Candace Parker never wanted to cheat the game.

Of a player molded by Pat Summitt and the Lady Vols’ legacy, one would expect nothing less. Through 10 surgeries. Her pregnancy and birth of her first child, Lailaa, after her rookie season. Through offseasons spent playing in Russia and China and Turkey, and later, offseasons behind the desk on TNT, NBATV and CBS. Through a career that spanned 16 seasons and three cities in the WNBA, four years at Tennessee and two Olympics, it can be said assuredly: Parker never cheated the game. Instead, it almost feels like the game should’ve given her even more than it did.

Parker, 38, announced Sunday on Instagram that she had retired from the WNBA. From her home or a hotel or a gym somewhere, Parker silently pushed send and let the world know that one of the greatest who has ever stepped foot on a basketball court would not play again.

There were no heads-ups or warnings to the WNBA community or the players against whom she has competed for years. And there will be no send-off season or monthslong march toward her retirement. It was swift and succinct. And it was exactly how she wanted it — entirely on her terms. After a career that was too often derailed by injury, she was owed that.

“I always wanted to walk off the court with no…

One of the all-time greats is walking off into the sunset.

Candace Parker — a two-time MVP, two-time NCAA champion, three-time WNBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, among many other accolades — announced her retirement from basketball Sunday.

“I promised I’d never cheat the game & that I’d leave it in a better place than I came into it,” she wrote in a post on Instagram. “The competitor in me always wants 1 more, but it’s time.

“My HEART & body knew, but I needed to give my mind time to accept it. I always wanted to walk off the court with no parade or tour, just privately with the ones I love. What now was to be my last game, I walked off the court with my daughter. I ended the journey just as I started it, with her.”

Parker had signed a non-guaranteed deal with the Las Vegas Aces after missing the second half of the 2023 season with a foot injury. She posted that her foot wasn’t cooperating with the rehab from surgery — her 10th procedure in her pro career — thus resulting in her retirement 16 years after she was drafted No. 1 overall. The announcement came less than an hour before the Aces were set to begin training camp for the 2024 season.

Forever a GOAT. Forever an Ace. pic.twitter.com/zGiCaIsBfh

— Las Vegas Aces (@LVAces) April 28,…

As the WNBA heads into its most anticipated season in recent memory, half of the league’s teams are getting a new look.

Six franchises — Chicago, Connecticut, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Seattle — are adding new “Rebel” jerseys for the 2024 season. When Nike took over jersey production for the WNBA in 2021, it instituted three rotation jerseys: the Heroine (home), Explorer (away), and Rebel (alternate). In 2023, the league unveiled new Rebel uniforms for five teams: Dallas, Indiana, New York, Minnesota, and Washington, which leaves Atlanta as the lone organization not to get an update since the original release.

The new uniforms play off of the characteristics of each city and region. For instance, the Sparks’ new jersey is the team’s first gold jersey in the Nike era, as its current rotation includes a white home and purple away uniform. It gives the effect that the sun is shining on the team, especially when paired with the iconic palm tree logo. Meanwhile, the Storm have played up the weather aspect of their name with lightning-shaped indents in the jersey’s lettering.

Several elements of the Sun’s Rebel jerseys serve as symbols and homages to the Mohegan Tribe’s culture and history. Among them, the purple and white neck is modeled after the…

The most anticipated WNBA Draft in recent memory has come and gone. Once again, it was a franchise-changing day for the Indiana Fever, who drafted Caitlin Clark. Meanwhile, several teams made meaningful investments in their futures while others fine-tuned in their pursuit of a championship in the near term.

Let’s take a look at how well each team accomplished its goals in the 2024 WNBA Draft. The grades are a little bit higher across the board than last year, but this was a better pool of players. I’m allowing for some optimism.

Nyadiew Puoch (12), Isabel Borlase (20), Matilde Villa (32)

The Dream made three international selections, all of whom are 19 years old, and none of whom project to play in the WNBA during the 2024 season. As such, it’s hard to say if Atlanta addressed any of its needs because by the time these players come over, the roster could look dramatically different. Big picture, Puoch and Borlase were rated as first-round talents by the general managers The Athletic surveyed, so to pick up both with only one first-round pick is good value. But the Dream have a chance to get better right now with Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray rating among the better perimeter duos in the league, and they punted on a chance for immediate improvement, even if this trio of…

NEW YORK — Caitlin Clark was anxious moments before WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert voiced the most predictable news of Monday night’s 2024 WNBA Draft. With the first pick, the Indiana Fever selected Clark, the Iowa superstar who amassed one of the greatest careers in women’s college basketball history. Fever general manager Lin Dunn said it took “20 seconds, maybe 15” to make Clark the choice. The celebration for Clark lasted far longer than that inside the Brooklyn Academy of Music. As she embraced her family, throngs of fans wearing No. 22 Iowa T-shirts rose to their feet in delight.

Eventually, everyone sat down, but not before a franchise had been changed.

“I can’t imagine a more perfect fit, a better place for me to start my professional career, an organization that really just believes in women’s basketball and wants to do everything the right way,” Clark said.

SEE YOU SOON CAITLIN!! pic.twitter.com/ImbApa6wuC

— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) April 16, 2024

It’s been a whirlwind week for Clark, the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer. In the span of eight days, she walked off the court at the national championship game, appeared on “Saturday Night Live” and shuffled in and out of meetings with league and player association officials in New…

NEW YORK — The WNBA is looking to continue growing in the next few years. The league intends to reach 16 teams by 2028, commissioner Cathy Engelbert said before the draft, confirming The Athletic report from earlier Monday.

The league announced earlier this year that the Bay Area would receive an expansion team for a 13th league franchise, which is expected to start playing the 2025 season. The WNBA is looking at the 2026 season for its 14th team, Engelbert said. She named Philadelphia; Toronto; Portland, Ore.; Denver; Nashville, Tenn.; and South Florida as places the league is exploring as options. Charlotte, N.C., is also in consideration for the next team, sources with knowledge of the league’s plans told The Athletic.

“We’re talking to a lot of different cities,” Engelbert said. “I think I’ve thrown out names before. It’s complex because you need an arena and a practice facility and player housing and all the things, you need committed long-term ownership groups. The nice thing is we’re getting a lot of calls.”

The WNBA was close to bringing a team to Portland. The city was in strong consideration this fall, but those plans fell through during talks with the prospective ownership group.

Engelbert didn’t put a timeline on when the league would decide on…

So what now?

That’s the big, media-centric question for women’s college basketball. Where does the sport go after the head-spinning viewership figures for the national championship game? South Carolina’s 87-75 win over Iowa on April 7 averaged 18.9 million viewers, the most-viewed women’s college basketball game ever and the most-viewed college basketball game (men’s or women’s) on record for an ESPN platform. The audience was up 90 percent over the 2023 national championship (9.9 million for LSU’s win over Iowa) and 289 percent from 2022 (4.9 million viewers for South Carolina’s win over UConn). The game peaked at 24 million viewers on ABC and ESPN during the final 15 minutes.

The 2024 NCAA Women’s Final Four was the most-viewed on record, averaging 13.8 million viewers. Those numbers included 14.4 million viewers for Iowa-UConn (the second-most-watched women’s college game on record) and 7.2 million viewers for N.C. State and South Carolina. The tournament overall (57 games) across ESPN platforms averaged 2.2 million viewers, up 121 percent from 2023. It’s the most-watched women’s NCAA Tournament since ESPN acquired exclusive rights in 1996.

To put the South Carolina-Iowa viewership in perspective, the game topped:

• Every World Series game since Game…

Just eight days after playing for an NCAA national championship, Caitlin Clark is poised to become the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft and burst into the professional ranks with the star power to jolt the league at a pivotal moment in its trajectory.

Throngs of fans are expected to tune in for Monday night’s national broadcast when the Iowa star is all but certain to be selected by the Indiana Fever. From the moment her name is called and Clark takes center stage, she will become the WNBA’s most anticipated rookie in years. A popularity boost similar to the effect she had in women’s college basketball could follow her with every logo 3-pointer she makes and each pin-point pass she throws.

At Iowa, Clark’s impact was even greater than her resumé, which itself was outstanding with three conference tournament titles, two national championship appearances, and dozens of broken records, including the NCAA Division I all-time scoring mark. When Clark played, every game was appointment-viewing. Arenas sold out and television ratings records shattered.

The WNBA has already been on an ascent over the last few seasons with increases in nationally broadcast games, greater attendance and more media coverage. But Clark, who even South Carolina coach Dawn Staley described as “one of…

Reality is coming.

In the words of Diana Taurasi, as spoken to Scott Van Pelt on SportsCenter, Caitlin Clark is due for a reckoning when she gets to the WNBA. After four years of dominating the college game, Clark is starting the next chapter of her career at the bottom as one of the youngest players in the most talented league in the world. Regardless of what the overall arc of Clark’s career ends up being, it is unlikely that she hits the ground running as the best player on the court every night, as she did at Iowa.

Diana Taurasi on Caitlin Clark coming to WNBA “Reality is coming….you look superhuman playing against some 18 years olds but you’re going to come play with some grown women that have been playing professional basketball for a long time” pic.twitter.com/fxBxGoRZCS

— Gifdsports (@gifdsports) April 6, 2024

 

Hype won’t be an issue for Clark; she is accustomed to feeling pressure and meeting the moment. She was a top-five recruit coming out of high school who ended up as the leading scorer in college basketball history. She proclaimed her goal as a freshman to get Iowa back to the Final Four for the first time since 1993, and she did it – twice. As the eyes of the public lasered in on her during every successive game of the Hawkeyes’ 2024 NCAA Tournament,…

The 2023-24 college season featured more star power than any in recent memory, and the good news for WNBA fans is that many of those players will be back on the court quickly. The 2024 WNBA Draft is on Monday, and several stars who dominated the national conversation during the college season will be taking their talents to the professional stage.

Every year, it boggles the mind how quick this transition is for collegians. Caitlin Clark will go from game-planning for South Carolina to being on the same roster as former Gamecocks great Aliyah Boston within nine days. There isn’t even enough time for a WNBA Draft Combine, so some team executives are working with incomplete information about height and wingspan.

As a result, the WNBA Draft, compared to its NBA counterpart, has always favored players who were able to produce in college rather than those who have the theoretical tools to succeed at the next level. We can project how a different team context will affect a player’s impact, but at a certain point, if they don’t have a high-level resume after four years, it’s hard to take a risk on them.

WHO WILL BE NEXT?

Draft Day. April 15th 2024. pic.twitter.com/D9vHv0TwdD

— WNBA (@WNBA) April 9, 2024

That’s why the draft is a great entry point to the WNBA for…