“Her commitment to this season has been a great catalyst for the success we’ve been able to have so far.” Los Angeles Sparks’ then-head coach Derek Fisher reflected on Candace Parker’s impact on the team’s performance. This remark came in 2020, during Parker’s final season with the Sparks, where her leadership and dedication propelled the team into the playoffs—a feat they haven’t achieved since her departure.

After her time with the Sparks, two-time Olympic gold medalist Parker made a couple of moves before announcing her retirement last year. So given her history with the Sparks, her recent pick on the Flau’jae Johnson’s podcast came as a little surprise. The LSU star asked the 2x Finals MVP a question about owning a team. She wanted to know Parker’s top three cities, where she would like to own a franchise. Her picks?

“Las Vegas. Chicago and 3A and 3B are Tennessee, the whole state or Los Angeles,” replied Parker via Best of Both Worlds. The 3x champion, Parker, became a part of the ownership group of Angel City FC in 2020 when she played her final year with the Sparks but secured her last championship with the Las Vegas Aces before announcing her retirement earlier this year. But ever wondered why she wants to find her way back to Sin City?

Maybe because of the reception she got from the Aces. After signing with the team in 2023, she played only 18 games with them. In those 18 appearances, she averaged 9.0 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 3.7 assists while logging 23.6 minutes per night before undergoing a season-ending foot surgery. Notably, the Aces went 16-2 in those games. Though the Aces went on to win their second consecutive NBA Championships that year, Parker was not in that run. But the Aces did not forget her contributions.

So in February, they announced re-signing Parker for the 2024 season in their quest to become the first WNBA team to win three consecutive championships. Unfortunately, Parker had to call it quits after her foot injury became too big to ignore. Mentioning how it nagged her during the offseason she wrote in her retirement post on Instagram, “I promised I’d never cheat the game & that I’d leave it in a better place than I came into it. The competitor in me always wants 1 more, but it’s time.” Despite that call, the Aces remained ever-welcoming to her.

In its statement after Parker’s retirement, the Aces wrote, “We are saddened that she won’t be a part of our three-peat aspirations, but we look forward to welcoming Candace back to Las Vegas as an Aces alum, and we can’t wait to see what the next chapter in her life has to offer.” Indeed, Parker also looks eager to bring her association with the Aces to a full circle, albeit in a new role. But hadn’t she teased owning a team in her retirement post itself?

“Know IM A BUSINESS, man, not a businessman. This is the beginning … I’m attacking business, private equity, ownership (I will own both a NBA & WNBA team), broadcasting, production, boardrooms, beach volleyball, dominoes (sorry babe it’s going to get more real) with the same intensity & focus I did basketball,” she had written. For the unversed, Parker has been an analyst for the NBA on TNT since 2018 and signed a multiyear extension in 2019. Interestingly, Parker is so much into ownership that she wants other WNBA players to own teams, like the way NBA players have acquired stakes in NBA teams.

“I think that [NBA commissioner] Adam Silver definitely wants to continue that. And I hope in the WNBA we’re able to have other WNBA owners be a part of it as well because I think it just adds to the value of the WNBA. Just as having players that are coaches adds to the value of the WNBA,” she had said to Front Office Sports in 2023. While we don’t know if we will see Parker as an owner of the WNBA or any other team in Las Vegas, for the time being, Parker seemed to be highly favoring the Aces for this year’s playoffs.

Reigning champions Aces are in a tough spot right now with the New York Liberty having a 2-0 lead over them in the playoff semifinals. However, Parker believes that the Aces can turn the tables. “If anybody could do it and come back from 0-2, it would be Vegas. You look at the Golden State Warriors’ success and what they did during their run of winning championships. I mean, they had to win Game 6 at Houston and then come back and win at home. So, like, it’s possible, and I think if anybody could do it, it’s them,” she said.

Parker was referring to the year 2018 when the Warriors came back from a similar deficit against the Houston Rockets to secure a championship. So does her short but winning stint with the Aces have a bearing on her call? It seems so.

“Going into this year, even though Vegas didn’t look great throughout the season, they kind of turned it around at the end. Obviously, I’m partial because I played for them, but I thought Vegas was going to come in and be able to get one in New York just because of their mindset, their skill set, and their ability to play both sides of the ball. They’ve won before, which I think is another layer of things,” Parker declared in the conversation. Back in the time when she moved to the Aces, that also created a winning combination.

Parker joined an Aces squad that had just won its first WNBA championship and led the league in scoring last season with 90.4 points per game. She teamed up with another two-time MVP in A’ja Wilson and stars like Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum, and Jackie Young. It was a reunion for her since Gray and Parker were teammates with the Sparks from 2016 to 2020. Interestingly, Parker, Wilson, Plum, and Young were all No. 1 overall picks. Chicago, her second choice, has to be close to her heart.

It was the ‘Windy City’ where she learned to play basketball and signing with them was a kind of homecoming for her. In Chicago also, she joined a star-studded squad with three 2019 All-Stars: Courtney Vandersloot, Allie Quigley, and Diamond DeShields. With the 2019 WNBA coach of the year, James Wade, the Sky were already a favorite to win the championship in 2021. Parker did not disappoint. She led the team to its first championship ever. However, Parker’s roots run deepest with the Sparks, where she dedicated impressive 13 seasons of her career.

The Sparks selected her as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft, and she made an indelible mark on the franchise. In 2016, she played a pivotal role in helping the Sparks capture their first title in 14 years, ending a long championship drought for the team. For Parker, this marked the beginning of a career that would make her the only WNBA player to have won three championships with three separate teams. Not to forget her MVP and the Rookie of the Year awards in 2008, still the only WNBA player to do so in the same year.

Parker’s choice to part ways with the Sparks seemed to be influenced by several factors that aligned with her needs and comfort at that moment. But it was not completely devoid of its fair share of controversy.

Candace Parker’s pick is not really a shocker

After four years of her first championship, Parker made a significant move, trading the sunny shores of Los Angeles for the Windy City of Chicago. Growing up in the Chicago suburb of Naperville, Parker’s decision to relocate was likely influenced by her roots. But it was also known that her relationship with the franchise wasn’t exactly smooth. Particularly with the initial coach and eventual general manager, Derek Fisher.

Fisher had benched Parker during the 2019 semifinal elimination game. She would only get to play a few minutes in the final quarter and the team would go on to lose. “Why would you do that now?” Parker was seen mouthing in a clip later. But if that wasn’t enough, Dwyane Wade, a good friend, a fellow analyst, and co-owner of Chicago Sky posted the following: “What when they don’t appreciate your worth looks like. I’m happy for my friend and teammate that she’s going back HOME!!! but @LASparks no that’s your legacy.”

Parker also wished to win another championship in her career. And the Sky’s star-studded roster with 3 previous season’s All-Stars was only more appealing. “I’m all about championships. Individual awards, those can be disputed. Finals MVPs and championships, those can’t be disputed. I’ve won two in high school, two in college, and I’ve gotten one in the pros. So honestly I would be lying to you if I didn’t tell you that I wake up every day and think about winning another championship,” Parker told Insider in December 2020 about her move to Chicago. That very hunger for win probably did not let her settle.

A championship with the Sky and 2 years in, she would then leave for LV Aces to be closer to her family on the West Coast and spend more time with them. That move had shocked many back then. But Parker’s priorities were clear even with her lust for the championships. “I need to be there for my daughter, for my son, for my wife,” she had revealed. So considering it all, Las Vegas might not really be all that hard a decision to understand.