WNBA athletes have fought long and hard to grow their sport throughout the years. Much like women in any workspace, they face their own unique challenges, which NBA players will never experience. Even one of the greatest WNBA players of all time, Candace Parker, has found herself in such a situation, where she had doubts over whether she could continue playing the sport to her complete potential.
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In the 2008 WNBA Draft, the Los Angeles Sparks selected Parker with the first overall pick. Once she touched a WNBA court, she immediately dominated the competition. In her rookie season, Parker became the first woman in WNBA history to win Rookie of the Year and MVP.
Her career trajectory was that of an all-time great. But that would suddenly change once Parker found out she was pregnant. The Sparks star’s career came to a standstill, but she didn’t show any signs of slowing down.
“When I found out I was pregnant, I immediately shifted to, ‘When am I going to come back?” Parker said on All Facts No Brakes with Keyshawn Johnson. “It was more so are people going to continue to question whether I can do this and come back and be the same?”
At the time, the WNBA was still a small and budding league. It didn’t have the resources to provide paid maternity leave. Parker took 53 days off to recover from giving birth to her daughter Lailaa. On that 54th day, she was back with the Sparks.
The difference between her rookie season and sophomore season was drastic. Now that she was raising a child, she had to adjust her work environment to accommodate her daughter.
“It came at the time we were sharing rooms in the WNBA. So I had to buy out half of the room so my mom could stay with my daughter. I was nursing her before the game and at halftime. I was buying my mom’s ticket to the games with us on the commercial flight. That all came with it, I just wanted to be back out there,” Parker revealed.
But despite how difficult it was to navigate, if Parker could go back in time, she wouldn’t change a single thing. That 2009 season was her teammate, Lisa Leslie’s final season, which she desperately wanted to be a part of.
More importantly, having her daughter around during her career had a bigger impact than she could’ve imagined.
“I’m super grateful that she was a part of my career because I don’t know what I would have done. She kept me grounded. She kept me humble,” Parker said.
Parker would go on to prove that her pregnancy wasn’t going to hold her back from being great. She went on to become a three-time WNBA champion, winning a ring with three different teams (Los Angeles Sparks, Chicago Sky, Las Vegas Aces).
Her accolades speak for themselves, and in a few years, she surely will hear her name announced at the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame.
