The Chicago Sky ended the 2024 season outside of the playoffs for the first time in six seasons, but at least it was with the hope that they had found their next franchise cornerstone. Angel Reese was an immediate star off the court and ended her rookie season as an All-Star and the WNBA’s single-season leader in rebounds, the only player in league history to average at least 12 per game.
A year later, not only have the Sky failed to progress as a team and sitting outside of the playoffs again, but they have strained their relationship with Reese in the process. Their one certainty for the future is no more.
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When Reese expressed her frustrations with the state of the franchise to the Chicago Tribune, the organization suspended her for half a game for “statements detrimental to the team” after she publicly apologized to her teammates. Reese has not played since the suspension, ruled out with a back injury that cost her seven games in July. She is listed as questionable for the Sky’s season finale on Thursday, which will end a disappointing 30-plus-loss season.
It’s possible that Reese simply re-aggravated an existing injury. It’s also possible that Reese has played her last game for Chicago and is ending the season in a silent protest from the bench before requesting a trade in the offseason, even if there is no real precedent for WNBA players asking out this early in their careers.
The Sky chose to side with other players on the roster over Reese, none of whom are under contract beyond this season. Even if Chicago’s leadership felt that move was necessary to protect the team’s culture, it appears to have alienated Reese and simultaneously diminished her trade value.
“I’m not settling for the same s−−− we did this year,” Reese told the Tribune. “We have to get good players. We have to get great players. That’s a non-negotiable for me.” She added: “We can’t settle for what we have this year.”
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Reese broke a cardinal rule by going public with complaints that should have stayed within the organization. But assuming she works to regain the Sky’s trust, she also needs to feel protected by the team — that they won’t lash out at her for every transgression. Maybe the two parties are too far gone and can no longer meet in the middle.
“The best advice that I ever received was to keep things in house,” Candace Parker, who also played two seasons in Chicago, said on her “Post Moves” podcast. “You can yell, scream, cuss, do all those things in between these walls, but you can’t bring it out. Once that happens, it’s hard to gain that trust back.”
If the relationship cannot be salvaged, Reese has two years left on her rookie contract before becoming a restricted free agent. Although multiple general managers expressed hesitation about drafting Reese out of LSU, her production through two seasons alleviates some of those prior concerns. Her skillset would make sense in Connecticut or Dallas (two franchises that were also eliminated from the playoffs this season), or she could be a long-term play for Seattle, Atlanta or expansion teams in Portland and Toronto.
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That means the Sky may need to move forward without their best player and a lack of assets after they mortgaged the future to acquire Reese and build around her. The construction of a new practice facility can’t obscure that perhaps no other team in the WNBA has a more depressing outlook in the near term.
The irony is that the 2025 Chicago Sky will be remembered for being overly optimistic. After excellent rookie seasons from Reese and Kamilla Cardoso, Chicago attempted to expedite its rebuilding timeline, trading away the No. 3 pick in the WNBA Draft (as well as first-round swap rights in 2027) for two-time All-Star and former Olympian Ariel Atkins and handing the keys of the offense to franchise stalwart Courtney Vandersloot at age 36. The Sky rounded out the roster with respected veterans including Elizabeth Williams, Michaela Onyenwere, Rebecca Allen, Kia Nurse and Rachel Banham.
The experiment floundered almost immediately. The Sky were blown out in their opener against pseudo-rival Indiana, lost Vandersloot to an ACL injury in the seventh game, and didn’t beat a team with a winning record until halfway through the season. They have two wins over plus-.500 teams with one game to play.
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Despite a productive offseason from Reese at Unrivaled, where she was named Defensive Player of the Year, the sophomore struggled at the start of the WNBA season. She shot 31.1 percent from the field in May and averaged 3.8 turnovers as new Sky coach Tyler Marsh expanded Reese’s playmaking responsibilities. Cardoso’s motor was also inconsistent early, and she averaged 6.6 rebounds through the first two months. Reese and Cardoso had been a positive pairing in their rookie seasons with a combined net rating of plus-0.4 even as Chicago collectively was minus-6.5; in 2025, their shared minutes had a minus-9.7 net rating.
Reese and Cardoso both rebounded to post individual stat lines in 2025 that improved upon their 2024 performances; however, it was too little too late, and their efforts didn’t translate to team success.
That duo still inspires far more hope than the Sky’s 2025 draft class. Hailey Van Lith and Maddy Westbeld were among the least productive rookies in the WNBA (Van Lith was last in win shares and Westbeld 39th out of 46 first-years). It wasn’t because of poor draft positioning — Chicago could have selected players such as Te-Hina Paopao and Makayla Timpson at those spots, both of whom have contributed to winning teams this season.
For all of their struggles, the Sky don’t even own their first-round pick in the 2026 or 2027 drafts. They do control Connecticut’s lottery pick in 2026, a product of the only decision they’ve made in the last two years with an eye toward the future instead of the present. In the middle of 2024, Chicago elected to trade Marina Mabrey for a draft asset rather than chase a playoff berth for the opportunity to get swept by the New York Liberty. That gave the Sky a top-five pick in what should be a deep draft.
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But Chicago is still behind the eight-ball if Reese wants out. The theme of the Sky for the last decade is rebuilding after superstars have demanded an exit, from Sylvia Fowles to Elena Delle Donne to Kahleah Copper. Reese isn’t on that echelon, not yet at least, but her departure would force Chicago to once again start from scratch. The cupboard of talent isn’t exactly overflowing beyond her.
From the moment she was drafted in 2024, Reese has been at the center of Chicago’s plans. As the franchise figures out whether to repair the relationship with its star or trade Reese to build a new foundation for the future, she still is.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Chicago Sky, WNBA
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