2021 WNBA Finals – Why Candace Parker took a chance on a Chicago homecoming

There are some parts of her routine Candace Parker never wants to change.

Spending time with her 12-year-old daughter Lailaa, calls with her older brother, Anthony. Spritzing a touch of the perfume Pat Summitt used to wear before every game, to remind her of the legendary Tennessee coach who passed away in 2016.

“It’s called ‘Angel,'” Parker said. “And it’s so crazy how when I run into somebody that knew her, they smell me and they’re like, ‘Ohhhh.’ Because she always wore that perfume.”

Those are constants. But last fall Parker started thinking about what she wanted to change. There was something that said she needed to look for ways to keep growing, especially toward the end of her career. Embrace change, not comfort. Leaving her routine in L.A. to make something entirely new in Chicago felt like the right challenge.

Parker was drafted by the Los Angeles Sparks in 2008 and became the face of that franchise. She’d won a championship and an MVP in purple and gold. She’d made a home and a life in Los Angeles. Lailaa’s life was in Los Angeles. Everything was comfortable.

Why change any of that, let alone all of that?

“I don’t know how to put it, other than I just really needed to have a different viewpoint and a different experience,” Parker said in an interview with ESPN ahead of Friday’s Game 3 of the 2021 WNBA Finals (9 p.m. ET, ESPN2/ESPN App).

“Like, I needed it.”

Chicago was her hometown, and playing for the Sky in front of family and friends held significant appeal. But it was more than that.

“We always talked about having a growth mindset,” said Chelsea Gray, Parker’s friend and former Sparks teammate who also left L.A. as a free agent last winter. “There’s a book called ‘Mindset’ and it talks about having a fixed mindset, where you’re stuck in your ways, versus a growth…