When the Chicago Sky hired Teresa Weatherspoon almost a year ago, Spoon brought a fiery energy that was on display all season long – from running drills with her team during pregame warmups of a preseason game to heavy flexes on the sideline after the Sky made a defensive stop.

Weatherspoon stated in the preseason that she wanted to view this year as “fertilizing a seed that’s already been planted.” As 2024 progressed, it became as Diamond DeShields put in her exit interview “riddled with obstacle” with a litany of injuries, sickness and off-court factors having an effect on the product on the court to finish with a 13-27 record.

“The different lineup changes, injuries, changes around the league, the media attention, the fans. There were just a lot of challenges for Spoon in her first year, which I don’t know how normal that is but it seemed a little abnormal to me,” DeShields said. 

It started with the loss of center Elizabeth Williams for the entire season only 9 games in while rookie Kamilla Cardoso just started her slow return from a shoulder injury that had sidelined her for a month to start the season. Then as the team started to hit a stride in July – including ending the first half of the season with an upset win over the Las Vegas Aces – the sickness bug riddled the locker room in addition to injuries.

Chennedy Carter sat out 4 games with illness. Angel Reese missed the last 6 games of the season with a wrist injury. DeShields missed the last 5 games with an ankle injury. Cardoso missed the last 2 games of the season with a shoulder injury. 

“I think that everything that could happen happened. 3 starters went out, there was a lot of sickness, a lot of injuries. There’s a lot even more behind the scenes that people don’t even know about. I know that’s difficult. I can’t even imagine how I would try and navigate that,” Rachel Banham said in her exit interview.

Even with all the speed bumps and potholes this season’s journey had for two rookie leaders in Weatherspoon and Pagliocca, the team found a way to put a competitive product on the floor every night. Out of 40 games, the Sky had 25 decided by single-digits before late season injuries to starters slowly but surely pushed the Sky out of the playoff picture.

“It’s been a very good learning experience. I think Spoon faced a ton of adversity the whole season. The roster is much different now than when we started and she still kept a team on the floor that was fighting every single night,” Pagliocca said.

“We just never gave up. We never threw the towel in. We kept fighting for her. We wanted this to be a great first year for her and she’s learned a lot from this season,” Dana Evans said.

Weatherspoon showed her growth in the second half of the season with implementation of more movement and motion in her offense – something that players advocated for when returning from the Olympic break. Offensive production lacked all season with the Sky finishing 11th in points, field goal percentage and assists and was a huge factor as to why Chicago couldn’t punch their ticket to the postseason for the 6th straight season.

“She was just willing to see where she could try to hold accountability in a lot of circumstances,” Isabelle Harrison said. “To have a head coach do that, I think that’s huge. I think that was something that allowed us to continue to push for her. I think she made that very well known. 

“I finished my meeting with her and she was just taking notes and to just see that after kind of an up-and-down season, I appreciate that. She was very consistent in that. It was a learning year for a lot of people.”

“You learn a major lesson about yourself,” Weatherspoon said. “You learn how strong you really can be through adverse moments. You learn how you can become comfortable in uncomfortable moments, and you have growth in it as well.”

That growth remains to be seen in the 2025 season where the Sky are set to have 6 players returning on contract: Lindsay Allen, Moriah Jefferson, Rachel Banham, Elizabeth Williams, Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso. 

The Sky will also have two first round picks with one being a lottery pick. That pick won’t be determined until a later date to be announced by the league.