The

2020 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global social and economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of events, worldwide lockdowns and the largest economic recession since the Great Depression in t ...

Chicago Sky The Chicago Sky are an American professional basketball team based in Chicago. The Sky compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. The franchise was founded prior to the 2 ...

season was the franchise's 15th season in the

Women's National Basketball Association The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is an American professional basketball league. It is composed of twelve teams, all based in the United States. The league was founded on April 22, 1996, as the women's counterpart to the Natio ...

(WNBA). This was the second season under head coach James Wade. The Sky did not improve on their previous season's record of 20–14, but entered the playoffs for the second consecutive season. The season was initially scheduled to feature an all-time high 36 regular-season games, tipping off at the Sky's home Wintrust Arena on May 15, 2020. However, this plan was halted on April 3, when the WNBA postponed its season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

. Under a plan approved on June 15, the league has been holding a shortened 22-game regular season at

IMG Academy IMG Academy is a preparatory boarding school and sports training destination in Bradenton, Florida, United States. IMG Academy is set across over 600 acres and features programs consisting of sport camps for youth athletes, adult camps, a board ...

, without fans present, since July 24. Under this plan, the Sky's first game was on July 26, versus the

Las Vegas Aces The Las Vegas Aces are an American professional basketball team based in the Las Vegas metropolitan area. The Aces compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team play ...

. The Sky started out the season with success, posting a 10–4 record through 14 games. However, they lost 6 of their last 8 games to finish the season with a 12–10 record. They entered the playoffs as the 6th seed, losing to the 7th-seeded

Connecticut Sun The Connecticut Sun are an American professional basketball team based in Uncasville, Connecticut that competes in the Eastern Conference of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was established as the Orlando Miracle in ...

. In the offseason, the team added

Azurá Stevens Azurá Breeona Stevens (born February 1, 1996) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). Stevens played collegiately for the Duke Blue Devils and the Connecti ...

and Sydney Colson while losing

Katie Lou Samuelson Katie Lou Samuelson (born June 13, 1997) is an American professional basketball player for the Los Angeles Sparks of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played college basketball for the UConn Huskies. High school career Samu ...

. During the season, they traded away

Jantel Lavender Jantel Lavender (born November 12, 1988) is an American professional basketball player for the Seattle Storm of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was drafted with the fifth overall pick in the 2011 WNBA draft by the Los A ...

and acquired Stephanie Mavunga. They also experienced a number of injuries throughout the season, ending the season without key players including Stevens and

Diamond DeShields Diamond Danae-Aziza DeShields (born March 5, 1995) is an American professional basketball player for the Dallas Wings of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was drafted by the Chicago Sky with the third overall pick in the 201 ...

. Starting guard

Courtney Vandersloot Courtney Vandersloot (born February 8, 1989) is an American and Hungarian basketball point guard for the Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and for Sopron Basket in the Hungarian National Championship. The third ...

set the all-time WNBA record for assists per game with 10, breaking her own record of 9.1 set in the 2019 season.

Transactions

WNBA Draft

The Sky will make the following selections in the 2020 WNBA Draft.

Trades and Roster Changes

Roster

Season overview

The Sky entered the 2020 season looking to build on dramatic improvements in the previous season, when they reached the playoffs for the first time in three years and were recognized with three All-Star selections and a Coach of the Year Award. During the free agency period, the Sky made few changes to their roster from the previous year. The team traded away Astou Ndour and 2019 first-round pick

, acquired third-year player

via trade, and signed veteran Sydney Colson. Free agents Allie Quigley,

, and Stefanie Dolson were all re-signed to multi-year deals. Amid many All-Star players in the league changing teams, the Sky's decision to largely bring back the previous year's team received a grade of B− from SB Nation. On the other hand, women's basketball website Swish Appeal evaluated the Sky's decisions more positively and argued that the team positioned itself to contend for a championship. The WNBA-focused publication Winsidr gave the Sky a B+, rating the retentions of key players and addition of Sydney Colson highly, but criticizing the value of the trade for Stevens. In the 2020 draft, the Sky selected

Ruthy Hebard Ruth Cecilia Hebard (born April 28, 1998) is an American professional basketball player for the Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She played college basketball for the Oregon Ducks. While at West Valley High Scho ...

in the first round and

Japreece Dean Japreece Monet Dean (born June 4, 1996, in Austin, Texas) is an American professional basketball player. Dean completed her college career with the UCLA Bruins of the University of California, Los Angeles in 2020. Before transferring to UCLA in ...

and

Kiah Gillespie KIAH (channel 39) is a television station in Houston, Texas, United States, airing programming from The CW. Owned and operated by network majority owner Nexstar Media Group, the station maintains studios adjacent to the Westpark Tollway on ...

in the third round. The Sky received a grade of B in three post-draft evaluations from ESPN, CBS Sports, and SB Nation. In March, the WNBA season was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Jantel Lavender will miss this season due to recovery from surgery on a broken foot, and Sydney Colson missed the beginning of the season due to recovery from COVID-19. Stefanie Dolson was also afflicted with COVID-19, but recovered before the start of the delayed season. On June 29, the Sky signed guard Stella Johnson. The Sky returned to play for the shortened 22-game regular season at

on July 26. Their first game was a rematch against the

, the team who had beaten them in the previous year's playoffs. Despite the Aces leading for most of the game, the Sky won 88-86. The Sky ended July with a 2–1 record. On August 1, they notched a narrow win against the Mystics, the last undefeated team in the league, and improved to 3–1. Over the next six games, the Sky alternated wins and losses and held a record of 6–4 after 10 games. During this stretch, on August 10,

was named Eastern Conference Player of the Week. The Sky then won four consecutive games, including blowout wins against the

Atlanta Dream The Atlanta Dream are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded for the 2008 WNBA season. The team is owned by real e ...

and the New York Liberty, to improve to 10–4. Vandersloot was again named Eastern Conference Player of the Week following this run of games. However, they proceeded to lose the next two games against the lowest-seeded Liberty and the top-seeded Seattle Storm. On August 28, the Sky traded two draft picks and

, who had been out for the season due to injury, in exchange for Stephanie Mavunga. On August 29, two key players for the Sky,

and

, exited the IMG Academy bubble. Stevens left due to an injury that would require her to miss the remainder of the season and DeShields left for personal reasons. Both players had missed the previous two games due to injuries. On August 31, the Sky signed forward Alisia Jenkins to a seven-day contract. On August 31, the Sky rebounded from their two-game losing streak with a win against the Indiana Fever. Courtney Vandersloot recorded 18 assists in the game, breaking the all-time WNBA record for assists in a single game (16) previously held by

Ticha Penicheiro Patrícia Nunes "Ticha" Penicheiro, OIH (September 18, 1974) is a Portuguese sports agent and former basketball player. She played for the Sacramento Monarchs in the WNBA for most of her professional career. She was a four-time WNBA All-Star an ...

. Vandersloot's record-breaking 17th and 18th assists came in passes to her wife, Allie Quigley.

Game log

Regular season

, - style="background:#bbffbb" , 1 , July 26 ,

W 88-86
,

Copper Copper is a chemical element with the symbol Cu (from la, cuprum) and atomic number 29. It is a soft, malleable, and ductile metal with very high thermal and electrical conductivity. A freshly exposed surface of pure copper has a pinkis ...

(26) , Williams (7) , Vandersloot (11) ,

No In-Person Attendance , 1–0 , - style="background:#bbffbb" , 2 , July 28 ,

Los Angeles Sparks The Los Angeles Sparks (LA Sparks) are an American professional basketball team based in Los Angeles. The Sparks compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Western Conference. The team was foun ...

W 96-78
,

/ Stevens (21) ,

(9) , Vandersloot (10) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 2–0 , - style="background:#ffcccc" , 3 , July 30 , Minnesota Lynx
L 81-83
,

Parker Parker may refer to: Persons * Parker (given name) * Parker (surname) Places Place names in the United States *Parker, Arizona *Parker, Colorado * Parker, Florida * Parker, Idaho * Parker, Kansas * Parker, Missouri * Parker, North Carolina *Park ...

/ Stevens / Vandersloot (16) , Stevens (11) , DeShields (5) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 2-1 , - style="background:#bbffbb" , 4 , August 1 ,

Washington Mystics The Washington Mystics are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Mystics compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference (WNBA), Eastern Conference ...

W 88–86
,

/ Williams (16) , Williams (9) , Vandersloot (8) ,

No In-Person Attendance , 3-1 , - style="background:#bbffbb" , 5 , August 4 , Dallas Wings
W 82-79
,

/ Stevens / Quigley (15) , Stevens (10) , Vandersloot (10) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 4–1 , - style="background:#ffcccc" , 6 , August 6 , Phoenix Mercury
L 86–96
, Vandersloot (21) ,

(7) , Vandersloot (8) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 4–2 , - style="background:#bbffbb" , 7 , August 8 ,

W 100–93
, Quigley (22) ,

(7) , Vandersloot (11) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 5–2 , - style="background:#ffcccc" , 8 , August 10 , Seattle Storm
L 71–89
, Quigley (13) ,

(6) , Vandersloot (9) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 5–3 , - style="background:#bbffbb" , 9 , August 12 , Phoenix Mercury
W 89–71
, Quigley (20) ,

/ Dolson (9) , Vandersloot (5) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 6–3 , - style="background:#ffcccc" , 10 , August 14 ,

L 74–77
,

(17) , Stevens (8) , Vandersloot (7) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 6–4 , - style="background:#bbffbb" , 11 , August 16 ,

W 92–67
,

(17) , ''Tied'' (6) , Colson (6) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 7–4 , - style="background:#bbffbb" , 12 , August 18 ,

W 84–82
,

(18) , Stevens (7) , Vandersloot (15) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 8–4 , - style="background:#bbffbb" , 13 , August 20 , New York Liberty
W 101–85
, Stevens (25) , Stevens (7) , Vandersloot (10) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 9–4 , - style="background:#bbffbb" , 14 , August 22 , Indiana Fever
W 87–76
,

(26) ,

(8) , Vandersloot (9) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 10–4 , - style="background:#ffcccc" , 15 , August 25 , New York Liberty
L 99–101
, Quigley (29) , Williams (8) , Vandersloot (9) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 10–5 , - style="background:#ffcccc" , 16 , August 29 , Seattle Storm
L 74–88
,

(19) , ''Tied'' (6) , Vandersloot (9) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 10–6 , - style="background:#bbffbb" , 17 , August 31 , Indiana Fever
W 100–77
, ''Tied'' (21) , Hebard (11) , Vandersloot (18) ,

No In-Person Attendance , 11–6 , - style="background:#ffcccc" , 18 , September 2 , Minnesota Lynx
L 83–86
, Quigley (23) ,

(15) , Vandersloot (12) ,

No In-Person Attendance , 11–7 , - style="background:#ffcccc" , 19 , September 4 ,

L 69–79
,

(17) ,

(10) , Vandersloot (11) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 11–8 , - style="background:#ffcccc" , 20 , September 6 ,

L 80–86
,

(24) ,

(10) , Vandersloot (15) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 11–9 , - style="background:#ffcccc" , 21 , September 9 ,

L 89–97
, Vandersloot (22) , ''Tied'' (7) , Vandersloot (11) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 11–10 , - style="background:#bbffbb" , 22 , September 11 , Dallas Wings
W 95–88
,

(23) , Hebard (8) , Vandersloot (12) , IMG Academy
No In-Person Attendance , 12–10

Playoffs

, - style="background:#ffcccc" , 1 , September 15 ,

L 81–94
, Quigley (19) ,

(8) , Vandersloot (6) ,

, 0–1

Standings

Playoffs

Statistics

Regular season

Awards and honors

References

External links

Official website of the Chicago Sky
{{2020 WNBA season by team

Chicago Sky seasons