Like her documentary, Candace Parker: Unapologetic, Candace Parker is always going to be herself. It’s what has helped make her basketball royalty and one of the best players ever to grace a court.

Parker’s career accolades span over three decades and read like something from a movie. While at Tennessee, she won two national championships with legendary coach Pat Summitt, and when she moved to the WNBA, the awards seemingly never stopped. Since becoming Rookie of the Year in 2008, Parker has earned seven WNBA All-Star selections, three WNBA championships, two MVP awards, two Olympic gold medals, a WNBA Finals MVP award and Defensive Player of the Year honors. With such a decorated career like that, it’s incredibly impressive how she stays so consistent. Truthfully, it’s not hard to see that dialing in her health and fitness plays a major part in her longevity.

Parker recently partnered with Muscle Milk as part of their Lifting Project initiative to bring an outdoor fitness court to Atlanta, Georgia, so that athletes like her and residents of the city have more access to inner and outer strength equipment. The Muscle Milk Fitness Court allows anyone in the community a safe place to exercise and provides them with circuit training that can support all fitness levels.

“It was important to partner with Muscle Milk because their initiatives continue to bring access to all communities across all fitness levels, desires and goals,” Parker told For The Win. “I’ve been a part of the Gatorade family for an extremely long time, and I’m fortunate that they’re able to continue to help us all lean into the communities that we come from. I think access is the most important thing.”

Ahead of the 2024 WNBA season, Parker spoke with For The Win about what keeps her going, how that infamous Tennesee-South Carolina Facetime call with A’ja Wilson happened, and what she thinks will be Caitlin Clark’s greatest challenge when she joins the WNBA that not enough people are thinking about.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

After winning three championships, what keeps you coming back to basketball?

 

 

(Lucas Peltier/USA TODAY Sports)

To be honest with you, I just love it. From a very young age, I’ve always loved basketball. It’s not a job. It makes me want to continue playing. When you enjoy something, that’s what you want to do.

Atlanta Dream star Rhyne Howard has previously said when her career is over, she wants to have an impact like you. Is it ever hard to believe what you’ve accomplished on the court?

(Kamil Krzaczynski/USA TODAY Sports)

Rhyne’s one of the best young players coming up. I think this next generation is doing more than just playing basketball. They’re really leaning into the communities and are really doing a good job of connecting with where they’ve come from and where they want to go. That’s a huge honor for me to hear that from her. I hope to continue opening more doors for young girls.

You showed up to Kobe Bryant’s statue reveal ceremony with an eight woven in your braids. Why the Kobe eight jersey over the Kobe 24?

(Jason Parkhurst/USA TODAY Sports)

I think that’s when all of us were first introduced to this brash, young cocky player wanting it all. I think sometimes, when you’re going after something, you lose sight of that first desire, that child-like — can’t eat, can’t sleep, just trying to work to get to where you want to go — desire. I think Kobe always treated his first like his last. There was a Jay-Z song about it that says, “What if we all treated our last like our first and our first like our last? I think our mentality would change.” I think the eight epitomizes that. Kobe is that Jay-Z song, where the same thing he was doing at number eight, he was doing at 24.

Do you have any regrets about calling A’ja Wilson to gloat when you thought Tennessee was going to beat South Carolina?

(Trevor Ruszkowski/USA TODAY Sports)

I called her to gloat with 1.1 seconds left on the clock. I was actually out of the country, so I couldn’t watch the game on my phone. I was keeping up by having my dad hold the phone to the game on the television. He told me they were up two with 1.1 remaining. I called A’ja on Facetime to watch her watch her team lose, and we all saw what happened.

Caitlin Clark will soon join the WNBA in April. What do you think will be her biggest challenge during her first year that is not immediately thought about by fans?

(Matt Krohn/USA TODAY Sports)

When you come in, you’re in postseason form because you’ve been playing since October. Then, you hit that mid-season wall where you’re tired. You’re exhausted. Essentially, she’s going to have to play a year straight with the playoffs. It’s just that mid-season rookie wall that you’re gonna hit. How do you get through it? How long does it take you to get over the hump?