Angel Reese Threatens to Leave Chicago Sky Amid Further WNBA Free Agency Failure
The Chicago Sky have had an extremely disappointing 2025 campaign. While their 2024 season also didn't amount to much success in terms of their win-loss record, last year would still be seen as a win overall, given that both of their 2024 WNBA Draft first-round picks (Kamilla Cardoso and Angel Reese) had shown that they were well on their way to superstardom.
Both Reese and Cardoso have improved during their second WNBA seasons. Each has continued to be great at what they're already elite at (namely rebounding) while Cardoso has improved as a scorer, and Reese has become a better facilitator and overall player on both ends of the court.
But the Sky have still been bad in Tyler Marsh's first season as head coach, as the team currently has a 9-30 record heading into their September 3 game against the Connecticut Sun. They were 13-27 during the 2024 season.
While Marsh certainly deserves some blame for this poor season, many predicted Chicago would be a bottom-dweller in the 2025 WNBA standings after they failed to notably improve their roster this past offseason.
Their biggest free agency signing was veteran point guard Courtney Vandersloot (who tore her ACL shortly into the season), and their biggest trade was getting Ariel Atkins from the Washington Mystics in exchange for the No. 3 pick of the 2025 WNBA Draft. Atkins has been subpar in Chicago, while the pick Chicago traded ended up being All-Star rookie Sonia Citron, thus marking another mishap by the team's front office.
Angel Reese Gets Blunt About Chicago Sky's Struggles
Reese was interviewed by Julia Poe of the Chicago Tribune for a September 3 article. And the 23-year-old did not hold back at all when criticizing her current franchise.
Among the points Reese made was that she's "not settling for the same s***" in free agency this offseason, after that happened last offseason, and that the Sky need to acquire great players, because the roster they had this year didn't cut it in her eyes.
Later on, Reese made it clear that shes' fine leaving the Sky if they don't get their act right.
"I am very vocal about what we need and what I want. I’d like to be here for my career, but if things don’t pan out, obviously I might have to move in a different direction and do what’s best for me. But while I am here, I’m going to try to stay open-minded about what I have here and maximize that as much as I can," Reese said, which was excerpted in an X post from @sammygee1400.
oh she is not playing holy shit pic.twitter.com/sS0TWOlfoE
— sammy!¡ (@sammygee1400) September 3, 2025
She also added that her head coach, Tyler Marsh, needs to begin coaching players harder, among listing many other things the franchise needs to improve.
Nobody can claim Reese isn't willing to speak her mind.
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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.
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