Chicago Sky

The Chicago Sky's 2021 WNBA Championship stands as one of the most compelling stories in league history. Candace Parker, the Chicago native who had spent her entire career in Los Angeles, came home to deliver the city its first WNBA title. Alongside Kahleah Copper - who earned Finals MVP honors with a series of dazzling performances - and a roster built on grit and defensive versatility, the Sky captured the imagination of a city that had waited fifteen years for its franchise to break through. Founded in 2006, Chicago had endured seasons of irrelevance before that championship run validated the long, patient investment in building a winner.

The championship window proved fleeting. Parker retired after the 2024 season, and the roster that had contended for titles was gradually dismantled. But the Sky made a bold bet on the future by drafting Angel Reese with the seventh pick in the 2024 draft, and the former LSU star immediately delivered on her promise as a generational rebounder. By 2025, Reese was leading the entire league in rebounds per game at 12.6, a remarkable feat for a second-year player that announced her as one of the WNBA's most physically dominant forces. Her relentless work on the glass gave Chicago a foundational piece to build around even as the rest of the roster struggled.

The 2025 season was a painful one by any measure - a 10-34 record, one of the worst in the league, and a playoff miss that underscored just how far the rebuild had to go. The young roster surrounding Reese lacked the depth and experience to compete consistently, and the gap between the championship era and the present felt vast. Yet there is a clarity to Chicago's path forward that many rebuilding franchises lack. Reese is a genuine cornerstone, the kind of player whose effort and intensity can anchor a culture, and the Sky are betting that the Windy City's appetite for winning basketball - whetted by the 2021 title - will sustain the franchise through the lean years ahead.