Candace Parker officially took her place among basketball’s immortals Saturday night, joining former WNBA stars Elena Delle Donne and Chamique Holdsclaw, former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire, coaches Mark Few, Mike D’Antoni and Doc Rivers, and referee Joey Crawford in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The 2008 WNBA MVP and Rookie of the Year used her induction speech to reflect on the legends who shaped her career and the superstar she believes she helped usher into the next generation of women’s basketball.
Candace Parker Joins WNBA GOAT Debate With Powerful ‘Pass the Torch’ HOF Message
Parker’s Hall of Fame speech featured a poetic symmetry moment when she reflected on entering the WNBA alongside Lisa Leslie and eventually passing the torch to A’ja Wilson.
“Full circle. I came in as a rookie with Lisa Leslie and her greatness, unknowing how time has wings, and I got to pass the torch to a GOAT in A’ja Wilson on my way out,” Parker said.
Parker spent her first two WNBA seasons with the Los Angeles Sparks, playing alongside franchise icon Leslie. Although Leslie was nearing the end of her legendary career, the two-time WNBA Finals MVP remained one of the league’s most dominant players.
The partnership immediately paid dividends. Parker and Leslie helped lead Los Angeles to back-to-back Western Conference Finals appearances, giving the young Parker an early education from one of the greatest players in league history.
Leslie retired before the 2010 season and was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2015.
More than a decade later, Parker found herself on the other end of that generational transition.
Her final WNBA season came in 2023 with the Las Vegas Aces, where she joined forces with Wilson. Parker, then 37, played 18 regular-season games before a fractured foot sidelined her for the Aces’ championship run.
Although Parker re-signed with Las Vegas, nagging injuries ultimately convinced the three-time WNBA champion that it was time to walk away.
Wilson, meanwhile, continued building the kind of résumé that makes Parker’s “GOAT” comment difficult to dismiss.
Since entering the league in 2018, Wilson has helped the Aces win three championships and has established herself as one of the defining players of her generation. She already owns a record four WNBA MVP awards, along with three Defensive Player of the Year honors and multiple All-WNBA selections.
At 30, Wilson still has plenty of basketball ahead of her, meaning her résumé could become even more difficult for future players to match.
Parker’s comments also carry extra weight because she experienced the torch-passing process herself. Leslie helped establish the standard Parker inherited; Parker then became one of the league’s defining stars before helping usher Wilson into the spotlight.
Now, Parker has put Wilson in the GOAT conversation herself. If Wilson keeps winning and collecting hardware at this pace, that “torch” may eventually look less like a handoff and more like the passing of basketball history from one legend to the next.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network.