Report Reveals How Former Chicago Sky Teresa Weatherspoon Lost Locker Room
The Chicago Sky made major waves within the women's basketball community when they announced their firing of first-year head coach Teresa Weatherspoon at the end of September.
Hiring Weatherspoon (who had no experience as a head coach of a professional basketball team before Chicago hired her) was a risk that did not pay off. In addition to the Sky producing a worse regular season record in 2024 compared to 2023, Weatherspoon was criticized for her coaching decision late in games, including her allegedly allowing superstar Angel Reese to pad her stats to set the WNBA record for consecutive double-doubles.
When speaking with the media on Wednesday, Sky GM Jeff Pagliocca said of Weatherspoon's firing, "We felt it was time to make a change,” and more or less left it at that.
But an October 10 article from Annie Costabile of the Chicago Sun-Times suggests that Weatherspoon catering to select players on her roster led to friction within Chicago's locker room.
"From the beginning, it was clear that Weatherspoon’s inexperience would be a difficult hurdle to overcome," Costabile wrote.
"Weatherspoon’s inability to keep the team schematically prepared was evidenced by her rotations and poor late-game play-calls. Her failure to maximize rookie Kamilla Cardoso, the No. 3 overall draft pick, on offense also came into question.
"According to league sources, Weatherspoon had lost the locker room because of a culture that catered to the needs of a few players," she added.
Several ledes buried in this one: “According to league sources, Weatherspoon had lost the locker room because of a culture that catered to the needs of a few players.”
— 🎃 Allie 🍁 (@Allie874) October 10, 2024
We kinda knew this, but YIKES. https://t.co/pyQ1n52m8k pic.twitter.com/Y0cluebDMy
While Weatherspoon's preferential treatment of Reese and a few others was a common sentiment heard among fans, it's jarring to see league sources also reporting it.
While Reese may not like it, this report suggests that firing Weatherspoon may have been for the best for Chicago's future.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.