Featured Columnist IVSeptember 27, 2024
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Chicago Sky star Angel Reese is “heartbroken” after her team reportedly fired head coach Teresa Weatherspoon on Thursday.
Annie Costabile of the Chicago Sun-Times reported the Sky fired Weatherspoon after just one season, and Reese responded with a heartfelt message that said, in part, that the coach “was the only person that believed in me” and “the one that trusted me.”
She also said her relationship with Weatherspoon “will last forever.”
Angel Reese @Reese10Angel
I’m heartbroken. I’m literally lost for words knowing what this woman meant to me in such a pivotal point in my life. She was the only person that believed in me. The one that trusted me. Many don’t even know what it’s like to be a black women in sports when nobody believes in…
This was a rather shocking development, as Chicago was clearly in rebuilding mode at the start of the season.
The star-studded rosters that won a championship in 2021 and went 26-10 in 2022 with Candace Parker, Kahleah Copper, Courtney Vandersloot, Allie Quigley and others is no longer in the Windy City, and last season’s 18-22 mark was the start of what figured to be a longer process.
It was even clearer the Sky would be in a rebuild when they traded Copper to the Phoenix Mercury ahead of the 2024 campaign.
Part of that rebuild included adding high-profile rookies, and that is exactly what the team did by selecting South Carolina’s Kamilla Cardoso at No. 3 overall and LSU’s Reese at No. 7 overall in the 2024 WNBA draft. As is often the case with rookies, there were growing pains as the team learned under Weatherspoon.
Yet Chicago was a playoff threat until it once again moved a veteran in Marina Mabrey with a midseason trade to the Connecticut Sun.
It went 2-12 in the final 14 games as injuries also played a factor. Reese herself missed the final six games of the season with a wrist injury that required surgery.
The Sky finished 13-27 and two games behind the eighth-seeded Atlanta Dream for the final playoff spot. There were some signs of progress, and the team will likely take another step in the future as Reese and Cardoso become more experienced.
But it was unrealistic to expect Weatherspoon to win at a high level in her first season as a head coach given the realities of the rebuild and some of the overall roster construction. Chicago is building toward the future, but there will be less continuity moving into that future now that it will be searching for a new head coach for the 2025 campaign.
And the face of the franchise wasn’t happy with the move.
