Candace Parker stresses on more competition within United States for development of WNBA
Candace Parker is renowned as one of the greatest WNBA players of all time, and her basketball resume speaks for itself. However, life as a WNBA player can be challenging, as there are players who have to play overseas to supplement their income.
During an interview on TNT's "The Steam Room Podcast," Parker said that something has to challenge the league for it to grow. Despite being one of the elite players during her time, Parker had to play overseas in the off-season, as her WNBA income alone was not enough. That's a common practice in the league even now.
According to Parker, there needs to be another women's basketball league that can challenge the stature of the WNBA. Whether she thinks that the league is complacent or not regarding this matter, the Los Angeles Sparks legend stands with the players on this issue.
"There's got to be some type of competition within the United States to be honest with you," Parker said, "that kind of pushes the envelope whether it's a league, whether it's a travel, I don't know what it is, but I think there's got to be something that challenges the WNBA to be better."
"You look at the history of the NBA," Parker added, "and the supplemental leagues that kind of pushed the NBA to get better and to raise the bar and I think that that's got to occur with the WNBA for them to truly grow."
Candace Parker also mentioned how the NBA needed to adapt to compete with other men's professional basketball leagues (America Basketball League) at the time.
It's yet to be seen if another league will be able to challenge the WNBA, which could result in a change for the better for the players.
Candace Parker hints about returning to WNBA for another season
According to Yahoo! Sports' Callie Lawson-Freeman, Candace Parker briefly talked about the possibility of playing another WNBA season:
"I'll weigh my options. If I feel really, really good, then I'll play. That's a big if. I've got to get my foot right. My foot was really bad last year. I don't want to cheat the game or cheat myself. Every day, my foot doesn't feel great walking. I continue to rehab and stuff. I can't play in pain. It makes the game not fun."
"I realized on Halloween that I want to take my kids trick-or-treating," she added. "I don't want to be sitting in the car because I can't walk."
Before her injury, Candace Parker was averaging 9.0 points (46.5% shooting, including 33.3% from the 3-point range) and 5.4 rebounds per game.