Candace Parker, 3-time WNBA champion and 2-time MVP, retiring after 16 seasons

Candace Parker always said she'd know when it would be time to retire. That day came Sunday.

The three-time WNBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medallist announced on social media that her career was over after 16 seasons.

"The competitor in me always wants 1 more, but it's time," Parker wrote in an Instagram post. "My HEART & body knew, but I needed to give my mind time to accept it."

Parker, 38, had told The Associated Press in November she wanted to play another season if she could get healthy from a foot injury that kept her off the court last season. But she cautioned that she didn't want to "cheat the game," or herself, and expressed the same in announcing her retirement ahead of the Aces' attempt to win a third title in a row. Parker has had 10 surgeries over her career.

"I promised I'd never cheat the game & that I'd leave it in a better place than I came into it. ... I always wanted to walk off the court with no parade or tour, just privately with the ones I love," she wrote. "What now was to be my last game, I walked off the court with my daughter. I ended the journey just as I started it, with her."

HAPPY RETIREMENT, CP ❤️<br><br>Basketball fans, show your love for one of the greatest of all time!