NFL
By: Jeffrey Newholm
It was a cold Labor Day weekend afternoon. The eliminated Chicago Sky faced an unincentivized Seattle Storm in what would prove to be a thrilling competitive exhibition…
In a mostly empty Allstate Arena in Rosemont?
The small but boisterous crowd, however, knew that better horizons were ahead for their Sky. Although that afternoon’s contest could not affect the standings, one fan’s offhand comment made a strong impression on an amateur basketball scribe:
“We’ve outgrown this place.”
Indeed, the Sky had already announced the gorgeous Wintrust Arena’s 2018 opening in downtown Chicago. By 2025, the mighty United Center would open its gates to the Sky Express for select games.
Of course, every success happens for a reason. The main cause of Chicago’s rise to a viable summer entertainment selection was not a matter of what, where, when, or how. It was who? Which players elevated their Sky to their vital 2021 championship, while placing the cornerstones for the franchise’s budding hoops revolution?
Remember the sage Japanese thought? “Everything happens in threes.”
Morning’s Dawn: Courtney Vandersloot
“Slooty” arrived in Chicago as the third overall draft pick in 2011. Bolstered by 2015 league MVP Elena Delle Donne, Chicago maintained a respectable competitive level, albeit in a quieter WNBA era.
However, Delle Donne, like too many Sky players, would ask out of Chicago. The return for Delle Donne’s trade to Washington became two solid players and a to-be-wasted draft selection.
Who were those players? Hmmm, only Finals MVP Kahleah Copper and impassioned leader Stefanie Dolson.
As then-coach James Wade once wryly observed, local newspapers used Delle Donne as the lede for Mystics-Sky games (even in 2023!).
However, it is Vandersloot who provides the passionate copy read by Windy City fanatics.
Slooty does not have the overwhelming athleticism Delle Donne used to dominate lesser foes. She, instead, boasts an assassin’s assisting instinct and, just as important, a genuine appreciation for the continuously growing Sky fanbase. (Slooty can often be observed encouraging fan involvement, creating a symbiotic relationship between supporters and energy-feeding home team athletes.)
Yet, what is Slooty’s greatest assist? Not just building a team, but also a loving and growing family.
Noon’s Sun: Allie Quigley
In the pre-NIL era, when women’s athletes had few avenues to succeed in America, one could excuse Allie Quigley for feeling doubt after leaving the WNBA in 2012. The Sky rescued Quigley from anonymity with a contract in 2013.
It was the greatest no-name signing in league history.
Quigley provided the shooting prowess that any 2020’s basketball franchise needs to compete. The four-time winner of the WNBA three-point contest (still twice as many as any other player) never seemed to achieve the same acclaim claimed by more recent sharpshooters.
It must be noted that those net-whispers, most notably Sabrina Ionescu and Paige Bueckers, are leaping with yesterday’s batons. Not to take anything away from today’s excellence! Context helps define humanity’s current state. Thus, it is also true that Quigley’s focused determination to make as many baskets as possible planted seeds that flower into 2026 hoops.
Outside of public sight, Quigley and Vandersloot began a relationship. In 2018, the couple posted a mic-drop Instagram post announcing their marriage. In the pair’s best on-court moment, during the 2020 Florida Wubble, Vandersloot set the WNBA single-game assist record with 18 dimes. The recipient of the 17th and 18th daggers?
None other than Quigley.
In 2025, Chicago retired Quigley’s #14 jersey. As of this writing, #14 has but one partner in the Wintrust rafters.
What, no, who else but #3?
Doubt’s Sunset: Candace Parker
Parker accomplished so many feats in her certainly Hall of Fame career that, to borrow a Trinitarian phrase, there are not enough blogs in the world to record her successes.
What is her proudest on-court moment? She would likely have to think on that point, granted the volume of her triumphs! For Sky fans, however, one day holds wonder permanently.
First, some context. After a sterling career at Tennessee, Parker provided a primary impetus (with the help of Nneka Ogwumike, of course) to Los Angeles’s 2016 championship and 2017 near-miss. Unfortunately, Parker seemed to grow dissatisfied in la-la land. Not coincidentally, the Sparks regressed from their repeat Finals appearances into mediocrity.
It was time to take her talents to the lake.
True, Chicago recorded a modest 16-16 record in a pandemic-abbreviated regular season.
Hardly an impediment for the Sorceress of Swish. In the WNBA’s unusual playoff system, several teams were “rewarded” with byes. Parker and the Sky Express flattened those franchises (Minnesota and Connecticut, specifically) en route to the Finals.
While it would have been more poetic for Chicago to face Las Vegas, their foil in a 2019 half-court heartbreak, surprise finalist Phoenix proved just as formidable a foe.
Against the might of Diana Taurasi, still the sport’s all-time leading scorer, Chicago played its finest basketball.
Pretend. Make-believe, just for a second: a genuinely sold-out Wintrust Arena, with their Sky up four, rooting fervently when Taurasi…
Is fouled shooting a three?
Swish. Swish. Boink! A would-be crucial tally went unrecorded in the last minute, with Dolson securing the rebound. Seconds later, Vandersloot hit a killing duece. Although the arena’s clock still ticked, Parker knew that her homecoming was completed. She cried while the final seconds elasped, triumphant in perhaps the greatest moment of her career.
The Chicago Sky encompassed the women’s basketball globe in its twilight. As new days pass, the Sky-Trinity’s shadow lengthens.
A Place Grown Into
“We’ve outgrown this place.”
That long-ago Rosemont contest is remembered by few. For good reason! Vandersloot, Quigley, and Parker won the only professional basketball championship in Skytown during the post-Jordan era. Further, they won at a palace nestled in Chicago’s heart, far from Allstate.
True, Parker and Quigley’s numbers now hang from the rafters while their weavers live in retirement. Yes, Vandersloot, although she has returned to Chicago, must soon trace her own path outside the harwood.
Still, as the pages of women’s basketball continue to turn, Sky Trinity’s legacy endures. While NBA stars bounce from not one, not two, not three, but innumerable stops before finding peace, America’s heartland has a basketball gem worthy of generations of treasuring.
For appreciators of Vandersloot, Quigley, and Parker, the WNBA is no longer a mere league. Born from the hearts of three heroes, Skytown is the Midwest’s new basketball religion.
