CHICAGO — During the Chicago Sky’s win over the Golden State Valkyries on Friday, an errant pass threatened to sail over the head of Sky point guard Courtney Vandersloot. But she leaped to catch it and quickly passed it to guard Rachel Banham as she fell to the ground.
Banham sunk a three, and the Sky were able to keep pace with one of the league’s best teams. The game ended with undrafted free agent signing Sydney Taylor hitting a game-winning three. Point guard Natasha Cloud hoisted Taylor into the air, with Vandersloot right there to congratulate the rookie.
For so many of the Chicago Sky’s biggest moments, Vandersloot has been there. Now, in her 16th year in the league and her 14th with the Sky, she wants to bring the franchise back to the mountaintop.
Last season, Vandersloot had a different vantage point for Sky games. She was home, rehabilitating an ACL tear that happened early in the 2025 season. The different perspective was educational.
“You know when you’re watching the game? I see it and it slows down. And then when I’m playing it, it’s completely different,” Vandersloot told The IX Sports. “That has been an adjustment for me. I can see what we need to be doing on the floor when I’m watching it. And then when I’m in the game, I’m understanding … just because you see it, it doesn’t mean it’s easy to do it on the floor.”
Vandersloot made her debut for the 2026 season on June 26. Since then, she’s averaging 9.3 points and 4.9 assists per game. Those numbers aren’t as big as in her previous seasons, but she’s also sharing the point guard load.
The Sky signed All-Star point guard Skylar Diggins in free agency and added Cloud just as training camp started. All three players have been notable point guards, and the idea was to share the job. Diggins moved to the injured list in early July, and Cloud and Vandersloot have shared the job since.
Cloud won a title as a point guard for the Washington Mystics in 2019 and is a veteran in her own right. But she’s spoken often about the joy she finds in playing with and learning from Vandersloot, who teammates often call “Slooty.”
“It’s really a blessing to be here and be alongside Slooty as well, who’s just a phenomenal point guard, one of the best point guards to ever come through this league,” Cloud said on Tuesday after scoring a career-high 35 points in a win over the New York Liberty. “And in my 11th year, to still be able to learn from her is such an amazing feeling for me to have that vet and to have her trust down the stretch, too, to just lead.
“Some nights it’s gonna be Slooty’s job to land the plane. Some nights it’s gonna be my job to land the plane. But we both have a lot of confidence in each other to finish it out.”
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For this kind of arrangement to work out, both players have to be willing to take a step back to allow the other to shine.
“Even though we’re the same position, we can play side to side,” Vandersloot said. “But at the end of the day, one of us is sacrificing for the other, depending on whose night it is. And for her to be able to do that right now, I think that’s huge for both of us, and I think that it benefits us in the long run.”
Vandersloot is 37 and married to former teammate Allie Quigley, and they’ve built a life together with their daughter, Jana. However, Vandersloot still has big goals for the Sky in her future.
The Sky’s first season was in 2006. Vandersloot was drafted in 2009. Except for 2023 and 2024, when she played and won a championship with the Liberty, Vandersloot has been a key part of all the Sky’s ups and downs as a franchise.
During the mid-2010s, the Sky were a fixture late in the playoffs. In 2014, the team made the WNBA Finals, and Vandersloot’s assists were at the center of the team’s offensive dominance.
She was also there to witness the exits of superstars Sylvia Fowles and Elena Delle Donne and was part of Sky teams that failed to make the postseason in 2017 and 2018. Vandersloot continued to stick with the Sky, and in 2021 she was the star of the team that won the franchise’s first WNBA title.
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The current Sky team is quite different from the 2021 team that featured Candace Parker, Kahleah Copper, Vandersloot and Quigley. The current Sky are 15-22 and have dealt with injuries to Rickea Jackson and Diggins.
They haven’t been eliminated from playoff contention yet, but they are six games out of eighth place. They will need to not only win, but also get some breaks from other teams to make the postseason.
Still, Vandersloot has faith she can continue to build the Sky.
“With the new practice facility, the new resources, everything that the Sky [are] pouring everywhere, I’m excited about getting this franchise back to a championship culture, championship caliber,” Vandersloot said. “I think that was why I stayed around for as long as I did is because it was so important for me to build this here, and then when we got there, it was like absolutely the best feeling. I can’t even describe what it was to actually win a championship with a team that you built … literally from the ground up.
“That’s what I’m excited for is just to be a small part of that, getting back to where I know where this place can be.”
Monumental Sports and Entertainment, the group that owns the Washington Mystics, holds a minority stake in The IX Sports. The IX Sports’ editorial operations are entirely independent of Monumental and all other business partners.
