And there are plenty of questions after the Chicago Sky’s latest move, which has virtually everyone baffled – including Sky players.
The regular season recently concluded and the Chicago Sky were one of the four teams – along with the Washington Mystics, Dallas Wings and Los Angeles Sparks – on the outside looking in of the playoffs. The Sky concluded what was a mentally taxing and emotional 2024 season with a 13-27 record while battling through injuries and social media abuse from “fans” to nearly qualify for this year’s postseason.
The season was Teresa Weatherspoon’s first as Sky head coach – correction – it turned out to be her only season as Sky head coach.
The venerable Annie Costabile, Sky beat writer at the Chicago Sun-Times, broke news that Weatherspoon had indeed been fired from the organization. This comes on the heels of the Los Angeles Sparks parting ways with its head coach – Curt Miller.
It was not that long ago that the Sky held end-of-season interviews with players, Weatherspoon and general manager Jeff Pagliocca. Sky players to a person had nothing but glowing reviews of Weatherspoon and were more than likely looking forward to playing for her once again in the 2025 season.
Instead – Chicago pulls this sneaky move and now we have questions of the franchise’s principal owner in Michael Alter.
Among those questions is what was Alter expecting out of this rendition of the Sky? Yeah, Chicago finished 14 games under .500 but that is to be expected for a team that is turning the corner on a rebuild. Also – down the stretch, this team suffered through horrible injuries. Chennedy Carter, Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso were all hurt at one point or another in the latter portions of the season.
Speaking of Reese, arguably no one was more heartbroken at the news that the Sky let go of Coach Spoon than she was.
Nice work, Alter. With one move, you ticked off the woman that is supposed to be the next face of your franchise. A disgruntled superstar is the worst thing a franchise needs and she only has two more years until she is no longer on a three-year rookie contract – the same goes for Cardoso.
Weatherspoon, in many ways, was more than a coach for the 2024 rendition of the Sky – she was this team’s rock. When lazy pundits in the mainstream sports media were hoping to manufacture a storyline where the Sky were “villains” and Caitlin Clark was basketball’s new “hero,” Weatherspoon guided Chicago through those choppy waters.
When the mental health of many Sky players – including Carter and Diamond DeShields – was tested because of social media abuse from racist fans, Weatherspoon guided Chicago through those choppy waters.
And this is how she gets rewarded.
Chicago’s front office is so fortunate that Candace Parker, a few years ago, decided to return to her native city and deliver that franchise’s first championship in tandem with Courtney Vandersloot, Allie Quigley, Gabby Williams, DeShields and others. It is very clear that Chicago’s front office is still drunk off the euphoria from winning that ring.
Alter does not seem to be interested in beating the allegations. This is a team that plays in the nation’s third-largest media market and yet it is being run as if it is a small market mom & pop franchise. It was only announced this year during the Olympic break that the Sky decided to catch with the rest of the WNBA and build a brand new practice facility for the team on the South Side.
Given Alter is still the principal owner, who knows when that facility will be complete and who knows when there will even be shovels in the ground.
What also makes this move egregious – is who it is. Weatherspoon is a WNBA legend and we know the W has to do better by all-time great players who wish to move into the coaching or front office ranks. Unlike Miller with the Sparks, Coach Spoon knew she was walking into a rebuild and was ready for the task of getting the Sky back to its winning ways.
This is a move that, in all reality, is eerily similar to what happened with the Indiana Fever following the 2019 season. Pokey Chatman, currently an assistant coach at the Seattle Storm, was the team’s head coach at the time. The Fever finished on the outside of the playoffs but only by two games – not bad for a team that was in a rebuild.
Instead, the Fever let go of Chatman in favor of Marianne Stanley, a former Mystics assistant. That move actually set the Fever’s rebuild back a number of years as the Stanley era turned out to be more error than era and she was let go following the 2023 season in favor of Indiana’s current coach – Christie Sides.
Who knows if this move for the Sky to fire Weatherspoon will have the similar effect but the parallels are too similar to ignore. At least the Fever gave Chatman a few seasons with the rebuild. That has not been the case with the Sky.
It is especially jarring that the Sky’s front office could look at the season that Carter recently put together and think the conclusion would be to fire the coach that resurrected her WNBA career. After stints with the Atlanta Dream and the Sparks that went south, Carter found a footing in Chicago with a coach that allowed her to be herself.
Carter put herself in the category with Skylar Diggins-Smith (Storm) and Tina Charles (Dream) for Comeback Player of the Year. She probably should have been an All-Star selection. Instead, the coach that was so influential in getting Carter back to her peak gets sent packing.
The tandem of Reese, Cardoso and Carter really have the opportunity a Big Three and Michaela Onyenwere could make that a Core Four. Instead, Alter merely gave the rest of the WNBA a reminder as to why the Sky have only won that one championship in 2021.
That year seems like it could have been 30 years ago as opposed to three thanks to this shocking development out of Chicago. Earlier this season, there was much outcry from Skytown about a sharp increase in the price of season tickets for the 2025 season.
Someone needs to tell Alter that if he will continue to manage his team as if it is a mom & pop why Skytown should still show up.
