The Chicago Sky is a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Chicago, Illinois. They began league play in 2006. Their home court is the UIC Pavilion. Sky games are broadcast on WTTW or WCIU and WVON-AM 1690. Their play by play broadcasters are Les Grobstein and Tauja Catchings.
Unlike other WNBA franchises in cities with NBA teams, the Sky are not a sister team to the Chicago Bulls. This is apparent with different ownership, team colors, and different home arenas, although there is a link to the Sky website from the Bulls website.
In February 2005, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced Chicago as the city awarded with a new WNBA franchise. The franchise was temporarily named WNBA Chicago. On May 27, 2005, former NBA player and coach Dave Cowens was announced as the team's first head coach and general manager.
The team name and logo were formally debuted on September 20, 2005, at the Adler Planetarium. The Chicago Sky was officially born. Team President and CEO Margaret Stender claimed the team colors of yellow and blue represent "A beautiful day in Chicago between the blue sky and bright sunlight to highlight the spectacular skyline."
The team's introduction in Chicago was highlighted by the appearance of several WNBA star players, including 2004 WNBA Rookie of the Year Diana Taurasi, 2005 WNBA Rookie of the Year Temeka Johnson, 2002 WNBA Rookie of the Year Sue Bird and 2003 WNBA Champion Ruth Riley.
In November 2005, the team held an expansion draft to help build its roster of players. Among the notable selections were Brooke Wyckoff from the Connecticut Sun, Bernadette Ngoyisa from the San Antonio Silver Stars, Elaine Powell from the Detroit Shock and Stacey Dales (who had retired prior to the 2005 season) from the Washington Mystics.
On February 28, 2006, the team announced that two of the minority shareholders of the team are Michelle Williams, from the vocal group Destiny's Child and Matthew Knowles, father of Destiny's Child lead singer Beyoncé Knowles.
The Chicago Sky was ready to hit the floor for the 2006 WNBA Season. The team would experience typical expansion team growing pains. The Sky would post 5-29 record, dead last in the Eastern Conference.
After the season, Dave Cowens resigned from the Sky to join the coaching staff of the Detroit Pistons. University of Missouri-Kansas City women's head basketball coach Bo Overton was named the Chicago Sky's new head coach and general manager on December 12, 2006.
Their WNBA-worst 2006 record of 5-29 gave them the best chance of drawing the top pick in the 2007 WNBA Draft. However, the Sky would not draw either of the top two picks, and ended up with the third overall pick, which they used to select Armintie Price. They would get the first pick in the dispersal draft of the Charlotte Sting, however, which they used to select Monique Currie.
In 2007, the Sky would field a vastly improved team. The core group of players from 2006 along with some new additions (Notably Rookie Armintie Price) helped make the team competitive. The Sky would in the East playoff picture all year long, even holding the #4 seed for part of the season. But Sky finished with a 14-20 record. However, they would only finish 2 games back of the final playoff spot. Guard Armintie Price was named the 2007 WNBA Rookie of the Year after the season.
On March 12, 2008 the Sky announced that Head Coach Bo Overton resigned his position of coach/general manager. Assistant coach Steven Key was named head coach/general manager of the Sky.
The Sky selected Sylvia Fowles with the second overall pick of the 2008 WNBA Draft who is currently injured with a knee sprain.
