Dear Teresa,
You didn’t deserve this.
Getting one year to prove yourself to a first-year general manager with the roster that was assembled was an impossible task. Yet you saw it through. You did it like you said you were going to do it. It was “rooted in excitement, excellence and hard work.”
Perhaps the excellence wasn’t there…yet.
But excitement? The Sky set a franchise record (according to Across the Timeline) for average attendance with 8,750 – shattering the previous record by over 1,500. The Sky and the Indiana Fever game from June 16 headlined CBS’s most-watched game of all time.
Hard work? Led by rookies Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso, the Sky led the league in offensive rebounds. Reese and Cardoso combined to average more offensive rebounds (8.1) than five WNBA teams this season. Nobody watched the Sky this season and questioned their effort.
No. You didn’t deserve this.
“Her standard of excellence and history of winning at all levels, passion, energy, and skill in player development make Teresa the perfect choice to build on our championship culture and usher in an exciting new era,” Sky co-owner Nadia Rawlinson said upon your hiring.
You know that culture starts with identity. The consistency of identity over time creates culture. And a team’s culture is shown through the team’s style of play. This team had a culture. You defined it, set the standard, and your best players continuously played to your standard.
They hired you hoping you could do the thing you actually did in Year 1.
You definitely didn’t deserve this.
Jeff Pagliocca was hired as general manager 19 days after you were hired. Rarely is a head coach hired before the general manager, but that’s what the Sky did.
He said he was “very proud to partner with Coach Weatherspoon and the Sky front office to shape a championship-caliber roster. With a strong background in strategy, player development, and tenure with this team, I am eager to build upon our tradition of excellence, hard work, and winning, in this energizing new chapter of Sky basketball. Expect us to bring unmatched toughness, grit, and relentless competitive spirit to Chicago.”
Later, after a trade that sent perennial All-Star Kahleah Copper to the Phoenix Mercury, Pagliocca said, “We are focused on building team chemistry and playing Chicago Sky basketball, which includes unselfish teamwork, unmatched grit, effort, and resilience.”
Longtime NBA coach Stan Van Gundy once said, “Culture has very little to do with what you say, and it has everything to do with what you do on an everyday basis.” Your actions on a day-to-day basis set the tone for the franchise moving forward.
Teamwork, toughness, unmatched grit, effort, resilience, and relentless competitive spirit are exactly what you brought with you to Chicago.
But somehow that wasn’t enough in Year 1.
You deserved better, Teresa.
The “championship-caliber roster” construction resulted in the top four players being non-shooters in total minutes. This in a league where shooting is paramount.
Not only were the two high-profile rookies (Cardoso and Reese) unable to space the floor, but the Sky’s best player ended up being Chennedy Carter, a 5-foot-9 guard who attempted 31 three-pointers and 458 two-pointers.
Point guard Lindsay Allen, the first player signed by Pagliocca, is shooting 26.5% from three for her career and finished 2024 shooting only 14-48 (29.2%) in 40 games this season.
They were the top four players in total minutes played. None of the four were on the Sky’s roster last season.
Four days after signing Allen, Pagliocca brought in Diamond DeShields for his second move as general manager. She played in 29 games this season and was 9-52 (17.3%) from three.
Brianna Turner and Michaela Onyenwere were new to the Sky this year after being acquired in the Copper trade. Copper shot 31.4% on 320 3PA (12th in WNBA) this season for the Phoenix Mercury. Onyenwere attempted 68 threes (36.8% 3P%) and Turner attempted zero in a combined 61 games played and 20 combined starts.
Brynna Maxwell, the 13th overall draft pick and the “best shooter in the nation”, was cut before the season started.
One of the Sky’s returners from last season, center Elizabeth Williams, started all 40 games in 2023. She started all nine games she played this year before a season-ending knee injury. She finished 0-0 from three and is 0-2 in her ten-year career.
That left you with Marina Mabrey and Dana Evans as the only two willing and capable three-point shooters in the rotation. Mabrey forced a trade out of Chicago halfway through the year. She was traded for Rachel Banham, a lesser version of Mabrey.
You were forced to have at least three players on the floor at all times who could not space the floor.
In a league where two non-shooters on the floor is a liability, three is like a death sentence.
Seven teams from this season placed in the top 25 all-time in three-point attempt rate.
The 2024 Chicago Sky rank 251st.
This is what you had to work with. At the time of Mabrey’s trade, you had your team, with this roster, in eighth place at 10-14.
You never made excuses. You never pointed fingers. You didn’t deserve this.
You’ve been loved everywhere you’ve gone. You’ve brought the best out of those around you. You were loved as a teammate when playing in the WNBA. After being let go by the New Orleans Pelicans, star forward Zion Williamson came to your defense. You were the first coach to truly unlock Carter’s potential.
After being fired by the Sky, Reese and Carter wrote heartfelt messages for their former coach.
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…
— Angel Reese (@Reese10Angel) September 27, 2024
Individually, the roster had talent. Collectively, it just didn’t make sense.
In the end, all we got from Pagliocca was: “I have a lot of respect for Spoon. We’re very appreciative of the spirit she brought to us every night. As an organization, we felt it was time to make a change.”
You didn’t deserve this.
But the Chicago Sky definitely didn’t deserve you.
The Chicago Sky announced today that Teresa Weatherspoon will not retain the role of Head Coach for the 2025 season. pic.twitter.com/A9Sc3dL9vF
— Chicago Sky (@chicagosky) September 27, 2024
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