Candace Parker Breaks Down Talking About Pat Summitt
By Jon Reed
Candace Parker, one of the Mount Rushmore Vol athletes of the 2000s, is a Tennessee treasure.
She is one of the best women’s basketball players of all time. She is near the top of list of “best talking heads” on television right now when it comes to analyzing basketball due to her brilliant basketball mind and ability to articulate her points. She’s both so good and so likable that she has been accepted without really any pushback from a male-dominated audience that sometimes doubles as a he-man-woman-hating-club when it comes to female voices in analyst roles.
Candace just comes across as… really cool.
I’m confident that I would enjoy her (almost) as much if she *wasn’t a Vol For Life. Luckily, I don’t have to choose.
She is always repping Tennessee. Every chance she gets, she shouts out the Volunteers. It may be a bit hyperbolic to some, but, to me, she’s a Peyton Manning-level of ambassador. They are 1-and-2 when it comes to putting on for the Big Orange.
Candace loves the Vols. She loves Pat Summitt even more.
And I love how it comes out every time she speaks about her. We all know that Pat is a legend, and Parker takes every opportunity she gets to remind everyone else of the fact.
Candace was speaking with her TNT coworker Adam Lefkoe when she was asked about “Pat Summitt-isms” that she carries with her today. The answer left Candace emotional. It’s worth a watch.
It gives me chills. To have a mentor you care so much about. To realize that you’ve passed down those lessons that she taught you, maybe even unbeknownst to yourself, to your child. The love and the pain that she still carries around for her former coach. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking at the same time.
Look someone directly into their eyes today.