Candice Wiggins

When Wiggins came to Stanford University she was offered a scholarship for both basketball and volleyball. As a freshman on the basketball team, Wiggins led Stanford to a 32–3 record and an Elite Eight appearance.[4] She averaged 17.5 points per game and was named both the Pac-10 Conference Freshman of the Year and Player of The Year. This was the first time in the conference history that a freshman won the Player of the Year Award. Wiggins, along with Georgia's Tasha Humphrey, was named National Co-Freshman of the Year. She made second team All-American and was a Kodak All-American, the only freshman on either list.

During her sophomore year, Wiggins led Stanford to a 26–8 record and another Elite Eight appearance where they lost to LSU. She averaged 21.8 points per game and made 90 three-pointers over the course of the season. She was again named Pac-10 Player of The Year and Second team All-American, as well as Kodak All-American.

As a junior, Wiggins led Stanford to a 29–5 record and a No. 2 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but the Cardinal were upset in Round 2 by Florida State, 68–61. She missed 5 games due to ankle and hamstring injuries, but averaged 16.9 points per game. Devanei Hampton of Cal won the Pac-10 Player of the Year Award this season. However, Wiggins was the only Pac-10 Player to be a Kodak All-American as she again made second team.

Wiggins played for the USA team in the 2007 Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The team won all five games, earning the gold medal for the event.[5]

In her senior season, Stanford started the season ranked No. 8 but moved up the polls with victories over No. 3 Rutgers (thanks to Wiggins hitting 2 free throws with 0.1 seconds left), and No. 10 Baylor. On January 31, 2008, Wiggins scored 18 points in a win over USC at Maples Pavilion and passed Kate Starbird as the all-time leading scorer in Stanford women's basketball history. On March 2, 2008, she scored 24 points against Washington State to pass Lisa Leslie as the all-time leading scorer in Pac-10 women's basketball history. She was named the Pac-10 Player of The Year for the 2007–2008 season, the third time she had received the award.

On March 24, 2008, Wiggins scored a career-high 44 points, pulled down 10 rebounds, and dished out eight assists in an 88–54 win over UTEP as Stanford advanced to the Sweet Sixteen of the 2008 NCAA tournament. A week later, her 41 points propelled Stanford to its first Final Four appearance since 1997, where they would reach the final before losing to the University of Tennessee. During the NCAA Tournament, Wiggins became the only player in NCAA women's basketball history to score 40 or more points in multiple NCAA Tournament games.

Wiggins is one of only seven women's basketball players to have been a four-time All American. On April 4, 2008, Wiggins was awarded the Lowe's Senior CLASS Award. The following day, Wiggins was awarded the Wade Trophy as the best women's college basketball player in NCAA Division I.[6]

Wiggins is a member of Delta Sigma Theta sorority, and became a member of the Omicron Chi Chapter in Spring 2007. She graduated from Stanford with a degree in communications in the spring of 2008.

Source[7]

Wiggins was chosen by the Minnesota Lynx as the third overall pick in the 2008 WNBA draft.

On May 18, 2008, Wiggins played in her first WNBA game. She scored 15 points, pulled down 4 rebounds, had four steals, and dished out four assists as the Lynx defeated the Detroit Shock, 84–70. Wiggins was named WNBA Rookie of the Month for the month of June 2008. She suffered an injury during the first quarter of a July 24, 2008 game against the Indiana Fever. She was removed from the court in a wheelchair.[8] Wiggins went on to win the 2008 WNBA Sixth Woman of the Year Award and was also named to the WNBA All-Rookie Team after averaging a career-high 15.7 ppg off the bench for the Lynx.[9]

In her second season, Wiggins became the starting point guard for the Lynx. On June 29, 2009, Wiggins was awarded the Player of the Week Award for the Western Conference.[10]

In the 2010 season, Wiggins was moved back to the bench as a backup point guard after the Lynx traded for all-star Lindsay Whalen. In June 2010, Wiggins ruptured her Achilles tendon with just eight seconds remaining in a game against the New York Liberty; the injury ended her season after eight games.[11]

Wiggins returned to action in 2011 as a primary backup at the guard position. The Lynx were much improved, and in September, Wiggins saw the first playoff action of her career. In October 2011, Wiggins won her first WNBA championship after the Lynx defeated the Atlanta Dream in the Finals.

On March 1, 2013, Wiggins was traded to the Tulsa Shock in a three-team deal.[12]

Wiggins signed with the Los Angeles Sparks on April 2, 2014.[13]

On March 9, 2015, Wiggins signed with the New York Liberty.[14]

On March 22, 2016, Wiggins announced her retirement from the WNBA after eight seasons.[15] Despite being only 29 years old and without a career-threatening injury, Wiggins expressed in a letter about her retirement that she was ready to move on from playing professional basketball.[15]

In a 2017 interview with The San Diego Union-Tribune, Wiggins revealed more about what led her to retire from basketball. Calling the league's culture "very, very harmful" and "toxic to me", she alleged that she had been bullied on the court throughout her WNBA career for being heterosexual and nationally popular. Wiggins added, "I wanted to play two more seasons of WNBA, but the experience didn’t lend itself to my mental state." During the interview, she remarked:

Me being heterosexual and straight, and being vocal in my identity as a straight woman was huge. I would say 98 percent of the women in the WNBA are gay women. It was a conformist type of place. There was a whole different set of rules they (the other players) could apply."[16][17]

Wiggins' remarks led to a major backlash from many WNBA players and other sports figures, but she largely stood by them. She did clarify her "98 percent" remark, saying: "It was my way to illustrate the isolation that I felt personally. I felt like the 2 percent versus the 98 percent."[18]

Wiggins was invited to try out for the United States Senior National Team and was named as an injury replacement or alternate. Along with Candace Parker and Courtney Paris, she was one of the only college players to be named to the team. She spent the summer of 2007 playing in Chile with different United States National teams and was eventually named United States Basketball Female Athlete of The Year for 2007.[21]

Wiggins was invited to the USA Basketball Women's National Team training camp in the fall of 2009.[22] The team selected to play for the 2010 FIBA World Championship and the 2012 Olympics is usually chosen from these participants. At the conclusion of the training camp, the team will travel to Ekaterinburg, Russia, where they compete in the 2009 UMMC Ekaterinburg International Invitational.[22]

In 2011, Wiggins was again chosen for the national team initial training camps, from which USA Basketball would select the team to represent the US in the 2012 Olympics,[23] though Wiggins was ultimately not selected for the senior national team.