Women’s Basketball veteran Candice Dupree had an illustrious 16-year career in the WNBA. Over 16 years, Dupree played for different teams including the Chicago Sky, Phoenix Mercury, Indiana Fever, Seattle Storm, and Atlanta Dream. She won her first WNBA Championship in 2014, while playing with the Phoenix Mercury. Through these years, she has been named a WNBA All-Star 7 times (2006, 2007, 2009, 2014, 2015, 2017, and 2019).

In her 15th WNBA season, Dupree ranked No. 5 as an all-time leading scorer, along with No.6 as an all-time leading rebounder in the history of the WNBA. Marking an end to her playing career, she joined forces with the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs in 2022. Let’s learn what caused her to switch careers and walk on a new path.

Candice Dupree finds a new purpose

“It was like overnight, I’m done, I just left it at that. With the exception of my family, nobody knew that I was going to be done. Nobody,” said Candice concluding the 2021 season, as she quietly walked away from the WNBA. She never released a formal announcement of her retirement and began thinking of her life outside of the basketball court.

ESPN W’s recent Instagram post features Candice Dupree’s all-new life in pictures as she enters into another season of her coaching career, taking the avatar of the assistant coach of the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. Her unexplored patience paid. The Instagram carousel has been captioned – “Candice Dupree trusted the process.” 

The decision came in 2021, after recovering from an injury that required offseason surgery. Also, she had spent some time in rehab with an upcoming 2022 season hovering over. Dupree knew she had to keep up with the workouts to return to that shape, only to find that she didn’t have any desire to do so. In September 2022, Dupree was hired as a player development coach for the San Antonio Spurs.

“It was time to explore different options, spend more time with my girls. I moved on from the W and moved on to the next stage of my life,” she said. As for her, the next level was to coach her second season as a player development coach with the Spurs.

Dupree ventures into the NBA

After receiving a call from a friend in the WNBA league office, Dupree looked into the NBA Coaching Development Program. This program was launched in 1988 providing an opportunity for former players looking to launch careers as NBA coaches.

The program’s alumni include Detroit Pistons head coach Monty Williams who took part in the program in 2006, and Brooklyn Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn who participated in 2010. Dupree herself was taken by surprise she didn’t know she had the patience to be a coach. She only joined the program to explore her options. “The coaching side just happened to fit,” she said.

She attended the CDP for several months. Going through the coaching program, she learned to build scouting reports, network, and learn about platforms that are commonly used to cut and analyze film. Eventually, Dupree was awarded an opportunity to serve as a coach at the 2022 NBA draft combine where she was in charge of leading a team of prospects for half of the event’s scrimmage.

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This became the merging point for Dupree, where she met assistant coach Mitch Johnson who asked her to be the Spurs’ summer league guest coach. This opportunity then led her to a conversation with Brian Wright, the Spurs General Manager. Two months later in September 2022, Dupree was hired as their player development coach.

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Dupree’s newfound journey is getting more fascinating. However, her approach holds the same energy as she used to have as a player, with rigorous preparations and planning and executing a smooth winning game.