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Mechelle VoepelESPN.com
CHICAGO — Candace Parker raced to the sidelines to hug her family, tears already in her eyes. In minutes, “We Are Champions” was belted out by a packed Wintrust Arena. For the first time, the Chicago Sky have won the WNBA title, and two hometown heroes came through bigtime to get the Sky this precious hardware with an 80-74 Game 4 victory over Phoenix.
Parker, who grew up in suburban Naperville, Illinois, starred at Tennessee where she won two NCAA titles and then was the No. 1 draft pick, MVP and Rookie of the Year in 2008. It took until 2016 for her to win her first WNBA title, with the Sparks, but she decided earlier this year to leave the only WNBA team she had played for and come home as a free agent.
Sunday, Parker had 16 points, 13 rebounds and five assists. Meanwhile DePaul grad Allie Quigley of nearby Joliet, Illinois, led the Sky 26 points, making five 3-pointers.
“Everything that this team went through the entire year prepared us for this,” Parker said.” We were down nine, we were down 11. We just got to stay with it, and that’s what we’ve done all season. I am so proud of this group, with our fight, next man up mentality.
“My high school coach is here …I mean, we got the whole city here and this is amazing how Chicago supports. I mean, we’re champions for life now.”
The Sky had to do this the hard way Sunday, trailing much of the game with the worry of having to return to Phoenix for Game 5 if they lost. With 5:25 left and the Sky down 70-65, the theme from “Rocky” was played over the loudspeaker at Wintrust Arena. That’s a Philadelphia song, and proud North Philly native Kahleah Copper was named WNBA Finals MVP. Her fighting spirit was emblematic of what the Sky did down the stretch to win: Everyone contributed.
Parker with 1:57 left hit a 3-pointer to tie it 72-72. That was followed by two consecutive Stefanie Dolson layups fed by point guard Courtney Vandersloot.
And it was fitting that Vandersloot, the longest tenured Sky player, had the final points at the free-throw line with 10.4 seconds left. Vandersloot finished with 10 points and 15 assists.
The Sky, who joined the WNBA as an expansion team in 2006, became the 10th franchise to win a league title, doing so in the WNBA’s silver anniversary season. Chicago did it despite a 16-16 regular season record; at No. 6 the Sky are the lowest seed to win the championship since the WNBA went to its current playoff format in 2016.
The Sky debuted at 5-29 in 2006, missing the playoffs the first seven seasons before advancing to postseason for the first time in 2013 behind rookie of the year Elena Delle Donne and Sylvia Fowles. Both had been No. 2 draft picks, and they helped lead the Sky to the 2014 WNBA Finals, where they were swept by Phoenix.
Fowles was ready to move on the next year, sitting out until midseason when she was traded to Minnesota. Then after the 2016 season, Delle Donne also insisted on a trade, and went to Washington to be closer to her Delaware home.
But that February 2017 deal worked out for both teams: Delle Donne won a title with the Mystics in 2019, and the players who came to the Sky – Copper and Dolson – are part of this year’s championship team. Copper, in fact, was the breakout star of this year’s postseason.
Vandersloot was the No. 3 draft pick out of Gonzaga in 2011 and said she was surprised to be picked that high. But she’s become one of the best point guards ever in the WNBA.
She had the second triple-double in WNBA playoff history during the semifinals and finished with a record 102 assists in this postseason. In her 11th season with Sky, Vandersloot won a title alongside her wife and fellow guard Quigley.
Quigley spent her first five years after graduation from DePaul trying to catch on in the WNBA. She played 41 games for four different franchises from 2008-2011, wasn’t in the league at all in 2012, and finally stuck with the Sky in 2013. She has averaged in double figures scoring for seven of her nine seasons in Chicago.
“I’ve never been one to say I don’t have anything if I don’t win a championship,” Quigley said. “But I also know how much it means if you do have one. I feel like you’re elite when you have a championship. It’s just something in your legacy that makes you special.”
During the free-agency process earlier this year, Vandersloot and Quigley shipped Parker treats from their favorite Chicagoland restaurants. Parker said she came to play for the Sky both because the Windy City was home and also because she saw what the Sky had been building and wanted to be a part of it.
The Sky’s James Wade became the third Black coach to win a WNBA title, following Michael Cooper with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001 and 2002, and Corey Gaines with Phoenix in 2009. He took over the Sky in 2019, and said it was his dream to lead a team like this.
“The world is a little bit unfair to us in the way we’re represented and the way we’re looked at and the chances that we don’t get,” Wade said. “You always have to protect yourself at all times. You get proud of these moments, but sometimes I have to act like that I’m supposed to be here, even though life has told me that I’m not.
“It means a lot. It means a lot that my son is here and he gets to see his daddy coaching in front of a lot of fans just cheering.”
CHICAGO — Candace Parker raced to the sidelines to hug her family, tears already in her eyes. In minutes, “We Are Champions” was belted out by a packed Wintrust Arena. For the first time, the Chicago Sky have won the WNBA title, and two hometown heroes came through bigtime to get the Sky this precious hardware with an 80-74 Game 4 victory over Phoenix. Parker, who grew up in suburban Naperville, Illinois, starred at Tennessee where she won two NCAA titles and then was the No. 1 draft pick, MVP and Rookie of the Year in 2008. It took until 2016 for her to win her first WNBA title, with the Sparks, but she decided earlier this year to leave the only WNBA team she had played for and come home as a free agent.
Sunday, Parker had 16 points, 13 rebounds and five assists. Meanwhile DePaul grad Allie Quigley of nearby Joliet, Illinois, led the Sky 26 points, making five 3-pointers.
“Everything that this team went through the entire year prepared us for this,” Parker said.” We were down nine, we were down 11. We just got to stay with it, and that’s what we’ve done all season. I am so proud of this group, with our fight, next man up mentality.
“My high school coach is here …I mean, we got the whole city here and this is amazing how Chicago supports. I mean, we’re champions for life now.”
The Sky had to do this the hard way Sunday, trailing much of the game with the worry of having to return to Phoenix for Game 5 if they lost. With 5:25 left and the Sky down 70-65, the theme from “Rocky” was played over the loudspeaker at Wintrust Arena. That’s a Philadelphia song, and proud North Philly native Kahleah Copper was named WNBA Finals MVP. Her fighting spirit was emblematic of what the Sky did down the stretch to win: Everyone contributed.
Parker with 1:54 left hit a 3-pointer to tie it 72-72. That was followed by two consecutive Stefanie Dolson layups fed by point guard Courtney Vandersloot.
And it was fitting that Vandersloot, the longest tenured Sky player, had the final points at the free-throw line with 10.4 seconds left. Vandersloot finished with 10 points and 15 assists.
The Sky, who joined the WNBA as an expansion team in 2006, became the 10th franchise to win a league title, doing so in the WNBA’s silver anniversary season. Chicago did it despite a 16-16 regular season record; at No. 6 the Sky are the lowest seed to win the championship since the WNBA went to its current playoff format in 2016.
The Sky debuted at 5-29 in 2006, missing the playoffs the first seven seasons before advancing to postseason for the first time in 2013 behind rookie of the year Elena Delle Donne and Sylvia Fowles. Both had been No. 2 draft picks, and they helped lead the Sky to the 2014 WNBA Finals, where they were swept by Phoenix.
Fowles was ready to move on the next year, sitting out until midseason when she was traded to Minnesota. Then after the 2016 season, Delle Donne also insisted on a trade, and went to Washington to be closer to her Delaware home.
But that February 2017 deal worked out for both teams: Delle Donne won a title with the Mystics in 2019, and the players who came to the Sky – Copper and Dolson – are part of this year’s championship team. Copper, in fact, was the breakout star of this year’s postseason.
Vandersloot was the No. 3 draft pick out of Gonzaga in 2011 and said she was surprised to be picked that high. But she’s become one of the best point guards ever in the WNBA.
She had the second triple-double in WNBA playoff history during the semifinals and finished with a record 102 assists in this postseason. In her 11th season with Sky, Vandersloot won a title alongside her wife and fellow guard Quigley.
Quigley spent her first five years after graduation from DePaul trying to catch on in the WNBA. She played 41 games for four different franchises from 2008-2011, wasn’t in the league at all in 2012, and finally stuck with the Sky in 2013. She has averaged in double figures scoring for seven of her nine seasons in Chicago.
“I’ve never been one to say I don’t have anything if I don’t win a championship,” Quigley said. “But I also know how much it means if you do have one. I feel like you’re elite when you have a championship. It’s just something in your legacy that makes you special.”
During the free-agency process earlier this year, Vandersloot and Quigley shipped Parker treats from their favorite Chicagoland restaurants. Parker said she came to play for the Sky both because the Windy City was home and also because she saw what the Sky had been building and wanted to be a part of it.
The Sky’s James Wade became the third Black coach to win a WNBA title, following Michael Cooper with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2001 and 2002, and Corey Gaines with Phoenix in 2009. He took over the Sky in 2019, and said it was his dream to lead a team like this.
“The world is a little bit unfair to us in the way we’re represented and the way we’re looked at and the chances that we don’t get,” Wade said. “You always have to protect yourself at all times. You get proud of these moments, but sometimes I have to act like that I’m supposed to be here, even though life has told me that I’m not.
“It means a lot. It means a lot that my son is here and he gets to see his daddy coaching in front of a lot of fans just cheering.”
