On Saturday, August 15, Naperville native Candace Parker was officially inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Massachusetts. In her 17-minute speech, Parker was joined on stage by fellow Hall of Famers Cheryl Miller (Class of 1995), Allen Iverson (Class of 2016), Tamika Catchings (Class of 2020) and Dwayne Wade (Class of 2023).
Credit to family, friends, and teammates from her hometown
The former Naperville Central star gave credit to her friends, family, coaches and teammates in Naperville for helping push her to incredible heights, including a pair of IHSA state titles, three straight Ms. Illinois Basketball Awards, two USA Today High School Player of the Year awards, two Naismith Prep Player of the Year honors, and two Gatorade National Player of the Year selections.
“I couldn’t have picked better role models to learn how to win with. To coach Andy Nussbaum at Naperville Central and alongside my teammates, back-to-back state championships,” said Parker. “Naperville will always be home because of people like Laura Langert, Tiffany Hudson, Lindsey Wisdom-Hylton, Eric Thomas, Mike and Anette Henry, Kingsley Elementary School, Lincoln Jr High School, and Naperville Central.”
She thanked her parents, Sara and Larry, and older brothers, Marcus and Anthony, the latter of whom was a longtime NBA player who is now the GM of the Orlando Magic.
Later in her speech, the two-time league MVP and three-time WNBA champion recalled a text message she received from the late Kobe Bryant ahead of Game 5 of the 2016 WNBA Finals against the Minnesota Lynx.
“In 2016, game five at Minnesota for the title, I get a text from Kobe. He says, ‘Do it the hard way. It’s always better that way. You can’t die with bullets in the chamber.’ I finally just had played that game like I was a kid again. I was free, not worried about the outcome. I really, in fact, just hooped. We won off an offensive rebound by Nneka Ogwumike. It turns out Pat (Summitt) was, in fact, right. Offensive rebounds do matter.”
Reflection and celebration of an incredible career
Parker called her WNBA tenure a “full circle” moment, reveling in the fact that she “came in as a rookie with Lisa Leslie and her greatness” and “got to pass the torch to a GOAT in A’ja Wilson on my way out.”
The former Redhawk closed out her remarks speaking to a basketball sitting on the podium as she reflected on a once-in-a-lifetime career.
“My muse. We did a lot together,” she said. “We dunked on UConn at UConn. Oh yeah. We going to talk our stuff. We shimmied over our right shoulder and hit that sick fadeaway off the glass so many times. We had our own signature shoe. We were the first woman to grace the cover of NBA2K. We traveled from Milan to Tokyo. We assisted. We were position-less. We wanted every level for every team we played for. And now we stand on the podium as first-ballot Hall of Famers.”
A star-studded Hall of Fame class
The 2026 Hall of Fame class also included coaches Mark Few, Mike D’Antoni, and Doc Rivers, players Amar’e Stoudemire, Elena Delle Donne, and Chamique Holdsclaw, referee Joey Crawford, and the 1996 Women’s U.S. National Team.
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