On Sunday, WNBA legend Candace Parker announced her retirement after 16 seasons of playing at the highest level of competition. Parker, 38, took to Instagram to break the news in a lengthy caption with a childhood picture of her holding a basketball.

The news has sent shockwaves throughout the sporting world, with many players, both past and present, sharing their thanks to Parker, who inspired a generation of female basketball players.

One player who has posted a message in support of Parker is Paige Bueckers. The UConn Huskies star reposted a tweet about Parker’s retirement and wrote:

“Legend.. Thank you🙏🏼.”

The influence that Candace Parker, who has a net worth of $8.1 million per Forbes, has had on many basketball players like Paige Bueckers cannot be understated.

Parker, like Bueckers today, had a strong college basketball career. Playing for the Tennessee Volunteers, she led the team to back-to-back women’s national championships in 2007 and 2008. For these tournaments, Parker would be crowned the player of the tournament and was voted Player of the Year for those seasons as well.

In contrast, Paige Bueckers has been crowned Player of the Year once and has never won a national championship with the Huskies. However, she can achieve this feat next season, as Bueckers decided not to declare for the 2024 WNBA draft, unlike Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese.

This will make her one of the strongest players in women’s college basketball next season, and if she plays like she has done in the past, she may win her second player of the year alongside a potential championship with the Huskies, something that Parker has done twice.

Candace Parker’s career after college

After turning professional, Candace Parker was selected as the No. 1 pick in the 2008 WNBA draft by the Los Angeles Sparks, where she would play for most of her career.

During her 13 seasons with the Sparks, Parker led them to a championship in 2016 and was crowned MVP twice. She later played for the Chicago Sky and the Las Vegas Aces and won a championship with each franchise, giving her three WNBA titles in total.

But Parker was not only dominant in the WNBA. She, like many female basketball players, played internationally during the offseason and won four straight Russian Cups with Ekatarinberg.

Candace Parker will go down as one of the greatest female basketball players of her generation, and her success inspired and paved the way for the likes of Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers to compete at a level that is gaining more popularity with each passing day.