The tailspin for the Chicago Sky continues.
After rumors swirled Thursday on social media, the team officially announced Friday they had
fired coach Teresa Weatherspoon less than a year after hiring her.
When
Weatherspoon was hired 11 months ago, the Sky had zero draft assets thanks to trades done by former GM/coach James Wade, who
abruptly left midseason in 2023 to take a position with the Toronto Raptors.
The Sky also saw veterans from the 2021 miracle championship team such as Courtney Vandersloot, Candace Parker, Allie Quigley and Azurá Stevens leave after the 2022 season. Unable to attract free agents because of a lack of investment in the team’s practice facilities and elsewhere, 2021 WNBA Finals MVP Kahleah Copper requested a trade before the 2024 season, leaving guard Dana Evans as the longest-tenured player on the team. Evans also requested a trade before this year’s Olympic break but later decided to ride out the season.
With first-year coach Weatherspoon at the helm, the Sky navigated an exciting but tumultuous season almost from the start. Roster construction was always an issue, and the team was never really whole thanks to injuries, illness and once again a needed player, Marina Mabrey — who hit a game-deciding 3-pointer for the Connecticut Sun in Wednesday’s playoff game — demanding a trade.
The Sky went 3-13 after
the Mabrey trade, often looking helpless as they tried to battle back in games they were simply outmatched in. Weatherspoon, who was bothered by the losing, sometimes appeared emotional postgame, a sign she desperately wanted to right the ship. But she should get credit for her role in the developing star rookies
Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso and facilitating
Chennedy Carter’s breakout season after the guard’s year away from the WNBA.
While the Sky certainly should’ve won some close games and making the playoffs should’ve been a lock, is one season enough for a rookie coach with that roster?
Weatherspoon played the cards she was dealt, and her dismissal is just another head-scratching decision by a team that continues to languish at the bottom of a quickly growing league.
While her firing may seem like an answer for the Sky, it’s just an example of the organizational incompetence that has persisted for years — a
dysfunction with which fans of other Chicago teams have become quite familiar.