Candace Nicole Parker (born April 19, 1986), nicknamed "Ace", is an American former professional basketball player. Widely regarded as one of the greatest WNBA players of all time, she was selected as the first overall pick in the 2008 WNBA draft by the Los Angeles Sparks. She spent 13 seasons on the Sparks, two seasons with the Chicago Sky, and one season with the Las Vegas Aces, winning a championship with each team. Parker is credited with growing the popularity of women's basketball. In June 2026, she was inducted into the Women Basketball Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame in 2026.

A versatile player, Parker mainly played the forward and center positions. In high school, Parker won the 2003 and 2004 Gatorade National Girls Basketball Player of the Year awards, becoming just the second junior and the only woman to receive a Gatorade Basketball Player of the Year award twice. Parker played college basketball for the Tennessee Lady Vols, she led the team to two consecutive national championships (2007, 2008), was named the Final Four's most outstanding player in both occasions and was a two-time consensus national player of the year. As a redshirt freshman, she became the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game and the first woman to dunk twice in a college game. After being selected in the WNBA Draft, Parker signed long-term endorsement deals with Adidas and Gatorade.

In 2016, Parker led the Sparks to win their first WNBA Finals title since 2002 and won the WNBA Finals MVP Award. In 2021, she helped the Sky win their first title. She won her third title in 2023 with the Aces. Parker won two WNBA Most Valuable Player Awards (2008, 2013), a WNBA All-Star Game MVP Award (2013), two Olympic gold medals (2008, 2012), and the WNBA Rookie of the Year Award (2008). She was selected to six All-WNBA teams and five All-Star teams, and was the first player to win the Rookie of the Year and the MVP awards in the same season. Parker became the second player to dunk in a WNBA game on June 22, 2008.

Since 2018, Parker has been an analyst and commentator for TNT Sports, providing coverage for NBA games on TNT and NBA TV and for the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

Following her retirement in spring of 2024, Parker was named president of Adidas women's basketball.

Parker was born on April 19, 1986, in St. Louis, Missouri. She has two older brothers, including former NBA basketball player Anthony Parker.

Parker moved with her family to Naperville, Illinois at the age of two, where she spent her childhood. Her family loved basketball and she began playing at age six. Her father Larry played basketball at Joliet West HS and the University of Iowa in the 1970s. The Parker family were also Chicago Bulls fans. Candace was worried about playing basketball, fearing she would not live up to the level of play her father and brother demonstrated, so she focused on playing soccer. It wasn't until the eighth grade that her family convinced her to play competitive basketball. Her father helped coach and critique her. Parker said of the experience, "He did things to make me mad, to challenge me, because I was so much more athletic and had so much more knowledge of the game than everyone else that sometimes I just coasted. If me and my dad went to a park and he didn't think I was practicing hard enough, he'd just get in the car and leave. And I'd have to run home. I mean run home. Once I figured that out, I'd always try to go to close-by parks."

Like her older brother Anthony Parker, she attended Naperville Central High School in Naperville, Illinois. Parker led her high school basketball team to Class AA state titles in 2003 and 2004, and compiled a school-record 2,768 points (22.9 points per game) and 1,592 rebounds (13.2 rebounds per game) while starting 119 of the 121 games in which she played.^{[citation needed]}