Candice Wiggins

Personal life

Candice Wiggins was born in Baltimore, Maryland where her father, Alan Wiggins played Major League Baseball for the Baltimore Orioles. When Wiggins was 3, she was hit by a car and almost lost one of her eyes. She still has the scar under that eye. When Wiggins was in the first grade, she scored 30 points against 4th graders in basketball. By the time she was in 5th grade, she had to play on the boys' teams so she could play at a competitive level. When her father Alan retired, he and his wife Angela, daughters Cassandra and Candice, and son Alan moved to San Diego, California. Wiggins' father died of AIDS soon after their move, when Wiggins was only 4 years old. "It was a scary time. No one would talk about it," Wiggins recalls. "A young girl wants to know about her Dad dying of AIDS. But it was taboo," she said. Wiggins has chosen to break the wall of silence about AIDS through a partnership with Until There’s A Cure (UTAC), a non-profit organization that raises awareness and funds to combat AIDS through the sale of The Bracelet. To date, the organization has raised over $9 million for vaccine development, care services, and youth education.

High school career

Wiggins attended La Jolla Country Day School in La Jolla, California for high school. She was a four-year letter-winner in both volleyball and basketball. In all four years of high school she was named CIF Division IV Player of the year for basketball. Wiggins was a McDonald's All-American as a Senior. She also led La Jolla Country Day to the state championship game in each of her four seasons, winning it twice. She also captained the United States Junior National Team that won gold. Many high school recruiting services listed her as the best shooting guard in the nation and a top 5 player in the Class of 2004. Wiggins chose Stanford over Duke, while UCLA came in third and USC and Arizona were 4th and 5th on her list. Tennessee, Connecticut, and Texas rounded out her final 8.

High school awards

Freshman year

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. 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.

Sophomore year

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.

Junior year

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.

Senior year

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 December 22, Wiggins scored 21 points and led Stanford to a 73–69 overtime victory over 2007 NCAA champions Tennessee, Stanford's first win over Tennessee since 1996. 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 has received the award. On March 24, 2008, she scored a career-high 44 points, pulled down 10 rebounds, and made 8 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. In this performance Wiggins became the only player in NCAA women's basketball history to score 40-plus points in multiple NCAA Tournament games.

By the end of her career at Stanford Wiggins was a 4-time All American at Stanford. Only 7 people have been a four-time All-American in women's basketball. 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.

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.

Collegiate awards

Stanford statistics

Source

WNBA

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

On May 18, 2008, she played in her first ever WNBA game. She scored 15 points, pulled down 4 rebounds, had 4 steals, and dished out 2 assists as the Minnesota Lynx beat the 2006 WNBA champions Detroit Shock 84–70.

Wiggins was named WNBA Rookie of the Month, presented by Hanns-G, for the month of June 2008.

Wiggins suffered from 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. She suffered a severe lower back contusion and missed the next few weeks.

Wiggins went on to win the 2nd 2008 WNBA's 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.

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, Tamika Catchings won for the Eastern Conference.

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, an injury that ended her season after eight games.

She returned to action in 2011, returning to her role 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 and the following month, 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.

On April 2, 2014, Wiggins signed with the Los Angeles Sparks.

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

On March 22, 2016, Wiggins announced her retirement from the WNBA after 8 seasons. 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.

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."

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."

USA Basketball

Wiggins was a member of the USA Women's U18 team which won the gold medal at the FIBA Americas Championship in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico. The event was held in August 2004, when the USA team defeated Puerto Rico to win the championship. Wiggins was the third leading scorer for the team, averaging 15.2 points per game.

Wiggins continued with the team as it became the U19 team, and competed in the 2005 U19 World Championships in Tunis, Tunisia. The USA team won all eight games, winning the gold medal. Wiggins was the second leading scorer for the team, averaging 15.8 points per game and was second on the team for steals with 16.

U.S. National Team

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.

Wiggins was invited to the USA Basketball Women's National Team training camp in the fall of 2009. 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.

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

Sports Diplomacy

In September 2013 and November 2014, Wiggins traveled to Nicaragua and then Chile as a SportsUnited Sports Envoy for the U.S. Department of State. In this function, she worked with Jennifer Lacy and Alex English to conduct basketball clinics and events for more than 850 youth and women from underserved areas. In so doing, Christensen helped contribute to SportsUnited's mission to empower of women and girls and promote culturural exchange.