Gabby Williams on her new teammate Candace Parker, legacy and the WNBA bubble

Gabby Williams spoke to FanSided about her legacy, her new teammate Candace Parker and building on the advocacy of the WNBA bubble.

Gabby Williams has only been in the WNBA for three seasons now, but as a two-time NCAA champion, she’s well-versed in winning titles.

Now, with former WNBA champion and two-time MVP Candace Parker joining the Chicago Sky, Williams is excited about adding that kind of veteran presence to the roster.

“The fact that she has such experience in winning championships in Tennessee, in LA, overseas, all that, a lot of us haven’t won a championship in the WNBA — most of our team hasn’t,” Williams told FanSided’s Ashley Young. “So the fact that she’s gonna be able to give us a guide and give us the leadership and the experience that we need for that, like, ‘Hey, this is what we need to do if we want to be a championship team,’ I think that’s exactly what we’re missing.”

Williams — the former No. 4 overall pick of the 2018 WNBA Draft — isn’t the only one who’s excited. On a roster that now includes Parker, Courtney Vandersloot, Allie Quigley and Diamond DeShields, as well as two other promising youngsters in Azura Stevens and Kahleah Copper, the Parker addition is big news.

“Everyone just seems really excited and just kind of like, mind-blown a bit, because I’m not sure what moves we expected in the offseason, but this one is obviously a really great one that we’re excited about,” Williams said.

Last year in her third WNBA season, Williams averaged 7.7 points and 4.0 rebounds per game. She says when she thinks about her future legacy, she always wants to bring something positive to the table.

“That’s always my goal is to just always be an addition,” she said. “I don’t ever wanna bring negativity to a team, I always wanna bring something, whether that’s on the court or off the court with our initiatives, I I want to be able to say, ‘Hey, I made a difference while I was here.'”

She’ll have a chance to do so with this loaded Sky team, but she’ll also have the chance to do so off the court. The WNBA has been incredibly vocal on the social rights front, particularly in the “Wubble,” where issues like equality and police brutality were at the forefront.

“I think what we did is we laid down a foundation of kind of the new normal of what it means to be an athlete, what it means to be a female athlete and what it means to be a Black athlete,” she said. “We’ve made it apparent to the media, our fans, anyone out there who watches that there’s no longer separating us on the basketball court and us as human beings and what we believe in. We set that precedent this summer. Like okay, from now on, if you’re gonna ask us to entertain you, if you’re gonna make money off of us, if you’re gonna market us, you also need to support us as well.”

Gabby Williams spoke on behalf of the Show Some Muscle campaign with Ford Women’s Empowerment, which encourages women to share their stories of strength — not just physical strength, but inspiring, personal stories of their focus, perseverance, resiliency, ingenuity, compassion, creativity and more.