After nearly 30 years, the WNBA finally has what it has coveted for so long: the kind of national and global spotlight traditionally reserved for the NBA, at least when it comes to its biggest stars.
For decades, women's basketball operated in the shadows.
But with the arrival of Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, the momentum shifted dramatically overnight. Today, casual fans everywhere know the league's top headline-makers. Unfortunately, Candace Parker just missed riding that exact wave of explosive popularity.
Although she was considered one of the best players in the entire league for years, the three-time WNBA champion retired in 2023, right before the surge in popularity began.
Over her years of playing, she saw all the ins and outs that come with being a top-notch basketball star, and one of the most unpleasant things for her was definitely dealing with sexist comments, which she addressed on one occasion.
"I think they live in a world where equality is what we're fighting for at the moment, so I think as men for a very, very long time they were told that they're superior and so they feel good making other people inferior," Parker said back in 2018. "I've said it before: NBA players aren't making these comments; it's usually guys at 24 Hour Fitness that didn't get off the bench on their high school team."
Even she, having reached the absolute pinnacle of her profession, winning along the way two MVP titles, a Finals MVP title, leading the league multiple times in assists, rebounds, and blocks, alongside numerous All-Star appearances and two gold Olympic medals, could not escape the superficiality of the society we live in.
However, sexism wasn't the only thing Parker had to become numb to. Racism was still there, and the combination of the two, as she admitted, was a nightmare mix.
"I think so. I think that's a fight that people have to stay away from. Racism has been an issue in our country for a very long time, but women's suffrage has been here an even longer time. So with that combination, being black and a woman, you know?" she added.
Still, growing up in a household with two older brothers and a demanding father who treated her the same as her brothers toughened her up from her earliest days.
There were no divisions by race or gender; everyone had the same expectations, and Candace accepted that early on.
Through years of competing at the highest level, she realized that superficial noise from critics who failed to achieve their own personal goals is simply unavoidable. Hard as it was to stomach at times, she ultimately learned to just block out the noise and look forward.
Hopefully, because of this surge of popularity, fans can finally see how good of hoopers women actually are. There will always be some idiots and haters out there, but whoever has watched these playoffs can't say we didn't watch really good basketball.
This story was originally published by Basketball Network on Oct 29, 2026, where it first appeared in the WNBA section. Add Basketball Network as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
