The John R. Wooden Award will celebrate its 50th anniversary this season. Leading up to the awards ceremony on April 10, 2026, The Sporting Tribune, in partnership with the Wooden Award and the Los Angeles Athletic Club, will highlight past winners of the Wooden Award and Legends of Coaching Award.
Surrounded by basketball excellence during her childhood, it could be said that Candace Parker’s destiny was already in the works. His father Larry Parker played college basketball at Iowa and his brother Anthony Parker played nine seasons in the NBA and is now general manager of the Orlando Magic.
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Candace began writing her own name in the record books early on. At Naperville Central, Illinois, she led her high school team to back-to-back state championships in 2003 and 2004. This performance earned her recognition as the Gatorade National Player of the Year twice.
After her dominance in high school, she went on to play for the late legendary coach Pat Summit at the University of Tennessee. During her tenure as a Lady Vol, she was a two-time NCAA champion (2007, 2008) and subsequently won the Wooden Award both years, becoming the youngest player to win it at the age of 20. Parker was also the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament finishing with 26 points, five rebounds and seven assists in a 102-54 victory over Army.
“Coach definitely prepares you to play,” Parker said in an interview about Summit. “There are a lot of talented players, but there is a mental aspect to being a Lady Vol. I think you have to have that work ethic and coach instilled that in us. Her favorite quote was, ‘Success is not a destination; success is continuous work.
With all eyes on Parker, the spotlight continued to shine on her. She was drafted number one overall in 2008 by the Los Angeles Sparks. She didn’t slow down, she speeded up. The power forward averaged 18.5 points, 9.5 rebounds, 3.4 assists, 2.3 blocks and 1.3 steals per game at the end of her rookie season. Those numbers earned him not only WNBA Rookie of the Year, but also MVP, a rare dual honor.
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Parker continued to set the bar for the WNBA throughout her career. She is a seven-time WNBA All-Star, two-time WNBA MVP (2008, 2013), WNBA Finals MVP (2016) and three-time WNBA champion (2016 with the Sparks, 2021 with the Chicago Sky and 2023 with the Las Vegas Aces). Parker finished her WNBA career with averages of 16.0 points, 8.5 rebounds and 4.0 assists per game over 410 career games.
She has notably played abroad with UMMC Ekaterinburg (Russia), the Guangdong Dolphins (China), Fenerbahçe (Turkey) and the Xinjiang Tianshan Deers (China) and has also represented our country nationally by becoming a two-time Olympic gold medalist with the American team (Beijing 2008, London 2012).
Since the end of her 16 seasons in the WNBA, Parker remains very involved in the world of basketball. She became a respected NBA and WNBA analyst for TNT and NBA TV, and continues to openly advocate for the visibility and fairness of women’s basketball.
Parker will be inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in June 2026 in Knoxville, Tennessee, right next to the University of Tennessee, where it all began.
