LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Sparks returned home on Sunday for a matchup against the Chicago Sky, a team they recently lost to during their three-game road trip. But even more significant on Sunday was the prelude to the jersey retirement of Candace Parker, who played for, and won a championship with both the Sparks and the Sky.

Prior to the Sparks’ game against the Sky, Candace Parker took time for a brief media availability session during which she admitted the one reason why she ‘salty’ following her retirement from the WNBA.

“The only thing I’m salty about is the chartered flights. That’s the only thing that I’m like, I press send on the Instagram post, ‘retired,’ and then all of a sudden Cathy [Englebert] wants to say there’s chartered flights. So a little salty about that,” Parker joked. “But I think where the game is, is just the next picking it up and taking it where it needs to go, leaving it better than you came in it.”

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“I had vets, Lisa Leslie, Cheryl Miller was a huge inspiration for me, and I think she laid the foundation to where the league is playing and the athleticism and the style of play,” Parker continued. “To see where women’s sports is, I think as a society we should be proud. . .so I think the proud vet and retiree in me is looking at the game super excited. And now I can honestly say I can tell my kids that as a little girl, little boy, you can dream it and you can do and accomplish it.”

Candace Parker played 13 seasons for the Sparks and 16 seasons in the WNBA overall. She was drafted by the Sparks with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft. Her career with the Sparks includes five WNBA All-Star appearances, two MVP awards, one Defensive Player of the Year award, a championship and a Finals MVP award. She also holds numerous WNBA records.

Parker played a total of 410 games in the league at a little over 30 minutes per game. She holds career averages of 16.0 points, 8.5 rebounds, 4.0 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.5 blocked shots with splits of 47.9 percent shooting from the field, 33.3 percent shooting from the three-point line and 76.7 percent shooting from the free-throw line.

After the Sparks, Parker played two seasons for the Sky and one season for the Las Vegas Aces, winning titles at both stops in the process. The Sky are also scheduled to retire Parker’s jersey later this season.