Candace Parker, Maya Moore and their living legacies in women's basketball

On Saturday, Maya Moore-Irons was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame. On Sunday, Candace Parker announced she was retiring from the WNBA. Parker, who had signed a one-year deal with the Las Vegas Aces in February, leaves the game one year after Moore announced her official retirement from basketball in 2023 following a four-season hiatus from the WNBA.

When you ask today's players, college or WNBA, who they grew up emulating and idolizing as kids, they almost always say either Parker or Moore. The two are likely your current favorite player's favorite player (if it wasn't still Parker as of Sunday). 

With Moore and Parker retired, the WNBA is now without two of its most influential and impactful superstars. It's a reality that for many women's basketball followers is a tough pill to swallow, particularly as the excitement about the game, which Parker and Moore helped establish, has never been brighter.

With Parker's exit comes a pervasive void, as exists for Moore, with the inability to properly celebrate the conclusion of two transformative talents. But while we will never see Moore or Parker dazzle on a basketball court again, their imprint on the game and this current generation readying to catapult women's basketball into its next chapter, is everywhere.

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On the court, Parker was unlike any player we'd ever seen.

After a legendary career at Tennessee where she won two national championships and was a two-time national player of the year, Parker began her WNBA career in 2008 as the first player to win rookie of the year and MVP in the same season. Parker's momentous rookie season foreshadowed a legendary career which included three championships, two MVP awards, seven All-Star nods, a Finals MVP and defensive player of the year. After becoming the first woman to dunk in an NCAA tournament game, Parker was also the first to dunk multiple times in a WNBA season.

In Parker-like fashion, she ended her 16-season career as she began - on a historic note. Her third championship, with the Aces last season, made her the first player in league history to win a championship with three different franchises.

Parker, who also won two Olympic gold medals and countless titles overseas, is the only player in WNBA history to rank in the top 10 of points, rebounds, assists and blocks. Her versatility and dominance at 6-foot-4 helped usher in a new era of positionless bigs in women's basketball that has changed the game.

By age 29, Moore had already won four WNBA championships with the Minnesota Lynx, a Finals MVP, league MVP and was a six-time All-Star. That was preceded by a dominant collegiate career in which she won two national titles and was national player of the year two times.

Moore, who also won two Olympic gold medals, two FIBA World Championship gold medals and two EuroLeague titles, was a transcendent talent on the floor. Her game was graceful and dominant, creative and clutch. Her jump shot was pure and her ability to get a bucket unrivaled. Moore was the first women's basketball player to sign with Jordan Brand. In 2018, when the brand launched a billboard campaign in which Moore re-created Jordan's 1989 "Wings" poster, it felt like an adequate stamp for the face of women's basketball. The following season, Moore announced that she'd be sitting out the 2019 season. As decorated as Moore's career was to that point, it still only felt like it was just beginning.

The play of both Parker and Moore ignited women's hoops fans and brought in new fans. Their impact, however, only begins on the court.

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Parker's influence is wide-reaching. Parker, who had her daughter Lailaa following her rookie season, has always been an advocate for mothers who are pro athletes, showcasing the ability to thrive as both.

In 2010, Parker became the ninth WNBA player to have her own signature shoe. She is the only Black woman to have a signature shoe in the WNBA since then.

As an analyst and commentator with TNT, where she has worked since 2018, she became the first woman to serve as a game analyst for the NBA All-Star game in 2023. In 2021, she was the first female NBA 2K cover athlete and also co-owns the NWSL team Angel City FC with her daughter.

Moore's off-court impact centers on her social activism. In 2016, she was a part of a demonstration held by Minnesota Lynx captains who, following the police shooting deaths of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, wore shirts at a pregame news conference that on the front read "Change starts with us. Justice & Accountability" and "Black Lives Matter" on the back along with the names of Sterling and Castile.

"If we take this time to see that this is a human issue and speak out together, we can greatly decrease fear and create change," Moore said in 2016.

In 2019, two years after winning her fourth WNBA championship, Moore left the WNBA to advocate for the release of Jonathan Irons, who had been sentenced to 50 years in a Missouri state prison after being convicted of burglary and assault at the age of 16. His conviction was overturned in July 2020. Moore's sacrifice to aid in Irons' eventual release, done while she was widely considered the face of women's basketball, made her a trailblazer in athlete activism, and attracted substantial attention to the flaws of the American criminal justice system and the need for reform.

Parker and Moore left a footprint on the sport that, most likely, won't be fully understood in magnitude for years. It's a shame that they won't be able to be part of the momentous wave the sport is currently experiencing. But a large part of their legacy is directly reflected in the game's next generation of stars, many of whom were inspired by Moore and Parker.

Aces forward A'ja Wilson, the reigning WNBA Finals MVP, and Indiana Fever center Aliyah Boston, the league's rookie of the year in 2023, have both called Parker their GOAT. Caitlin Clark, who enters her highly anticipated rookie season in the WNBA after ending her collegiate career as the all-time leading scorer in NCAA basketball history, has reiterated how Moore was her childhood hero in hoops.

That's the thing about the life cycle of sports vanguards. Though we may never get to watch them forever or decide when their on-court careers end, we can still find joy in watching their legacies live on.

Sean Hurd is a writer for Andscape who primarily covers women's basketball. His athletic peak came at the age of 10 when he was named camper of the week at a Josh Childress basketball camp.