The Sky Has Fallen

However the saga between Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky ends, it is another chapter in an organizational saga synonymous with mismanagement.

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Angel Reese didn’t tell a lie.

Let’s start there.

You can quibble with the timing of the comments and you’d be valid in doing so. You can even question the wisdom of naming specific players and assessing their contribution to the team and franchise. But what you cannot do is say that Reese’s statements to the Chicago Tribune were inaccurate.

"I'm not settling for the same s--- we did this year," Reese told the Tribune. "We have to get good players. We have to get great players. That's a non-negotiable for me. I'm willing and wanting to play with the best. And however I can help to get the best here, that's what I'm going to do this offseason.

First of all, isn’t this the kind of honesty we crave from our athletes? Isn’t this the stuff that everyone says we don’t see enough of anymore? The kind of authenticity that has been buried in favor of sanitized media appearances and vague coachspeak? Angel Reese saying she doesn’t want to settle for playing in the lottery every year is the kind of thing a competitor should say.

Implying that her teammates aren’t good isn’t a great look when you still have to play with them but…is it wrong? While there were some reasons to be optimistic on paper at the start of the year, a lot of that goodwill evaporated minutes into their debut against Indiana.

"So it's going to be very, very important this offseason to make sure we attract the best of the best because we can't settle for what we have this year."

Again, this comment would absolutely bang in a postseason exit interview. It honestly wouldn’t be out of the ordinary for elite athletes. But this happening while there are still games to be played is what makes it all so remarkable and unprecedented.

"I am very vocal about what we need and what I want," she told the Tribune. "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."

"It would be a leap of faith for a great, great player to come here and show that this is something they want to be a part of and [that] we can bring that championship mentality," Reese said.

If you take out the teammate commentary and Reese only says this part in the interview, I am willing to bet what little is in my bank account that this story blows over in 48 hours. Of all the points made across the whole story, this is probably the most tame.

Sure, you could make a case that this comment isn’t helping advertise the franchise to any prospective free agents but it’s also a possible wake up call to the organization told through the press.

"We can't rely on Courtney to come back at the age that she's at," Reese said. "I know she'll be a great asset for us, but we can't rely on that. We need someone probably a little younger with some experience, somebody who's been playing the game and is willing to compete for a championship and has done it before."

Here’s where things get interesting and where the essence of this column really begins…

Whatever happened this year between Courtney Vandersloot, Jeff Pagliocca and Angel Reese is the root of where we are. The Chicago Sky’s executive leadership — from President Adam Fox to Co-Owners Nadia Rawlinson and Michael Alter — and their failure to protect their young superstar has proved her and every other formerly disgruntled superstar correct in their assessment of the organization.

Much of what is happening now has been happening in Chicago, dating back to its inception.

Drafted in 2008, Sylvia Fowles was a multi-time All-WNBA player and Defensive Player of the Year in 2011 and 2013. Alongside Elena Delle Donne, Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley, the Sky enjoyed a brief run of success that culminated in a 2014 WNBA Finals run where they would lose to a Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner led Phoenix Mercury

That next offseason, Fowles wanted the chance to test the free agency market but was under a ‘core’ designation by the Sky. She demanded a trade and sat out the first half of the year before being dealt to the Minnesota Lynx. According to the Minnesota Star Tribune, one of the reasons for wanting to go to Minneapolis was their state-of-the-art training facility across the street from the Target Center.

Fast forward to 2016. Sky head coach Pokey Chatman, who had brought them to the WNBA Finals, was fired amidst a rumored rift between her and Delle Donne. Delle Donne would later write in her autobiography My Shot: Balancing It All And Standing Tall, that she didn’t have an issue with Chatman and respected her as a coach.

Phil Thompson reported in the Chicago Tribune in 2017 that Chatman’s dismissal as well as the departure of well-liked frontcourt coach Tree Rollins (yes, *that* Tree Rollins) was actually a direct factor in Delle Donne’s dissatisfaction. Additionally, the superstar also indicated frustration with the front office and their apparent lack of marketing and underinvestment in the team.

Sound familiar?

After Delle Donne was traded to the Washington Mystics, Chicago Sky owner Michael Alter gave a wide ranging interview to Crain’s Chicago Business, in which he touched on Delle Donne’s departure.

"There's no question Elena's a star player and a lot of people love to watch her play, and a lot of people identify the Sky with her," he says. "But (the trade) hasn't affected our business in a negative way at all."'

Whether those increases would have been higher had Delle Donne stayed with the Sky is unclear. But Alter argues that growth in the wake of trading her shows that even in a 12-team league struggling for new fans, a single player doesn't make or break the bottom line. Consistent winning can, he says, and the trade put the team "in a better position to win a championship than continuing on with Elena," even though the team made its only four playoff appearances during her tenure.

It was a throwaway quote in a business publication but was a revealing peek into how Alter viewed championship culture at the time.

That view, the rest of this column will argue, seems to have not changed in the last decade and is partially why we now are where we are.

Chicago missed the playoffs for the next two seasons and relieved Amber Stocks of her head coaching and general manager duties. James Wade was hired and this is where things get interesting. Wade found a local player development coach out in Deerfield, right near the where the Sky’s practice facility was.

Jeff Pagliocca started his career as the J.V. boys basketball coach at Stevenson High School, according to a 2025 Sun-Times profile. He never played basketball but became a film junkie, parlaying that into a development gym called Evolution Athletics. His first big client was former No. 2 overall pick and longtime NBA veteran Evan Turner. Around 2021, he trained Diamond DeShields and Stephanie Dolson. But it was in 2022 that he received a call from Courtney Vandersloot, who expressed an interest in working with Pagliocca.

The two began working together, as Pagliocca’s professional ascent continued. Chicago won the 2021 WNBA Finals (before the two started working together) but quickly things went off the rails. In 2022, Candace Parker left the organization and signed with the Las Vegas Aces, remarking that it was the first time in her career that she could leave her personal effects in her own locker. Gabby Williams butted heads so hard with the organization that she nearly never came back to the WNBA because of it.

Then James Wade left, taking an assistant coaching job with the Toronto Raptors and leaving the organization in an awful position. The Sky’s executive leadership started by hiring Teresa Weatherspoon and then, three weeks later, brought Pagliocca on as their first ever standalone general manager. He had spent the 2023 season as the team’s Director of Player Development.

Whatever one wants to say now, the early period of his tenure in Chicago could be interpreted as largely successful. The Sky were in major trouble, with Kahleah Copper wanting out of the organization, Candace Parker already gone to Las Vegas and no draft capital to speak of. Pagliocca managed to make deals that promised picks in return, eventually scoring the future selections that would become Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese.

“[He] was the mastermind of us going from zero draft picks to some of the best picks we could’ve gotten in the draft,” Sky co-owner Nadia Rawlinson told NBC5 Chicago in an August, 2024 interview. “Now it’s time for things to gel.”

But by the start of the 2024 season it was already apparent that the organization wasn’t prepared for the moment. The WNBA’s willingness to lean into the racial aspects of the Caitlin Clark - Angel Reese rivalry in the pursuit of their own Magic - Bird moment created problems the Sky’s players and coaches had to solve.

Less than a month into the year, the Chicago Tribune ran an editorial board column saying that Chennedy Carter’s hard foul on Caitlin Clark was so egregious that “outside of a sporting contest, it would’ve been seen as an assault.”

In the most John Mulaney voice I can muster, “First of all, No.”

What made the column noteworthy was the lack of pushback from the Sky about it. Throughout the entirety of the year, it fell to Teresa Weatherspoon, Angel Reese, Kamilla Cardoso and others to insulate themselves from the toxicity spawned by the season. The organization didn’t need to pull credentials over it but there was never any public condemnation of a column that was as lazy as it was problematic.

As difficult as things were, Weatherspoon displayed a good skill for being able to get through to Angel Reese, specifically. Even if the head coach maybe could’ve done better about not leaning into the more meta discussions about the league vis-a-vis Angel and Caitlin, she genuinely and authentically cared about her players and their wellbeing in the face of so much scrutiny.

Which is why when she was fired by Pagliocca after less than a year at the helm, it shocked everyone. The most charitable interpretation was that, in the pursuit of finding some stability after an unprecedentedly chaotic 2024, they needed to wipe the slate clean. That included firing Spoon and letting Chennedy Carter walk in free agency.

But now, in hindsight, that decision looks worse and worse every day.

In the wake of getting rid of the one coach on staff who knew how to get through to Reese better than anyone, the Sky have made a conscious decision to not hear her or worse: force her voice into submission.

At this point, there is only two ways this can end.

Angel Reese demands a trade, or Jeff Pagliocca is fired.

Things have reached a head and everything in the past suggests to me that this may not be reconcilable.

It hasn’t been great in Chicago this season, we know that much. Vandersloot blew out her ACL just seven games into the year and Angel Reese was asked to take on a more point-forward role with generally encouraging results. Her turnover numbers shot up but she proved to be adept at distributing and facilitating an offense, playing big-to-big with Kamilla Cardoso while remaining one of the league’s best rebounders.

But small flare-ups here and there have created issues with the team that lay out some of the dynamics at play. Nowhere was this more clear than the war of words between Candace Parker and the Sky’s brightest young star.

“I put [Angel] at that C level,” Parker said in an interview with Complex. "I think in terms of being above, you have to be able to have the ability to carry your team, be a one or two option. I think Angel Reese is fantastic at her role, which is offensive rebounding. She showed and demonstrated so much growth in that first year."

Reese responded on Twitter, posting “clout is one helluva DRUG. like it really gets to a point.”

This was believed by many to be a shot at the former Sky superstar.

Less than a month later, Parker was due to be honored with a jersey retirement in WinTrust Arena. While members of the Sky wore team-issued warm-up shirts that honored the Chicago legend, Reese noticeably covered hers up in a warm-up jacket.

The second year forward returned to the lineup and things were largely quiet until the Tribune story ran. Teammates did not appear to appreciate the sentiments, particularly the veterans on the team including Ariel Atkins, Rachel Banham and Vandersloot.

In an in-house interview that ran at halftime of the Sky’s game with the Connecticut Sun, Vandersloot appeared to take a subtle shot at Reese.

“Contrary to what people say or think, my age is actually not a factor,” Vandersloot said. “I am coming back.”

She may come back but this franchise, as constructed, will not. Whatever people want to say about the timing of the interview, the quotes and how the back-and-forth occurred, there seems to be a clear divide between Reese and Vandersloot. The battle over who will set the culture on this team appears to be between a 23 year old second year superstar and the arguable most loyal face to the franchise for over a decade.

The decision now falls to Michael Alter and Nadia Rawlinson to figure this all out. Rawlinson, in particular, is a voice I’m interested in hearing over the course of the next few months. The former Chief People Officer at Slack Technologies and Board Member for Vail Resorts, Save the Children and J. Crew Group, joined the WNBA for business and personal reasons.

“This was a business decision that aligned with my values,” she told NBC5 Chicago in an October 2024 interview. “I care about women and I care a lot about women winning. Period, full stop, in life and anything that they’re destined to do.”

When she was hired in 2023, Rawlinson touched on her experience as a Black woman in tech, the feeling of being othered and the desire to create an environment that she said would be, “for women by women, especially women of color.”

Does she feel like she’s doing that for Angel Reese at this moment?

There’s another side of this argument that I understand, to a point. Reese is a passionate, vocal and intense personality. She sometimes steps in it publicly, makes statements that open her up to scrutiny and can occasionally handle certain situations better. While the fame and fortune is the price of living in the public eye, it can also be easy to forget that Reese is still 23 years old.

The best thing for her, at this stage of her development, is to surround her with people in the organization that hear her voice, listen to and validate her concerns and figure out ways to rein in her sometimes self-destructive impulses. Instead, it sure feels like the goal of the organization is to get her on a program defined by Pagliocca and, to a lesser but still important extent, Vandersloot.

Pagliocca, in particular, feels like quite a game player in all of this. We’re talking about a guy who came from, effectively, nothing in the basketball world. Without knowing him that well, it wouldn’t surprise me if his resting impulse is that he managed to grit and work his way into this role and he won’t have anyone questioning his vision. After all, in his eyes (and likely the eyes of Wade and/or Vandersloot), this way won a championship in 2021.

Nowhere does it feel like Pagliocca believes in his own myth than the Sky’s lack of a dedicated analytics department. According to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2025, the team doesn’t have any plans to hire any either.

“We have a really hands-on [coaching] staff that likes putting the energy into that type of research,” general manager Jeff Pagliocca told the Sun-Times.

Given that he’s a player development guy and was drawn to Tyler Marsh because of his similar background, it doesn’t feel out of the realm of possibility that he feels he can eye-test his way out of this with Courtney Vandersloot operating as a somewhat loyal player-lieutenant.

From the leadership perspective (and likely the perspective of Fox, Rawlinson and Alter), Pagliocca’s quote-unquote “way” brought a title to Chicago under James Wade. That particular culture style is how you make a champion and demands that everyone fall in with that way of doing things. After all, that was kind of James Wade’s way of doing things. Just ask Courtney Williams.

Alter himself praised Wade’s culture to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2022 and credited Vandersloot’s loyalty to the team as a key driver of being able to woo Candace Parker back to Chicago. Simply put, there is loyalty here to Vandersloot and a desire to do right by her. And, as it pertains to the 36 year old point guard, she wouldn’t be the first player to feel like they still have enough left in the tank to be the star they’ve always felt they are.

But the fact of the matter is that Angel is right, no matter how much Michael Alter or Jeff Pagliocca or Courtney Vandersloot want to believe otherwise. No franchise in professional sports is handing the keys to a 36 year old not named Lebron James or Tom Brady. And with respect to Vandersloot, who is a Hall-of-Famer in her own right, she is not that caliber of player in the WNBA pantheon. She’s on the C-Tier, if you will.

What Angel Reese’s one-half suspension has laid bare is the increasingly-difficult-to-argue perception that the Sky as an organization are lined up against their biggest star and future of the franchise.

How on earth is a superstar supposed to feel when they have clearly aired out their concerns about the franchise in private, only for them to either fall on deaf ears or be immediately invalidated?

Michael Alter has jokingly said in past profiles that he’s a bit stubborn. This is a man who had a Pantech flip-phone until at least 2017. But if he isn’t willing to give a little, to entertain the notion that his young superstar may actually be right, then he runs the risk of burning away all the goodwill he built with that 2021 championship.

Since he arrived in the league, his organization has been plagued with accusation of underinvestment, a lack of interest in marketing the team properly or embracing the city of Chicago. Their new team facility in Bedford Park is a perfect example of that, with Rawlinson stating last year that the reason they didn’t want to be closer to downtown or WinTrust was that a facility in Bedford Park put them closer to their community partners and organizations.

Now, he’s faced with a serious choice. The kind that differentiate bad owners from good owners. He can put his weight behind Pagliocca, a player development coach who somehow maneuvered his way into a position of prominence a la Petyr Baelish in Game of Thrones, and Vandersloot, a 36 year old franchise cornerstone who exemplifies many of the good things about the WNBA but appears to be having some public trouble realizing what phase of her career she’s in.

If the WNBA wants their Magic - Bird moment, they’re about to get it.

In 1981, the then Los Angeles Lakers star went into owner Jerry Buss’ office and said that Paul Westhead had to go. Westhead, a relatively unheralded coach who managed to find himself the head coach of a tiffany franchise, was intent on running The System, a scheme that centered an aging Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

The Lakers had already gotten rid of Jack McKinney, choosing to elevate Westhead after McKinney was hospitalized in a bicycle accident. There was a question about whether or not the Lakers could fire another coach, what it would say to the world if they valued Magic over his head coach and what would happen if they were wrong.

Buss made a choice — one he insists happened before Johnson talked to him — to fire Westhead and the result was one of the greatest runs in NBA history.

Michael Alter and Nadia Rawlinson now sit at that same crossroads. Do you value the system or do you understand the kind of player you have and what they’re asking of you? Are you willing to immolate yourself as an organization out of loyalty for a system you believe was the reason you won a title?

Fortune favors the bold, and a bold action here is required. Whatever people think about Angel Reese, she didn’t lie one bit. It just comes down to whether or not the people in charge are willing to listen to her.

For their sake, I hope they are.

Otherwise, Chicago will continue to be a place that is synonymous with dysfunction, mismanagement and a lack of seriousness.