Candace Parker's return from maternity leave dominated talk about and around the WNBA this past week. From announcing her return to the practice court via Twitter to evaluating her performance in her season debut, the reigning MVP gave us a number of most valuable quotes over the past seven days. Here is the best of the Candace talk as well as the top quotes from around the league.

"i'm bbbbaaaaacccccckkkkkkk!! headed to first practice!"
- Sparks forward Candace Parker announcing the end of her maternity leave and her return to competitive basketball on Twitter.

“I thought her performance was okay. She might have gotten a little winded out there. I may have left her out there for too long. I’m hoping she can get her rhythm and timing back. But overall, she’ll get better.”
- Sparks head coach Michael Cooper on Parker's performance (six points, four rebounds, two assists in 20 minutes) in her first game of the season, a 104-89 loss to the Phoenix Mercury.

"I wish Michael Jordan could give birth and come out and play. The only thing he had to do was fight a cold and then throw up against Utah [in the 1998 NBA Finals]. He's not half the woman that Candace is."
- Cooper on the challenges women's basketball players place face compared to those of men's players, in an article in the Los Angeles Times.

“I felt a little rusty - well, very rusty. But I knew that was what was going to happen initially. The outcome was definitely not what we wanted. We’re going to have practice tomorrow and hopefully, we’ll build off of it.”
- Parker on her performance in her first game since giving birth.

"It's different. Last year I was able to rely more on my athleticism and jumping over people. Now I actually have to box out. The speed, I'm not able to go past people anymore. I'm going to have to be more fundamental until that comes back."
- Parker on the changes in her game that she has to deal with while recovering from her pregnancy, in an article in the Los Angeles Times.

“She looked good to me. Candace is Candace; she’s one of the best players in the world.”
- Mercury head coach Corey Gaines offers his assessment of seeing Parker on the floor for the first time this season.

“It’s not fair to say she’s 100 percent. She just came back from having a kid. We’ve seen her finest basketball, and that’s definitely not it. But this is a learning experience for her. She’ll use this frustration. She knows she’s not where she is to get her game back to where it needs to be. With her, I think it’s going to be a game-by-game situation. I don’t expect her to be 100 percent until next year, to be honest. Coming off a pregnancy, I’ve never had it, but just from talking to people, it’s one of the hardest things to come back from. But give credit to her for coming out there and trying to give it a shot for her team and giving her some energy.”
- Mercury guard Cappie Pondexter on Parker's return.

“We have got to keep it positive. You don’t like losing. Nobody in that locker room is a loser. We’re the defending champions and we’re trying to get the monkey off our back. We’re just trying to win a game.”
- Shock head coach Rick Mahorn on his team's mindset after Sunday's 95-92 loss in overtime to the Connecticut Sun.

"When you see me throw my clipboard, it's usually because she is open and we are not getting her the ball.''
- Fever head coach Lin Dunn on the need for her players to run their offense through Tammy Sutton-Brown following the Fever's win over Atlanta on Sunday, in an article in the Indianapolis Star

“We’ve been concentrating on getting off to good starts. But it seems that we’ve been digging ourselves into a hole, especially in the first and third quarters. Tonight we dug ourselves into too deep of a hole and couldn’t get out of it.”
- Sun guard Lindsay Whalen following Connecticut's 67-53 loss to Indiana on Thursday. The Fever outscored the Sun by 10 points in both the first and third quarters of the game.

“This was definitely the most complete game we have played all year. I have to give all the credit to our defense. We did such a great job defensively. That’s what we have been drilling these last four days of practice.”
- Liberty forward Shameka Christon following the LIberty's 80-64 win over the Detroit Shock on Thursday, which snapped a three-game losing streak.

“It was something I can’t say, my Grandma would be upset. I got knocked in the head a couple of times and I felt it was getting out of hand and I said a few choice words and he gave me a tech. It was well deserved but I got my money’s worth.”
- Storm forward Swin Cash on receiving a technical foul during the Storm's 93-81 loss to the Phoenix Mercury on Wednesday.

“The road is tough, but no excuse. We went up to DC and won a game. Did not show up at all in Minnesota. That’s something that we are going to have to face and grow up really quick. When you go on the road you have to grow up real quick. You have to be really patient and discipline in what you do and we haven’t done that.”
- Mercury forward Diana Taurasi discusses her team's performance on the road following Wednesday's home win over Seattle. The win over the Storm improved the Mercury's home record to 6-1, while their away record was 1-3. Since this quote, the Mercury defeated the Sparks in L.A. on Sunday to improve to 2-3 away from US Airways Center.

"At the end of the day we have to win games. We’re last place in the league. I’m not one for moral victories."
- Monarchs guard Kara Lawson on whether or not the Monarchs could use a close loss to the Sky on Tuesday as a building block for the future.

“We just wanted to go out and play really hard I think a focus of ours was to move the ball. They do a lot of switching defensively so we did some things to take advantage of that. They are a great team. Obviously we were excited about this win because they were undefeated at home. Dan Hughes does a great job and they are a WNBA Finals caliber team so we take great pride in getting a win on their home floor.”
- Mystics head coach Julie Plank on her team's 84-82 win over the Silver Stars in San Antonio on Tuesday.