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Alexa Philippou ESPN
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- Includes women’s college basketball and the WNBA
- Previously, UConn and the WNBA covered the Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant
- Stanford graduate and Baltimore native with additional experience at Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati Enquirer
Two-time WNBA champion and MVP Candace Parker plans to sign with the Las Vegas Aces as an unrestricted free agent, she announced on her Instagram Saturday.
“Having gone by free hand this time, of course I’m thinking about where I can fight for my third championship, but the words home and family are what I keep coming back to… I have to be there for my daughter, for my son, for my wife,” Parker wrote. “I can’t be without her part of the season when Lailaa is at school and I won’t miss her volleyball games or school dances just because they’re far away. Lailaa starts high school in August and I need to be there for her. like she was there for me
“After evaluating the landscape with my family, we decided that the Las Vegas Aces was the right organization for us at this point in our lives.”
Parker’s contract with the Aces is for a year, her agent Boris Lelchitski told ESPN on Saturday. Her salary is still being negotiated.
The former longtime Los Angeles Sparks star has spent the last two seasons playing for her hometown team, Chicago Sky, and helping them win their first title in 2021. Ranked No. 2 in the playoffs last season, Chicago was upset after the Connecticut Sun lost in Game 5 during the semifinal round at their home court.
“Candace has done so much for our franchise in her time here,” Sky coach and general manager James Wade said in a statement. “I understand her reasons for wanting to be closer to her immediate family. We wish her only the best. She will always be a part of the Sky family. We will celebrate her time here as she deserves.”
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Parker will join a core of two-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson, All-WNBA first-teamer Kelsey Plum, and Finals MVP Chelsea Gray, all fresh from a WNBA title, the first of the franchise, won last season. While fellow free agents Breanna Stewart and Courtney Vandersloot have yet to announce their decisions, Parker, who joins the Aces, makes Vegas the undisputed favorite for now to win it all again in 2023.
A source told ESPN that there was a mutual interest in a reunion between Parker and the Sparks, but she opted for the defending champion Aces instead, with help from Wilson, who recruited her. Parker is also close friends with Gray, her former teammate in Los Angeles.
“Cue the song reunited**,” Gray tweeted after Parker’s announcement.
Wilson, on the other hand, was more speechless.
“Snajajsodmfmdoskanexirmsnwkandickrlfowaknwziendoeke yes,” she tweeted.
Parker, 36, is widely regarded as one of the best players to ever play the game, a two-time champion with Tennessee, a former No. 1 WNBA draft pick and a seven-time All-Star, while also having 10 All-WNBA references their name unites. In addition to winning MVP in her rookie season – the only player to have accomplished that feat – she took home the honor of 2013 and Finals MVP in 2016.
Parker previously made waves in 2021 when she left the Sparks, the organization she drafted to sign with Sky in 2008, citing a desire to play closer to her birthplace of Naperville, Illinois. After initially hinting that she was considering retiring after the 2022 season, her decision to sign with the Aces is having a similar seismic impact on the WNBA landscape.
“When I made the decision to go to Chicago in 2021, I made the decision to go home and be with my family at the place where it all began. I am beyond grateful for the opportunity to win a championship in my hometown and to parade down the same streets I saw the Bulls parade when a young girl first fell in love with the game of basketball,” Parker wrote “I am forever grateful to everyone in Chicago – our fans, teammates, coaches and owners. But more than the last two seasons, I am grateful to the city that raised me, to the childhood friends I have to this day.” , the teachers I still learn from and the moments in time that will stay in my heart forever.
“While Chicago will always be my home, my family’s home is on the West Coast.”
Free agents, including Parker, will be allowed to sign deals starting February 1.
Some were expecting a big free agency move for the Aces might be on the table after trading two-time All-Star Dearica Hamby earlier this week; Hamby has since accused the Aces of treating her in an “unprofessional and unethical manner that was… traumatizing” because of her pregnancy.
Las Vegas hopes to become the first franchise to win back-to-back titles since the Sparks in 2001 and 2002. Parker would become the first WNBA player to win a title with three different franchises if she wins one with the Aces.
ESPN Senior Writer Ramona Shelburne contributed to this report.