Candace Parker's retirement is a real time test for a new-look WNBA

Parker retired on her terms, with no fanfare or farewell tour. But how the WNBA honors her will be indicative of what the league's priorities are going forward.

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Candace Parker retired with no farewell tour. She had no glossy pre-produced mini movie, no press conference or news release. Instead, she posted it on Instagram and that was that. As Shaq and Chuck said on Inside the NBA that night, she did it on her terms.

To some, it’s the ultimate power move. To know when time is up and to choose to walk away the way you want to.

To others, it was a missed opportunity. Understandably, some wanted Parker to get the full farewell tour. A chance for a pioneer to get her time in the spotlight. For others to see her as they have.

So naturally, I noticed a common lament among some longtime fans of the WNBA: Parker’s decision to walk out quietly will allow her to be washed away in a sea of Caitlin Clark hype and give way to a prevailing attitude among some new fans that nothing really mattered until this spring.

After seeing so many great players be lost to history or only mentioned in the context of which of their records were being broken, I can see why the first response is to wish for Parker to be a figure that maybe she had (or has) no interest in being. Realistically, what credibility has the WNBA built up where longtime fans can feel that her legacy will be honored appropriately without her having to ask for it?

It’s the first major test of the new-feel WNBA.

There aren’t many players like Candace Parker. She came into the league a two-time Wooden Award winner, two-time NCAA champion and was the first woman to win the McDonald’s All-American Game Slam Dunk contest. She was a phenom even coming out of high school. It’s easy to forget that Parker was so dominant that she decided to forego her final season of college eligibility to compete in the Olympics.

Her 2008 run to another national title, while playing through a dislocated shoulder, would have been iconic in the social media era. Even during a time of media gatekeeping, she was a Sports Illustrated cover, on People’s 100 most beautiful people list, and was the subject of a 2009 ESPN feature titled ‘Is Candace Parker the female Jordan?’.

Don’t believe her hype? Here’s a nugget from that very story…

“…Candace is already delivering for the Sparks. LA's season ticket sales were its highest since 2005; twice as many were sold after draft day as before. Home attendance was up 10% for the season, and road crowds were three times bigger for the Sparks than for other WNBA teams. The WNBA's TV ratings finished up 19%, and Parker's jersey is by far the league's best seller.

Sound familiar?

Parker’s decision to walk away quietly presents a challenge for a WNBA league office that has had problems in the past with meeting moments like these. New fans of any sport can’t be counted on to educate themselves about legends and those that came before. How many times do we hear in NBA discourse “this old guy played a bunch of plumbers”?

At the same time, old fans can’t be counted on to be the educators. For starters, they shouldn’t have to be. Those that have been with the league for a long time shouldn’t gatekeep those that are just arriving but to expect new fans to engage in good faith to anyone offering that education is a big ask. You may get some that are interested in learning about the shoulders that Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese stand on, but most will behave like those two are just inventing the sport.

With the arrival of Clark specifically and what is being heralded as the new generation of the WNBA, it’s up to the league to do what is needed for Parker. So far, it has been up to the task on social media. The W’s Instagram is flooded with Candace Parker content as well as a few choice posts on their TikTok. But if Inside the NBA can find a way to take time out of their postgame show during the playoffs to honor their colleague and run soundbites honoring her retirement, the league doesn’t have an excuse for not keeping the energy all the way through this season.

Parker may not want to be a part of a tour but that shouldn’t stop the Sky, the Aces, the Sparks or the W from finding ways to honor her. Whether that be releasing archival footage, specialized content or making matchups between those aforementioned teams a ‘Candace game’, there has to be a concerted effort to capitalize on her stardom and the impact she had on the game itself. She is a key influence for the current generation of players and to not utilize them as a means to honor Parker would be a waste. They’ve spent much of the last week telling anyone who will listen that they all were influenced by her.

The league already faced criticism for its’ handling of Sylvia Fowles and Seimone Augustus’ retirements and farewell tours. Parker is in a completely different stratosphere as far as her cultural impact and you’ll likely still see her in the public eye with Turner Sports. Failure here is not an option. In a weird way, Parker gave the WNBA a bridging of the eras narrative on a silver platter. She is, in many ways, one of the original Caitlin Clark’s (the other two, in my opinion, being Lisa Leslie and Diana Taurasi).

During a time when much of the macro discussions around the WNBA center on how race plays into the league’s positioning of its’ stars, a full-court press honoring Parker is a no brainer. Her stardom out of college proves that the market itself is based in some semblance of meritocracy. But is the league?

If they can’t find a way to honor one of their first truly transcendent stars, then it’s shown it hasn’t grown enough to entirely deserve the one it’s about to receive. You don’t have to press Parker into being involved in something she doesn’t want to be involved in but that shouldn’t stop the league from doing all they can to make sure her star shines brighter than ever in a time when all eyes are on their solar system. It’s only fair, after all. She’s a legend. Now she should be treated like one.