I learned a lot as a new WNBA fan. I had no idea Chicago Sky's ineptitude goes back decades.
I saw an image over the weekend chronicling when different expansion teams reached playoffs. It took Chicago 8 years while many other franchises did it in 2-3 years.
I do have one gripe with the article though, "In the wake of getting rid of the one coach on staff who knew how to get through to Reese better than anyone....."
I think it could have been written to say the one coach who connected with and had Angel's back. Getting through kind of makes it sound like Angel is some problem child that needed a certain personality type to get through to her.
I generally agree that the Chi front office has been one of the most suspect for several years, but this story feels incomplete without two aspects: (1) what led Mabrey to insist on a mid-season trade? Sure, Spoon seemed to be the Reese whisperer, which is great, but without the Mabrey angle it is hard to see if there was a locker room cost that may be relevant; and (2) Reese, for her strengths, is not Magic. The Lakers choice worked out because they went on a run - can Reese carry a team to such an outcome? The "C-tier" comment was uncharitable, but I have my doubts as to whether Reese is A-tier in a way that makes letting her call the shots a wise move. Not that Sloot should either - whether she thinks so or not, her age is an issue. The front office definitely did Reese and Kamilla no favors by building a weak backcourt roster when the obvious issue in 2024 was an inability to feed the bigs or give them a reliable scorer to kick back out to. (And I say that as a huge fan of Atkins, but once Sloot went down there was no depth. )
As a Sky fan who reveled in the 2021 championship, this column painfully hits home. And one could add to this Pagliocca’s trading of a lottery pick (that became Sonia Citron) for a one year rental of a good but not great Ariel Adkins, as if the Sky were one veteran player away from being a contender - which they most obviously were not.
Very interesting and informative piece about a franchise in turmoil. As the league gets more professional it will be hard for these terribly run teams to compete.
Most interesting to me is that Julia Poe, the Tribune reporter who interviewed Reese, posted that the interview was sanctioned by the team and there was a PR rep with Reese the whole time. So the front office knew what her comments were even before the story was published which means they didn’t take action against her until public backlash. I also don’t think the FOS story that took Reese’s comments out of context (imo) helped the public response and I was bummed to see that tack taken.
The funniest irony is that a lot of the information on Pagliocca’s background came from puff pieces by the same writer now slanting Angel in FOS now. Weird enmeshment of coverage happening here.
I learned a lot as a new WNBA fan. I had no idea Chicago Sky's ineptitude goes back decades.
I saw an image over the weekend chronicling when different expansion teams reached playoffs. It took Chicago 8 years while many other franchises did it in 2-3 years.
I do have one gripe with the article though, "In the wake of getting rid of the one coach on staff who knew how to get through to Reese better than anyone....."
I think it could have been written to say the one coach who connected with and had Angel's back. Getting through kind of makes it sound like Angel is some problem child that needed a certain personality type to get through to her.
I generally agree that the Chi front office has been one of the most suspect for several years, but this story feels incomplete without two aspects: (1) what led Mabrey to insist on a mid-season trade? Sure, Spoon seemed to be the Reese whisperer, which is great, but without the Mabrey angle it is hard to see if there was a locker room cost that may be relevant; and (2) Reese, for her strengths, is not Magic. The Lakers choice worked out because they went on a run - can Reese carry a team to such an outcome? The "C-tier" comment was uncharitable, but I have my doubts as to whether Reese is A-tier in a way that makes letting her call the shots a wise move. Not that Sloot should either - whether she thinks so or not, her age is an issue. The front office definitely did Reese and Kamilla no favors by building a weak backcourt roster when the obvious issue in 2024 was an inability to feed the bigs or give them a reliable scorer to kick back out to. (And I say that as a huge fan of Atkins, but once Sloot went down there was no depth. )
As a Sky fan who reveled in the 2021 championship, this column painfully hits home. And one could add to this Pagliocca’s trading of a lottery pick (that became Sonia Citron) for a one year rental of a good but not great Ariel Adkins, as if the Sky were one veteran player away from being a contender - which they most obviously were not.
Well that was per Sloots request of wanting an all-star guard.
I love Sloot, but she’s not the GM.
and Sonia Citron was an all star this year 😔
Very interesting and informative piece about a franchise in turmoil. As the league gets more professional it will be hard for these terribly run teams to compete.
Most interesting to me is that Julia Poe, the Tribune reporter who interviewed Reese, posted that the interview was sanctioned by the team and there was a PR rep with Reese the whole time. So the front office knew what her comments were even before the story was published which means they didn’t take action against her until public backlash. I also don’t think the FOS story that took Reese’s comments out of context (imo) helped the public response and I was bummed to see that tack taken.
The funniest irony is that a lot of the information on Pagliocca’s background came from puff pieces by the same writer now slanting Angel in FOS now. Weird enmeshment of coverage happening here.