The exit interviews with players may have been Teresa Weatherspoon’s undoing with the Sky.
The Chicago Sun-Times reported that players pointed to a change in playing style during the 13-27 season as a “disconnect” between them and the coach as a season that started with hope ended with the team missing the playoffs.
The players considered it a learning curve for the first-year WNBA head coach.
And the decision to fire the former Liberty star, less than a year after she was hired, sent shockwaves through the league and most notably with star forward Angel Reese.
“No matter what we went through, the injuries, the sicknesses, everybody stepped between those four lines and they played hard,” Weatherspoon said last week when asked about her biggest takeaway from the season.
“They gave everything they had. You can’t help but be proud of your team leaving it all out there.”
The Sky regressed from last season, losing five more games, but they dealt with multiple injury issues.
Reese ended the year prematurely with a wrist injury, and fellow rookie — No. 3 overall pick and South Carolina star Kamilla Cardoso — missed the first few weeks of the season with a shoulder injury.
“I’m heartbroken. I’m literally lost for words knowing what this woman meant to me in such a pivotal point in my life,” Reese wrote of Weatherspoon on X. “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 you. You had a tough job. All the crazy circumstances that we went through this year & when your back was against the wall, you always believed.”
Reese also reposted a heartfelt moment between her and Weatherspoon.
The Sun-Times noted that the Sky have had a tough time keeping players and building on the success of winning the 2021 WNBA championship.
Sharpshooter Marina Mabrey asked to be dealt this season and she landed with the Connecticut Sun.
Mabrey then played a huge role in helping the Sun eliminate the Fever in their first-round playoff matchup.
They struck out on all major free agents this past offseason, which saw Nneka Ogwumike and Skylar Diggins-Smith join the Seattle Storm.
The Sky also traded 2021 Finals MVP Kahleah Copper to the Phoenix Mercury in February, with the 2024 Olympic Gold Medalist helping engineer a playoff run.
Notably, only Dana Evans and Diamond DeShields remain from the ’21 championship team, though DeShields left and returned to the organization prior to this season.
The Sun will now seek a new head coach and, for now, they’ll watch the WNBA Playoffs from home while awaiting their fate in the draft lottery, which will take place Dec. 10.
