Chicago – It was not goodbye for the Chicago sky.
Two years after leaving his longtime team in a free agency, the double champion of the WNBA Courtney Vandersloot returns to the franchise for the 2025 season.
Vandersloot, who will be 36 years next month, will sign with the Sky when the free agency opens on Saturday, confirmed a league source. Chicago Sun-Totes was the first to report the decision on Wednesday.
Vandersloot confirmed the news itself shortly after in its typical discreet style, updating its social media profiles to include two words: “Chicago Sky”.
Choice n ° 3 of the WNBA 2011 draft, Vandersloot left Chicago after the 2022 season as a quadruple All-Star and team captain whose patience and tenacity paved the way in the first championship of the franchise in 2021 .
The 5 -foot 8 inch leader holds the record for a single match in the league with 18 assists, established in 2020 and is second to pursue Bird in the history of the WNBA with 2,850 career assists. Vandersloot has six of the seven highest aid aid in the league, including a record of 10 per game in 2020.
She returns to Chicago a double champion after having anchored New York freedom on the way to the first title of the WNBA of the franchise in 2024. Although her vision and her creation of play did not change in this period, Vandersloot is A player clearly different from the one who paraded the WNBA trophy in the streets of Chicago in 2021.
The two seasons of Vandersloot with The Liberty presented both difficulties and evolution. She spent part of the 2024 season far from the team after her mother, Jan, died in June after a two -year battle with advanced multiple myeloma.
On the ground, her role has changed considerably when she entered a new stage in her career. Vandersloot came out of the bench for all of the 2024 elimination series after starting in the 50 appearances of the previous playoffs. But it adopted the role in the second unit, with an average of 2.5 assists in 14.3 minutes per match.
This evolution is suitable for heaven, which will need something different from Vandersloot – nicknamed the “soil of the soil” for its dominant presence – in its return to Chicago.
The team is trying to establish a new culture under the first -year coach Tyler Marsh. Vandersloot will be crucial to provide advice and leadership to young players such as Angel Reese and Kamilla Cardoso while providing better ball in the field.
With their first secure 2025 free free agent, the Sky front office will now be in sight the rear area by the project, the free agency or the commercial market.
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