CHICAGO (August 16, 2022) — The Associated Press announced today that Sky forward Candace Parker was selected to the 2022 AP All-WNBA First Team, guard Courtney Vandersloot was selected to the AP All-WNBA Second Team and guard Rebekah Gardner was selected to the AP WNBA All-Rookie Team.
This is the third AP First Team appearance of Parker’s 15-year career after previously being selected to the 2017 and 2020 AP All-WNBA First Teams. Her other AP accolades include being selected to the 2016 AP Second Team, the 2018 AP Second Team, the 2020 Defensive Player of the Year and the 2021 AP Second Team. Parker started in 32 of the 36 games during the 2022 regular season, finishing second for the Sky in scoring (13.2 ppg), assists (4.5 apg) and blocks (1.0 bpg) per game. She also finished the regular season third in the league in rebounds (8.6 rpg) per game and was selected to her seventh All-Star team in July.
On June 29, 2022 against the Connecticut Sun, Parker became the first player in league history to eclipse 6,000 career points, 3,000 career rebounds and 1,500 career assists. She recorded a total of 25 points, 11 rebounds, seven assists and four blocks in that game. With the Sky’s win against the Washington Mystics on May 22, 2022, Parker recorded her second career triple-double, tallying 16 points, 13 rebounds and 10 assists. Parker recorded her third career triple-double in the Sky’s win against the Los Angeles Sparks with 10 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists. Parker, along with Connecticut’s Alyssa Thomas and New York’s Sabrina Ionescu, became one of three players to record multiple triple-doubles in a single season.
This is the second AP Second Team selection of Vandersloot’s 12-year career after also being selected to the 2021 AP Second Team. Her other AP accolades include being selected to the 2019 AP First Team and the 2020 AP First Team. Vandersloot also started in 32 of the 36 games during the 2022 regular season and finished in three-point shooting (36.7%), third in steals (1.2 spg) and fourth in scoring (11.8 ppg) per game for the Sky. She also finished the regular season second in assists (6.5 apg) per game and was selected to her fourth All-Star team, along with Parker and teammates Emma Meesseman and Kahleah Copper.
Vandersloot was WNBA Player of the Week twice during the 2022 season and moved into third on the all-time Assist leaderboard with 2,387 career assists, passing Lindsay Whalen. She also moved into No. 2 on the Sky’s all-time scoring list with 3,671 career points, behind the Sky’s Allie Quigley at 3,723 points.
Gardner, who played at UCLA in college and professionally overseas with Osmaniye, Uni Girona Club de Basquet and Spar CityLift Girona, joined the Sky in 2022. She was named to the AP All-Rookie Team after finishing second amongst rookies in steals per game (1.4 spg), fourth amongst rookies in scoring per game (8.4 ppg) and fourth amongst rookies in minutes per game (21.7 minutes). She also finished eighth in the league in field goal percentage at 54.2 percent.
Vandersloot, Parker, Gardner and the rest of the Chicago Sky will play on Wednesday, August 17th at 7 p.m. CT at Wintrust Arena against the New York Liberty in Round 1, Game 1 of the 2022 WNBA Playoffs presented by Google and can be viewed exclusively on ESPN2.