The Chicago Sky are looking to rebound this season.
Following a 10th-place finish last regular season, which caused them to miss the playoffs for the first time since 2018, the Sky spent the offseason restructuring their roster and coaching staff to complement second-year talents Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso.
Former Las Vegas Aces assistant coach Tyler Marsh replaced Teresa Weatherspoon as head coach, while veteran guard Courtney Vandersloot — who holds Chicago’s franchise records for career assists (2,387), career steals (457), single-game assists (18) and games played (358) — returned to the Windy City after a two-year stint with the New York Liberty.
Also among those changes is the addition of several veteran talents known for their strong 3-point shooting, including two-time All-Star Ariel Atkins — a 28-year-old guard who is expected to become a key piece in the Sky’s revival this season.
Chicago acquired Atkins from the Washington Mystics at the end of the 2024 season in exchange for the No. 3 pick in the 2025 draft, which the Mystics used to pick up Notre Dame’s Sonia Citron.
Drafted seventh overall by the Mystics in 2018, Atkins powered Washington to the WNBA Finals in her rookie campaign and played a pivotal role in nabbing the franchise’s first and only title the following season. In her seven professional seasons so far — all of which were spent in Washington — she earned five WNBA All-Defensive Team nods, received two All-Star honors and won a gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
Atkins wasn’t named to the 2024 U.S. Olympic team despite her prolific career and defensive prowess. She says it was major turning point for her emotionally.
“It was heartbreaking in a sense, but I think it really allowed me kind of dig deep and see what I wanted to do with my career, who I want to be, and what kind of legacy I want to leave behind,” Atkins said in an interview with NBC while promoting her Ariel Atkins Foundation.
The Dallas, Texas-born athlete began her foundation in 2023 with the goal of supporting teachers around the country as a way to improve education.
She said she was inspired by her sister Jessica, who formerly worked as an educator and struggled to gain access to the resources she needed to properly run a classroom.
“‘How can we actually help these kids year round and really supplement some things that they’re not able to just get?'” Atkins said she wondered before designing her foundation. “We’ve got to take care of the people that are taking care of the kids … Our goal and our job is to give our resources for people that support youth.”
Each year since its founding, the organization has chosen one school and supplied its teachers with enough classroom supplies for an entire school year. It has also provided those teachers with a gift card meant to be spent on themselves — not their students.
In the past, the Ariel Atkins Foundation has partnered with the LIDS Foundation and 2K Foundations to execute those teacher appreciation days and host educational programs which teach students entrepreneurial skills.
The foundation also has several new projects in development, Atkins said. In addition to building academic camps for students and clinics for young coaches, the organization is developing two educational courses: one which teaches financial literacy to students, and one which teaches educators how to use artificial intelligence to aid lesson planning and grade keeping.
She added that the financial literacy program will hopefully launch sometime this summer.
Though her foundation is only two years old, Atkins said her drive to help others began in high school, when she and her teammates volunteered with her team’s youth basketball program.
With the help of her mom and her high school coach, Atkins quickly came to recognize the value of having (and helping) people around her.
“We can’t do anything without the person to the left or the right of us, and I think we’re kind of in this space and time in our world where we get isolated and used to just being by ourselves,” Atkins said. “I think it’s really important to understand that not only is community important for you and your family, but for everybody around you.”
Atkins even went a step further, arguing that as an athlete with a platform, she has been given a unique opportunity to teach others the importance of taking care of each other.
“At the end of the day, people listen to athletes. Sometimes, I don’t know why, but we have a voice, we have a power, and we’ve been given a huge platform and [are] blessed to have it,” she said.
Here are five things to know about WNBA guard Ariel Atkins.
She also feels a certain responsibility to young girls, especially those who are interested in sports. Not only has the popularity of women’s sports skyrocketed in recent years — thanks in part to Reese and her college rival Caitlin Clark — so has women’s influence in the back ends of male sports organizations.
In November 2020, Kim Ng became the first woman to serve as general manager of a major league men’s team in North America when she took the helm with the MLB’s Miami Marlins. Just last year, the NHL’s Seattle Kraken hired assistant Jessica Campbell as the league’s first female behind-the-bench coach.
And as the number of women’s basketball fans continues to grow, so does the number of opportunities for players who want to pursue a professional arena. This year, WNBA legends Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart launched Unrivaled, a 3-v-3 women’s basketball league designed to provide athletes a change to continue playing in the United States during the WNBA offseason.
It’s a powerful trend for young girls to remember as they grow up and consider their futures, Atkins said.
“There were things that I didn’t know I could do until I saw someone that looked like me doing it, and I think it’s super important to be able to get in those space and let these … young girls know that there’s nothing that they can’t achieve because we’re everywhere,” Atkins said. “We’re not just the interns — we’re the players, we’re the [general managers], we’re the coaches. We’re all these types of different things.”
Above all, she said, young athletes should remember one thing: don’t stress about fitting in, and be yourself.
“I think, especially in sports, you are always trying to be like, ‘Oh, what is that person doing? I want to be like this person,'” she said. “But … you don’t ever want to get to a spot by being somebody else because then, when you get there, you’re not going to know what to do because that’s not who you are. In order for you to get where you want to go and be who you are, you’ve got to really pave your own path and walk your own lane.”
Atkins said she attributes much of her own success — especially in developing her own sense of self — to her mother and sister. They taught her to work hard and make her own mark.
“They’re just extremely hardworking, and they don’t really care what anybody says,” she said. “They’re going to do what they do best.”
As Atkins approaches her Sky debut on May 17 and continues to contemplate the legacy she wants to leave behind her, she has come to one conclusion: she wants to be remembered for her reliability, both on and off the court.
“[I want to be] someone who cared not only about the game, but the people around me,” she said. “No matter what gym I walk in, I always want to leave it better than I found it.”
The WNBA announced the 2025 season schedule, including an opening weekend matchup between 2024 draft picks Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese and the first game for the newest expansion team, the Golden State Valkyries.
