Report: Sky fire Weatherspoon after one season

The Chicago Sky fired coach Teresa Weatherspoon after just one season, the team announced Friday.

“After careful consideration, we have decided it is in the best interest of the organization to part ways with head coach Teresa Weatherspoon,” Sky co-owner and operating chairman Nadi Rawlinson said in a statement. “We are deeply appreciative of Coach TSpoon’s contributions to the Chicago Sky, and the energy and passion she brought to the head coaching role.”

Sky rookie star Angel Reese had addressed the news on social media Thursday night, saying she was “heartbroken.”

Weatherspoon was hired Oct. 12 and led the Sky to a 13-27 record. Chicago stayed in playoff position for much of the second half of the season despite struggling to a 3-13 record after the Olympic break. Ultimately, losing Reese to a wrist injury Sept. 7 was too much to overcome.

Reese had a strong season, setting a WNBA record with 15 consecutive double-doubles. Reese, the No. 7 draft pick out of LSU, averaged 13.6 points and a league-record 13.1 rebounds in 34 games. She thanked Weatherspoon in an emotional post on X on Thursday night.

“I’m literally lost for words knowing what this woman meant to me in such a pivotal point in my life,” Reese wrote. “She was the only person that believed in me. The one that trusted me. Many don’t even know what it’s like to be a black women in sports when nobody believes in you. You had a tough job. All the crazy circumstances that we went through this year & when your back was against the wall, you always believed.

“I came to Chicago because of YOU. You were an unsung hero in my life. We built a relationship in a short amount of time that will last forever.”

Weatherspoon played in the WNBA from 1997, the league’s inaugural year, to 2004, with seven seasons in New York and one in Los Angeles. She also has coached at the college level at her alma mater, Louisiana Tech, and in the NBA as an assistant with the New Orleans Pelicans.

The Sky won their only WNBA title in 2021, but no longer have key players from then such as Candace Parker, Kahleah Copper and Courtney Vandersloot. James Wade, who had been the Sky’s coach and general manager since 2019, stepped down after 16 games last season to take an assistant’s job with the Toronto Raptors. Emre Vatansever filled in as the interim head coach the rest of the season.

In October, Weatherspoon and Jeff Pagliocca were hired as coach and general manager, respectively, replacing the dual role Wade had.

Weatherspoon is the second WNBA coach to be fired since the end of the regular season, joining Curt Miller, whom the Sparks announced was out as coach on Tuesday after two seasons.