Legends of women’s basketball were honored this past weekend in two separate events—and queer moms were among them. Here are some of the moving words they said about their families.
Let’s start with WNBA and Team USA superstars and queer moms Candace Parker and Chamique Holdsclaw, who were each enshrined into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday.
Candace Parker
Parker, who retired in 2024, is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, the first player in WNBA history to win a championship with three different teams (Los Angeles, Chicago, and Las Vegas), and the only player to win MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season (2008); she was also MVP in 2013 and a 10-time All-WNBA honoree, among many career honors. She and spouse Anna Petrakova, a former Olympic basketball player for Russia, are raising three children.
Parker’s three children were present at the Hall of Fame ceremony, and her oldest, her daughter Lailaa, placed the symbolic orange jacket of the enshrinement on her mother’s shoulders. During her acceptance speech, Parker said:
When I accepted the Olympic gold and rookie of the year and MVP later that season, I knew I didn’t do it alone. I was pregnant with my favorite teammate, my daughter, Lailaa Nicole. In fact, she became number one, from sleepless nights nursing at halftime of games; her first steps on a road trip to Phoenix. We were a team and we shared the wins and the grind. Her sacrifice in support over the years is something that I do not take for granted. My favorite job is, in fact, to be your mommy. So thank you baby.
Later, she smilingly referenced her coming out in 2021, saying:
I changed teams both literally and figuratively. Yeah. During that quarter of my career, I had the courage to choose, love, and shake the necessity to people please and care what others felt like I should do. I met my wife, Anya, who I’m super grateful for her calm, her love, her support and patience as we embark on life’s challenges and changes. An Olympian herself, champion and professional basketball player that sacrificed for me and our family. I’m forever, forever grateful.
She spoke directly to her sons as well, and to being a role model for them:
To my two boys, Hartt and Airr. Airr always asked me, ‘Mommy, you played basketball?’ This is the only version that they will ever know of me. And I’m proud because I get to show them every single day … I get to show them every day what the process of being great takes. So you don’t just set goals, you hold yourself to a standard and commit to work every single day. That’s greatness. Because we’re Parkers. That’s what we do.
(For more about Parker’s career, family, and approach to life, see her inspirational memoir/advice book, The Can-Do Mindset.)
Chamique Holdsclaw
Chamique Holdsclaw was the WNBA Rookie of the Year in 1999, a six-time WNBA All-Star, and an Olympic Gold Medalist (2000), among other accomplishments. She played for the Washington Mystics and Los Angeles Sparks, retired in 2007, and came back to play for the Atlanta Dream and San Antonio Silver Stars from 2009 to 2010 before her final retirement. She and spouse Cara Holdsclaw, a basketball executive at Princeton University, have two children.
Holdsclaw, a mental health advocate who has spoken openly about her own mental health struggles, spoke to her family in her acceptance speech, saying:
To my wife, Cara. Oh, man. I would not be standing here without you. As someone who lives with mental health challenges and someone who is differently abled, I know this journey has not been always easy for either of us, but this this moment carries emotions that some people may never fully understand. But you do. You have been my peace and my rock. So thank you to my children, Cairo and Cammy. I love you tight. Everything I’ve done is bigger because of you.
She then offered a broader message:
As I close, I want to speak to anyone who may be fighting a battle that others cannot see. Anyone carrying a weight that never shows up in the box score, I see you. Your struggle does not disqualify you. Your story is not over and your greatness is still within you.
Diana Taurasi
Diana Taurasi, arguably the GOAT of women’s basketball, played for so many years that she is not eligible for the Hall of Fame until next year, but she was honored by the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury Sunday night, joining the team’s Ring of Honor and having her jersey retired.
Taurasi played all 20 of her WNBA seasons for the Mercury. Prior to that, she played four years at the University of Connecticut, helping the team to three national titles and being named the 2003 and 2004 Naismith College Player of the Year, among other accolades. Her post-college achievements include six Olympic gold medals, 11 WNBA All-Star appearances, and the WNBA MVP award, among many others. Her records of 10,646 regular-season points and 1,447 three-pointers are far ahead of any other contenders.
Taurasi’s jersey will sit in the rafters of the Mercury arena alongside that of her wife, Penny Taylor. Taurasi and Taylor helped the Mercury to three championship titles together; Taylor’s jersey was retired in 2017 and she joined the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame in 2022.
The couple’s son 8-year-old son Leo (26:50) spoke in a pre-recorded segment at the event:
Congratulations, Mama, for your career, and for being one of the greatest women’s basketball players of all time. I would say that you’re the greatest basketball player of all time because you’ve made the most three-pointers for your team, and also, you’re the best mom for me, Isla, and Mommy. We always will have fun with you and mommy. Congratulations.
Taylor and their almost-5-year-old daughter, Isla, then all proclaimed, “We love you, Mama!”
(Some readers may remember that in one of the great moments at the intersection of women’s sports and queer parenthood, Isla was born between WNBA playoff games in October 2021, when Taurasi flew home in a rush from Las Vegas to Phoenix after uttering the hilarious immortal words on camera, “Hold it in, babe. I’m coming.”)
Taylor next spoke live at the event (27:25), sharing a poem that she wrote about Taurasi, although she joked that after spending time with their young children, it might sound like “something for a toddler.” Still, it was heartfelt, and Taylor choked up when she got to the line, “True love needs not explaining.” She then rhymed:
Our babies make our hearts explode.
We love them fierce and proud.
You’ve taught them all the greatest things,
and how to dream out loud.
Taurasi herself first spoke (39:00) of her parents who immigrated from Argentina to the U.S., asserting, “My parents showed me, they taught me, what it meant to show up every single day for your family.” She spoke of the long hours her dad spent as a metal worker, then observed, “So don’t tell me that this country is not built on hard-working people, from no matter where you’re born. My mom and dad didn’t just come to this country, they came to contribute, to make it better.” The crowd was enthusiastic in response.
Taurasi then acknowledged her sister, whom she said was another model for her as a mom, and her nephews, before turning to Penny and their kids (1:02:00) to say:
Penelope. No one understands me more than you do…. Leo and Isla, thanks for being here. You know, I didn’t think there was a world outside of basketball, and when we had our two kids—there’s so much more to the world than basketball. And every single day I wake up and they make me the happiest person on Earth.
Other Hall of Fame Honorees
Additionally, Elena Della Donne (who is queer, but not a mom) was inducted into the Hall of Fame along with Parker and Holdsclaw.
Inducted as a group Saturday, too, was the 1996 U.S. Women’s Basketball team, which won gold at the Atlanta Olympic games and whose “dominant performance helped elevate the global profile of women’s basketball and contributed to the launch of the WNBA later that year,” per the Hall.
That team’s members included another queer mom, Jennifer Azzi, who began her professional basketball career before the WNBA existed, and played for several overseas teams and one in the American Basketball League before signing with the Detroit Shock in 1999 and the Utah Starzz/San Antonio Silver Stars from 2000 to 2003. She has served as a basketball executive and media analyst. Azzi has two children with spouse Blair Hardiek.
The 1996 team also included Sheryl Swoopes (who won gold in 2000 and 2004 as well). Swoopes had a son with her first husband before divorcing and raising her child with new partner Alisa Scott from 2005 to 2011. The women then separated and Swoopes married her second husband. It is unclear how she now identifies (in 2005 she said she was not bisexual, but that was obviously before she was with her second husband), so I’m not sure whether to include her on this list, but I mention her just in case. (I never want to exclude anyone who belongs, and bi parents certainly do, but nor do I want to give someone a label that doesn’t fit.) She spent most of her career with the Houston Comets, but also played for the Seattle Storm and Tulsa Shock. She was a four-time WNBA champion, three-time WNBA MVP, and six-time WNBA All-Star.
And More
I encourage you to watch all of the above award speeches in full at the links above; they are full of inspiration and love for basketball, family, teammates, women’s sports, and more. All of the women honored here are record breakers and standard setters in multiple ways. Congratulations to them and to their families.