54 Candace Parker Quotes About Basketball, Success, Hard Work, & Life

motivational quotes Jan 01, 2024

A collection of the best Candace Parker quotes

Candace Parker is an American professional basketball player in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) who is known for her long list of achievements and successes as well as her positive impact on women's basketball.

She is well-known for being the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game and the first woman to dunk twice in a college game.

Parker attended the University of Tennessee and won 2 NCAA National Championships under Coach Pat Summitt. After college, Parker was drafted as the first overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft by the Los Angeles Sparks.

She played for the Sparks for most of her career, as well as the Chicago Sky and Las Vegas Aces. She is a 3x WNBA champion (2016, 2021, 2023). She is also a 2x WNBA MVP (2008, 2013) and the winner of two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. Women's Basketball Team (2008, 2012).

On the court, Candace Parker is known for her versatility. She has a wide range of skills, including scoring, rebounding, playmaking, and defense.

Off-the-court, Candace is a television analyst and commentator for NBA and NCAA men's basketball tournament games.

Candace has been a role model and an inspiration for aspiring basketball players, especially young girls, showing that women can excel in professional sports and have a significant impact.

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Candace Parker Quotes On Women's Basketball And The WNBA

1. "I look at it this way: the WNBA is 13 years young. I think eventually women will get to that point, maybe in my daughter's generation, where their salaries will be similar to men's. But we're still starting off, like, where the NBA was back in the 1950s."

2. "I think it's great that young girls have the WNBA to look up to now."

3. "Male athletes don't get dropped when they father kids."

4. "The Sparks have always been committed to success and making the right moves to build upon their rich tradition in the WNBA."

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Top Candace Parker Quotes About Basketball

5. "What's so special about this team is that we all have the same mentality, this sort of, 'We've been knocked down, let's get back up' mentality."

6. "I don't think I would take the game with the same mentality that I do now if I hadn't been injured."

7. "My whole career has been trying to please people in basketball. Now it's time to please myself."

8. "You want your coach's blessing."

9. "I wouldn't mind being the female MJ. I want to have major crossover appeal."

10. "I'm very stubborn. I feel like I'm going to play this season."

11. "I take away from this experience a lot of different things. I learned from a lot of great veterans about the game of basketball."

12. "We were never worried about the game or anything like that. We stayed calm."

13. "Last year, I was sidelined with my knee injury. To finally get here and play was amazing."

14. "We were having fun just playing, moving the ball, running in transition, and that's when we were at our best."

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Candace Parker Quotes About Success And Winning

15. "You're measured by championships no matter what."

16. "I learned that I play better when I'm just in the moment and I prepare and do the best I can."

17. "You never want to go out with a loss. We just have to use this as motivation."

18. "This entire time, my idea of breaking barriers was being something so that the world could see that it was possible."

19. "Pat Summitt talks about handling success as you handle failure, and I think that stuck with me because I think we're always so hard on ourselves when we fail."

20. "I'm gonna prepare, I'm gonna do what I can, and then I'm gonna relinquish the results."

21. "...greatness is repeatedly getting up and doing something because you know that that's going to get you where you want to go, even when you don't feel like it."

22. "What you're truly able to accomplish...if you base yourself all the time on what other people are doing, then you're going to sell yourself short...You truly are your biggest competition."

23. "I believe legacy can be two ways - you can take or you can leave."

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Candace Parker Quotes About Confidence

24. "Believe in yourself, even when others doubt you."

25. "Never let fear hold you back from pursuing your dreams."

26. "I am one of those people who loves to throw out crazy goals and then just watch the people's faces around me be like, 'Oh, there's no way.' And then as soon as somebody tells me, 'There's no way,' then I know that I'm going to do everything in my power to achieve it."

27. "Everybody has insecurities, everybody has doubt, everybody has fear...but when you're truly in the moment, that stuff doesn't matter."

28. "Don't tell me I can't do something."

29. "I'm driven by [competition]."

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Quotes From Candace About Life

30. "So you have to take the good with the bad."

31. "Barrier-breaking is about not staying in your lane and not being something that the world expects you to be. It's about not accepting limitations."

32. "This is huge. This is a great experience, and I just came into this thing wanting to learn and wanting to grow and to take everything in. This is a really great experience for me, and I just want to learn from it."

33. "Listen to everybody. Everybody can provide you with some type of advice."

34. "Through every injury or shortcoming, I think about how lucky I am in so many other aspects, but also that [I can overcome it]."

35. "I'm so goal-oriented. I have microscopic goals for day-to-day and I have telescopic goals. Those are so important to me..."

36. "Adversity reveals and it builds character."

37. "You can look to your right and compare your adversity to somebody else or you can just look yourself in the mirror and it's what you're gonna face with that person you're looking in the mirror."

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Motivational Candace Parker Quotes About Hard Work

38. "My dad was my first coach and drove me extremely hard from a very young age."

39. "Today I know that there is still work to be done, but along the way my I am achieving my dreams."

40. "On my best days, such as when I was a junior in high school coming off a 42-point performance and near triple-double, my dad was there to tell me I haven't arrived yet and bring me back to reality."

41. "From my first dunk at 14 years old to my second NCAA Championship at the University of Tennessee, my intense training with my dad was always to credit."

42. "When you settle, that's when everybody else catches up."

43. To aspiring professional athletes: "Continue to be the hardest worker out there. Be the first one in the gym and the last one to leave."

44. "Dream big and work hard to make it a reality."

45. "I lean on discipline when motivation is gone."

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Famous Quotes From Candace About Family

46. "It will be exciting to have my child share my career and to remember what I was like when I was young."

47. "My baby is the joy in my life."

48. "For me, family has always come first."

49. "Role model took a whole new meaning when I had my daughter. I really want her to look up to great people and have great examples..."'

50. "My parents encouraged sports because sports in their eyes are a microcosm of life. You learn to win, you learn to lose, you learn to work through obstacles, you learn to get up when you don't want to..."

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Other Inspirational Quotes And Sayings From Candace Parker

51. "You're enough. Everyone is enough. You need to be individually you, all the time."

52. "I'm gonna try to be the best basketball player I can, and I'm gonna try to be the greatest Mom I can."

53. "I don't feel pressure from the outside because the expectations that I put on myself are way greater than what anybody could think or want or have of me."