'Trust the process': Sky players remaining mentally tough through adversity

There was a lot of uncertainty surrounding the Chicago Sky heading into the 2025 WNBA season. They started out 0-4 before finally picking up their first wins of the season against the Dallas Wings. Right as they created some momentum, Courtney Vandersloot went down with a season-ending ACL injury that completely gutted the Sky locker room and front office.

Since losing their floor general, it's been a roller coaster ride for the Sky. Streaks of losing, injury woes and inconsistent play over 40 minutes have kept the Sky out of any postseason chatter.

Even with their 4-10 record and sitting at No. 10 in the WNBA standings, they've stayed together.

"We've been playing good games. We just need to figure out how to play for 40 minutes and be able to close out those games," Kamilla Cardoso said before their June 24 game against the Los Angeles Sparks.

They found a way to come together against the Sparks to pull out their fourth win of the season, 97-86. They were down by as much as 12 to open up the game before locking down defensively and limiting the Sparks to just17 points in the final quarter.

With the amount of trials and tribulations Chicago has faced to open up the season, it wouldn't shock people if the Sky threw in the towel and started looking towards the future, focus on personal development and finish out the season in the basement.

But that's not the case as they continue to 'trust the process.'

"Obviously, it's not supposed to be easy. You got to trust the process," Angel Reese said before the Sparks game. "Everybody has to start at the bottom somewhere. It's not supposed to be pretty. If you look at all the great teams, great players, nobody goes to a perfect team and just wins a championship right away. I like the hard part. You're supposed to trust the process."

From a basketball standpoint, the Sky need to build off their recent win over the Sparks and not take a step backwards like they did after their win over the Connecticut Sun on June 15.

However, from a chemistry standpoint, they've preached accountability, not pointing fingers and continuing to fight through whatever comes at them.

"A lot of that is how you handle adversity, how you handle the ups and downs of a season and how you stay mentally focused," head coach Tyler Marsh said after the Sky's win over the Sparks. "How you continue to fight, how you continue to stay together from a camaraderie standpoint.

"From that standpoint, I think we've excelled in that area. I think we could have folded a long time ago, and you could look at some of the scores and assume that something is what it really isn't inside our locker room. But we continue to believe. We continue to trust each other. We continue to stay locked into what our goals and mission are."

For a Sky team that preached playoffs as their goal on Media Day, getting a win over the Golden State Valkyries this weekend could provide a massive boost to their mentality and not push them out of the postseason picture just yet.

That matchup is set for Friday, June 27 at the Chase Center. Tip time is set for 9 p.m. CT.