Candace Parker Slam Dunks for Equality

By: Sarah Vandermolen Editor-in-Chief

After graduating from the University of Tennessee in 2008, Candace Parker was the first overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft. She was selected by the Los Angeles Sparks and from then on, she would go on to change the basketball world.

While growing up in Naperville, Illinois, Candace learned from her brothers, Marcus and Anthony Parker, the love of basketball. At the ripe age of 15-years-old, “Candance became a national sensation at Naperville Central High School, leading her team to back-to-back state championships in 2003 and 2004,” according to candaceparker.com. Parker would go on to win several more championships and achieve some amazing accomplishments, such as: Naismith and Gatorade Prep Player of the Year, the slam dunk contest at the 2004 McDonald’s All American Game, and “back-to back Class AA state titles,” all before graduating from high school, according to www.candaceparker.com.

In college, Parker's reign didn’t even waver. According to www. candaceparker.com, “She became the first woman to dunk in an NCAA game, and the first woman to dunk twice in a single NCAA game.” In her very first season in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), she was named SEC Rookie of the Year. “She went on to win back-to-back NCAA championships with the Lady Vols in 2007 and 2008, leading the team both in scoring and rebounds her final season,” according to www.candaceparker.com. Throughout her collegiate career, she was named: Collegiate Female John R. Wooden Player of the Year (2007 and 2008), State Farm Player of the Year, Basketball Writers Association National Player of the Year, and Kodak AllAmerican.

Parker was also a member of Team USA. According to her biography on www.candaceparker.com, “Candace was a member of the USA Women’s U18 team which won the gold medal at the FIBA America Championship.” In 2006, Parker also led Team USA to win a bronze medal at the World Championships in Brazil, as well as leading the team to a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing and the 2011 London Olympics.

Candace’s story only gets greater and greater, with her success only skyrocketing once she hit the big leagues. After being selected by the Los Angeles Sparks, she was “named to the AllWNBA First Team and All Rookie Team” and “Became the first player to earn WNBA MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season,” according to www.wnba.com. After giving birth to her daughter in 2009 and suffering from several injuries in 2010 and 2011,

Parker returned to the game to increase her stats in 2012 and to be named the WNBA Most Valuable Player in 2013. She remained at the top of the WNBA for several years and at the beginning of the 2021 basketball season, Parker decided that it was time to go home.

After becoming an unrestricted free agent, Parker decided to leave the Sparks. She went on to sign a 2-year contract with the Chicago Sky, back in the state that she was born and raised in. Candace explains her decision, stating, “Chicago is where my family raised me; where I first learned the game of basketball...I am excited to continue the next chapter of my career where it all began...I’m home.”

Despite injuries amongst the team, The Chicago Sky earned the #6 seed in the playoffs, with a record of 16-16. They faced the Phoenix Mercury in the finals, after beating out the top seed, Connecticut Sun. On Sunday, October 17, the Chicago Sky beat Mercury, 80 - 74 to win the franchise‘s first WNBA Championship. Although what Candace Parker has done during her entire basketball career and with the Chicago Sky is utterly mind blowing, very few people have paid any attention to this team's accomplishments.

Since its establishment in 1996, the WNBA has never been taken as seriously as any professional male sport. Before the start of the 2021 season, NBA fans took to Twitter to express their feelings on the WNBA, some stating “No one even watches the WNBA” and “The WNBA is a joke. Why would I waste my time watching a bunch of women that can’t play basketball?”

The WNBA isn’t the only professional women’s sport team to be viewed as less by society. The USA Women's Soccer team has four World Cup titles, four Olympic gold medals and eight CONCACAF Gold Cups on their record, and they are still paid less than the USA Men’s Team and not taken as seriously. University of St. Francis senior, Elizabeth Ponce, agrees, stating, “Female athletes have never been taken seriously, despite all that they have accomplished.”

Even after winning a championship title, the Chicago Sky is still not being taken seriously. This only leads players to wonder, what does it take?

How much do female athletes have to achieve, to accomplish for the world to view them as actual athletes? Why are professional male athletes the standard when female athletes are out there setting and breaking records every day? Serena Williams is one of, if not the most, accomplished and decorated tennis players out there. But, if you ask a handful of people who is the best athlete right now, chances are not one of them will say her name.

As a society, we need to start treating female athletes as real athletes. We need to let young girls know that there are women out there to look up to; women that are taken seriously and looked at with admiration. We need to give these hard working and dedicated athletes the respect that they deserve, no matter what their gender is.

Candace Parker is one of the most accomplished female basketball players to ever play the game, and her and the Chicago Sky deserve our respect and applause.

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