WNBA Star Candace Parker Reveals How Chicago Sky Can Win Second Straight Title (Exclusive)

Candace Parker reached the mountaintop last season as she led the Chicago Sky to a WNBA Championship. But can the team win it all again and give Parker her third championship in her career? In an exclusive interview with PopCulture.com, Parker talked about what needs to happen to be a champion in 2022. 

"One is let go of last year. Last year's last year," Parker exclusively told PopCulture. "And that's the reason why it's so hard to repeat in WNBA. I mean, I don't think it's been done in 20 years because people think and have the expectation coming into this year, that it's going to be the same. It's not, it's a different set of challenges. 

"Teams are different and you got to get better. And so I think for us, our biggest thing is letting go of that potential and understanding that it's going to take ... It's probably going to be even harder than it was. Because to me, it's harder to be the hunt than it is the hunter. So everybody wants to take what we had last year. And we have to do a good job of keeping things in perspective and not thinking too far ahead. I think it's the daily grind of getting better and not trying to win a championship today."

The last time a WNBA team won back-to-back championships was when Los Angeles Sparks won it all in 2001 and 2002. Parker played for the Sparks from 2008 to 2020 and led the team to a title in 2016. She signed with the Sky last year to play closer to her hometown, which is Naperville, Illinois. Parker, 36, loved that she was able to win a championship in Chicago. 

"Well, growing up, I mean, I was a huge Bulls fan," Parker said. "I think as everybody in the '90s was a Bulls fan, no matter if you were from Chicago or not. And fortunately enough, I was able to witness them win championship after championship. And so I was going through, what, junior high in '96, '97, right in the heyday of Jordan and Grant Park going to the championship celebration. So to be able to come back in this community and to win it with a group that we won it with and to play in front of the people that first saw me pick up a ball, there's nothing like it."