Opinion: The Sky is falling; Who dropped the ball in Chicago?

"We are always going to be in a 'win now' mode. The goal is to make the playoffs in an extremely competitive league."

That was the standard set by general manager Jeff Pagliocca on the Sky's Media Day on May 12.

Head coach Tyler Marsh said on the first day of training camp that he wanted to instill a theme of "commit and compete."

The Sky's 10-31 record, the worst record since the team was created in 2006, shows something else, and Sky forward Angel Reese made her feelings known.

“I’m not settling for the same s−−− we did this year,” Reese told the Chicago Tribune earlier this week. “We have to get good players. We have to get great players. That’s a non-negotiable for me.”

Reese continued on in calling out the organization in what she wants to see out of the franchise including additions to the practice facility that is set to be ready by April of 2026.

“I am very vocal about what we need and what I want,” Reese said. “I’d like to be here for my career, but if things don’t pan out, obviously I might have to move in a different direction and do what’s best for me. But while I am here, I’m going to try to stay open-minded about what I have here and maximize that as much as I can.”

She took it one step further in saying Sky center Kamilla Cardoso and her are the only cornerstones of the organization and saying the Sky can’t rely or build around the 36-year-old veteran point guard in Courtney Vandersloot who suffered a season-ending injury back in June.

Her teammates responded back.

“I think I just don’t really care,” Rachel Banham told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I’m so over all of this s---. If I was younger, it would have affected me more. But I’m grown, and I just don’t care.”

“She obviously doesn’t want to disrespect us or anything like that,” Elizabeth Williams told the Sun-Times. “Ultimately, I think the goal of [the interview] was just to share things she wanted to see in the future for the team and improvements that could be made.”

Reese did make a public apology after the Sky’s win over the Connecticut Sun on Wednesday. 

“I’m frustrated with myself right now,” Reese said after the game. “I think the language was taken out of context. I really didn’t intentionally mean to put down my teammates, because they’ve been through this with me throughout the whole year. They’ve busted their ass how I busted my ass. They showed up for me through thick and thin and in the locker room when nobody could see anything. 

“I just want to apologize to my teammates which I already have about the article and how it was misconstrued about what was said. I just have to be better with my language, because I know it’s not the message; it’s the messenger. I just really have to be better and grow from this.”

Reese was already serving a one-game league suspension due to reaching her technical foul limit and was not present for the Sky’s 97-77 loss to the Indiana Fever on Friday.

The organization responded back with a statement that same day, saying that Reese will be suspended for the first half of the Sky’s game on Sunday against the Las Vegas Aces due to “statements that were detrimental to the team.”

What does this all mean?

There’s a lot to unpack here.

Let’s start with just the timing of all of this. Doing this with just 4 games left in an already lost season just wasn’t the best move on Reese’s part. She also should have stayed away from mentioning teammates by name publicly to the press.

Outside of that, Reese just echoed what many former players have already said about the Sky organization.

There's record of former Sky player Gabby Williams who said that playing for Chicago made her not want to come back to the W. 

Former Sky guard Kahleah Copper said in her introductory press conference with the Phoenix Mercury that for the first time in her career, she didn't have to worry about bringing her own lunch to practices. 

Former Sky guard Courtney Williams shared her issues with the organization on a “StudBudz” stream, saying she felt uncomfortable in sharing a practice area with the public, especially when needing to shower.

Vandersloot, who’s spent 10+ years in Chicago, shared that the Sky's old ice buckets used to be trash cans that trainer Ann Crosby would fill bucket by bucket with ice and cold water.

Four years removed from their first WNBA title, the Sky have continuously gotten worse and worse.

From having an All-Star littered roster in 2022 to having four coaching changes, a change in the general manager and the inability to attract influential WNBA names in free agency since the '22 season, all eyes and criticism lies on ownership.

Michael Alter, a real estate developer from the northern suburbs of the city, waited until he was somewhat forced to build a practice facility after the 2024 season. That practice facility is said to be ready by April of 2026, valued at around $40 million but still failed in one aspect.

Just like where they practice now, which is a shared park district facility in a northern suburb over an hour away from Wintrust, this new practice facility will also not be in the city of Chicago. Instead, it will be in the village of Bedford Park, a southern suburb just around the same distance from Wintrust Arena. 

A real estate developer who has several properties in the Gold Coast neighborhood couldn’t find an open plot of land near Wintrust Arena that could actually put the Chicago Sky in Chicago?  Not even the empty plot of land sitting right by the Cermak Green Line stop that’s been vacant since 2020?

Instead, they've hiked up ticket prices upwards of 150%-300% in the middle of the 2024 season with no warning to fans and no real idea or semblance of what the 2025 Sky team could be. They made a shocking coaching change in letting Teresa Weatherspoon go after just one season at the helm.

And then, ownership decides to suspend Reese for a half of a game because of her statements, asking the organization to step up and be better. As if a half game suspension will make a statement as damning as Reese made about an organization that historically enjoys sitting in the middle of the pack.

Are the players the ones on the court needing to perform? Yes. Is Tyler Marsh the one creating the system for players? Yes. Is Jeff Pagliocca the one who created a roster with no real back-up at point guard? Yes.

But this is not a problem that's existed just this season.

This is a systemic problem that starts at the top with ownership who seems to push off adapting and hopping on the WNBA bandwagon of growing the league and his team until he is pushed into it by the rest of the league.

If the fans want to stop the Sky from falling, it's time for a call on ownership to step up and not let a WNBA team with one of the most marketable players in the league in a top 3 market - and frankly the top sports market in the country - crumble before the most important offseason in league history.

As WNBAPA Secretary and Sky center Elizabeth Williams said to open up the Sky's postgame press conference after their loss to Atlanta on June 22: "This is a defining moment for the WNBA...Nothing short of transformational change will do for the future we see and the fans clearly see."

And there also needs to be change in Chicago.