Candace Parker was 14 years old when Allen Iverson diced up Jason Kidd, outshined Kobe Bryant and seized the MVP award of the 2001 NBA All-Star Game. It was the kind of fireworks show that sparks the imagination of a young fan, the kind of memory that endures for a lifetime.
“It was the comeback by the East,” Parker recalls, mentally replaying the famous fourth quarter of that game, “and Allen Iverson put the team on his back. And they were going back and forth, battling Kobe. And Allen Iverson did the little layup under his arm.”
It would be another four years before Parker starred at Tennessee, five years before she’d become the first woman to dunk in the NCAA tournament, seven years before she’d become the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft and 17 years before she’d become a full-time analyst for Turner Sports, making history all along the way. But that dazzling Iverson moment stuck, and resonates even more now, as Parker prepares to call the 2023 All-Star Game as an analyst for TNT—the first woman to do so.
