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Candace Parker compares her WNBA experience early on with hostility towards Caitlin Clark
Before becoming a women’s basketball legend, Candace Parker was the top overall pick in the 2008 WNBA draft, just like Caitlin Clark was in 2024. The two had similar starts to their careers, helping their respective franchises reach new heights while receiving considerable scrutiny in their first season in the league.
Talking to the Spolitics podcast with Jemele Hill on Sunday, Parker expressed what the differences were during her time as a rookie compared to last year when Clark debuted in the WNBA.
Parker pointed out that being targeted is a part of being a star in the league before touching on how societies see such competitiveness.
“You’re going to experience physicality," Parker said. "The scouting report is to stop you and a lot of it is to be physical. Do you take a couple of extra licks from people? Yeah. Was I the rookie coming in and got shots taken at me or hard fouls? Yeah, for sure. That’s part of the game.
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“I think the problem is now it’s a balancing act of society and the expectations of women versus what is necessary in sports, and for so long they were so conflicting. … I think it’s a different generations of players who are willing to take on societies’ problems with women head-on,” Parker added.
Parker was the Rookie of the Year in 2008, just like Clark in 2024. Parker eventually won her first WNBA title in 2016 while playing for the LA Sparks.
She won the WNBA title again in 2021 for the Chicago Sky and in 2023 with the Las Vegas Aces before retiring from the sport, a year before Clark had entered the league.
Now in her second season in the WNBA, Clark has continued to receive hostility from fans and players, most recently being her controversial flagrant foul on Angel Reese in this year's season opener.
Candace Parker is rooting for Caitlin Clark
While they never faced each other on a basketball court, Candace Parker is happy to see women’s basketball in good hands as she cheers for Caitlin Clark’s success.
On ESPN's The Take with Stephen A. Smith, Parker expressed her fondness for seeing stars like Clark carry the sport in the past two years.
"My job was to leave the game better than I came into it. You think Cheryl Miller is resentful for me that I had a league to play in? No, she's being the mentor that she is, and she's supporting and loving and sitting courtside cheering on JuJu Watkins. And I'm doing the same for Caitlin Clark and all the women in the WNBA," Parker said.
Despite her injury, Caitlin Clark’s presence on the court remained a selling point as the WNBA and the Fever enjoy the continued rise of the sport’s popularity this season.
