Why Sky Fans Should Be Mad Liberty Lost to Mercury
The Chicago Sky failed to make the playoffs for a second season in a row. Thus, it's hard to imagine that this is a franchise that also won a WNBA title four years ago.
Former Sky forward Candace Parker was a part of that 2021 championship roster, along with Courtney Vandersloot. The veteran guard left Chicago to play for the New York Liberty in 2023 and 2024. Last season, Vandersloot won a second WNBA title.
🚨 Playoffs Updates Below 🚨
— WNBA (@WNBA) September 18, 2025
✔️ DeWanna Bonner moved past Candace Parker for 2nd place in Playoffs Steals
✔️ DeWanna Bonner moved into 4th place on 3PM list tonight, passing Maya Moore
✔️ 8 REB tonight shifted DeWanna Bonner up to 2nd all-time on Playoff REB, passing Tamika… pic.twitter.com/HtSzxu20YO
Instead of re-signing with the Liberty, Vandersloot chose to come back to Chicago. Had she stayed, she would be in the postseason playing against the Phoenix Mercury.
As fans of both the Sky and the entire WNBA watch the playoffs, a couple of Parker's postseason marks are in danger of being broken. One of those threats comes from the Mercury's roster.
How DeWanna Bonner is leapfrogging Parker's WNBA Playoff Records
As of Sunday, September 14, Phoenix Mercury forward DeWanna Bonner had climbed the WNBA Postseason rebounds list to tie Tamika Catchings for second with 598. That put her 12 rebounds away from tying Candace Parker's record and 13 from breaking it.
Bonner is now just four from tying it and five from owning the record to herself after her latest playoff game. She also broke Parker's all-time WNBA Playoff steals mark this postseason. Parker has 108 and is now third after Bonner surpassed her with 110 takeaways.
Phoenix had lost Game on that day to the Liberty. That set up a potential closeout game for the 2024 WNBA champions. Instead, New York squandered their chance to wrap up the series on Wednesday night as Bonner and her teammates forced a Game 3.
This now allows another opportunity to add to Bonner's postseason totals, including rebounds. In addition to this playoff record, another one of Vandersloots former teammates climbed up another statistical record list.
In the Game 2 loss, the Liberty's Jonuel Jones swatted two of the Mercury's shots. That pushed Jones ahead of former Chicago Sky center Sylvia Fowles and WNBA All-Star Breanna Stewart, who are now tied at eighth on the all-time career playoff blocks list.
Parker still sits in second on that one behind her former partner-in-crime from her days with the Los Angeles Sparks, Lisa Leslie. Parker has 117 career postseason blocks and Leslie has 132.
With the Liberty dropping Game 2 on the road against the Mercury, a second former Chicago Sky star could be passed up on the all-time WNBA postseason leader board. Sky fans don't want to see anyone else break a Chicago-native's record in the playoffs. Thanks to New York getting blown out in Phoenix on Wednesday, now they might.
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My name is Scott Conrad and I am a Contributor for the Chicago Sky with Sports Illustrated.com. I am also a Contributor with FanSided on NinerNoise, as well as Da Windy City. In addition, I am the Site Editor/Expert for The View from Avalon. I spent two seasons (2015 & 2016) with the Tampa Bay Times as a Correspondent covering high school football. I am a two-time published author with more work to come. In my teenage years, I started watching both MLS and WNBA start in 1996 and grow to be the juggernauts they are in their respective sports. Much love to the career on and off the court for fellow-Napervillian and former Sky forward Candace Parker. Outside of the sports journalism world, I am a travel volleyball coach. I accepted the Head Coach position with Greater Cincinnati Volleyball Club for their U13-2 team. In terms of active sports, I play volleyball, soccer, softball, kickball and train in mixed martial arts.