of family that Parker says she is happiest. 

“I am happiest in my bed on a Saturday morning when Lailaa doesn’t have any sports or practices, and I don’t have a workout or anything, and one by one, everyone in my house – including my three dogs – climbs into bed,” Parker said. “We have like our little morning talk and laugh, and sometimes we watch T.V. or whatever, so Modern Family is a go-to for us, so that’s probably when I’m the happiest. It’s just great.”

WNBA reporter Dorothy J. Gentry writes a column on WNBA.com throughout the season and can be reached on Twitter at @DorothyJGentry. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the WNBA or its clubs.