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Bruce Pearl recalls pleading with Candace Parker over dating Vols men's basketball players

Chandler Vesselsby: Chandler Vessels22 hours agoChandlerVessels

Bruce Pearl aired out some dirty laundry from Candace Parker‘s past at Tennessee during Monday’s TNT broadcast of the Vols’ game against Rutgers. Pearl was the men’s basketball coach in Knoxville from 2005-11, his time overlapping with Parker’s career from 2004-08.

He recalled several conversations with her due to the fact that she dated one of his players at the time. But apparently, she was also friendly with a couple other Vols players, and Pearl had to ask her to walk a fine line and not make any rash relationship decisions before important games.

“Some stories we can talk about and some stories we can’t talk about, but Candace was a beautiful student athlete at Tennessee,” Pearl said. “She was dating one of my guys and she was talking to two of the others at the same time. …Candace, you remember there were a couple of times I would come to you and say, ‘Honey, don’t break up with him tonight.’ Right? You remember that. I literally did and she would be like, ‘OK.’ We had that relationship. Candace was mature beyond her years.”

Parker was also on the broadcast and laughed as Pearl recalled the stories. She also recalled the close relationship she had with Pearl during her time in Tennessee, but she did seem to wish he hadn’t disclosed that.

“I was in your office and talking to you and I think that’s the thing that I love about the University of Tennessee is the relationships,” she said. “And, you know, the stuff that will stay in 2004 to 2008.”

Although Parker may want to leave those aspects of her Tennessee career in the past, her career on the court is definitely one to be remembered. She helped lead the Vols to back-to-back national championships in 2007 and 2008, the latter of which she won National Player of the Year.

Overall in her career as a Vol, Parker averaged 19.4 points, 8.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.9 steals and 2.5 blocks per game. She was later selected No. 1 overall in the 2008 WNBA Draft and went on to win three more championships and two MVPs in her pro career. She recently had her jersey retired by both the Los Angeles Sparks and Chicago Sky.

Now she has gone on to a successful broadcast career with TNT, where she has contributed both to college basketball and coverage of the NBA. But Pearl’s story offered a humorous look into her personal side when she was a college player.