Report: Two-time MVP Candace Parker to join Sky

Two-time WNBA MVP Candace Parker is heading home, leaving the Los Angeles Sparks after 13 seasons to sign with the Chicago Sky as an unrestricted free agent, ESPN reported.

Parker was named WNBA defensive player of the year last season, while finishing third in the MVP voting. She scored 14.7 points per game with 9.7 rebounds as the league played all of its 2020 games at Bradenton, Fla.

The Sparks went 15-7, the third best regular-season record in the league, before falling 73-59 to the Connecticut Sun in a single-elimination game in the second-round of the playoffs. Parker scored a game-high 22 points in that game with 14 rebounds and five assists.

The 6-foot-4 center, who won back-to-back NCAA championships while attending the University of Tennessee, is a native of Naperville, Ill., where she was a two-time Gatorade Player of the Year at Naperville Central High School in the Chicago suburbs. She was the No. 1 overall selection in the 2008 WNBA draft.

The Sky won the Eastern Conference with a 12-10 record last season, but also was eliminated by the Sun in a single-elimination game in the opening round of the playoffs. The Sky opened the season with a 10-4 record.

Parker, who turns 35 in April, has averaged 16.9 points in her 13 seasons (337 regular-season games). She also has averaged 8.6 rebounds and 3.9 assists, while being named a WNBA All-Star five times, the most recent in 2018.

--Field Level Media

(Field Level Media)