We have gathered here today to bid adieu to the soon-to-be dearly departed. They were dearly, and they are about to be departed. We will see them again soon, but until that time, it’s not goodbye, but it is a fond farewell. Rest in peace, my friends. Until next year.
Eulogies are always hard. To deliver, to write, to hear, to read, to accept. There’s the finality of it all. The knowing that the single existence of the subject of the eulogy is over, done, fin — hurts.
Unless, of course, you are one — or we are ones — who believe in reincarnation. The continuation of life after G.C. Cameron hits that last note. (S/O to Cochise Morris, Chicago basketball royalty.) And in this game of professional hoops at the highest level, seasons are like mini-lives. They end, but it’s not the end.
When does a season actually end? When does a new one technically begin?
To many, the Sky’s season of living precariously ended Wednesday night after they closed a 30-point deficit to a 28-point loss just so they could say, from earlier that same evening, “At least we ain’t Minnesota.”
To too many, the Sky’s season ended the minute they drew an eight seed to even make the playoffs just to play the Aces, the greatest team in WNBA history to ever be assembled (and that’s including All-Star squads), who also happen to be the ones laser-locked on defending the championship trophy that happens to be in their possession since last season.
(Just a year ago, the Sky — while defending their championship trophy — beat down the Liberty by 38 points in the first round of the playoffs. It was the largest margin of victory in WNBA playoff history.)
To way too many, the Sky season ended when it began, and the beginning of next season started when Candace Parker and Courtney Vandersloot gave the organization the peace sign and coach/GM James Wade gave the organization the finger. And just watching Parker on the Aces’ sideline giving A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray gems and insight on how to play the team she deserted after she did “what she came here to do” just seemed like descending the casket to 8 feet instead of 6 feet — just to make sure.
How this season has gone for the Sky, playoffs or not, Game 3 or not, extending their 2023 basketball life or not, we’ve reached the reality point of the chances of them winning two games against the Aces and reaching the next round of these playoffs are as believable as Jaime Maussan’s mummified three-fingered aliens. Not impossible, but kinda, sorta, maybe, somewhat, pretty much, relatively, practically impossible. But still something that cannot, will not define their whole season nor mark Sunday or next week as its end. Because in basketball as in life and death, even if things end, it doesn’t mean that they are over.
Chi Sky principal owner Michael Alter, co-owner and operating chairman Nadia Rawlinson, co-owner Laura Ricketts and newest co-ownership group member Dwyane Wade started plotting out next season long before they knew their team was even going to have a postseason this year. Which is why this series against the Las Vegas “Cheat Codes” is more like a repass than an actual funeral. It allows them — players, coaching staff and organization — to get a personalized and 4D glance into what it’s going to take to compete for a chip they only two seasons ago claimed.
Which is necessary. As painful as it is. The WNBA has changed. Elevated. Uplifted itself to the point where Nuggets-type, indigenously built teams aren’t the front-runners for the crown. Super Squads are being assembled, vet G.O.A.T.esses are partnering with current G.O.A.T.esses to establish legacy titles that cross generations and are going to have everyone speak about them in historic context only.
While other teams — now including the Sky — are waiting on the future G.O.A.T.esses (Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, Olivia Miles, Kiki Rice, Juju Watkins) to one year fall into their arms via the draft or from brilliant front office/free-agent maneuvering and build what they have around the hope that everything these women did in college will pale in comparison to what they are about to do in the League.
With that in both mind and in place, as we enter what could possibly be the final or next-to-the-final game of the season for our Sky, the collective rallying of “what do we do next?” has to be our collective end-all, be-all from the entire city. And make sure we don’t watch and chalk up their exit as an ending but the beginning of what’s about to come. Keeping in mind that their over is not an “it’s over.” And that they are the reigning champs of all Chicago sports teams. The only ones still looking like the closest to bringing another parade to the city than any other.
A team that even in the misery of its loss and its season coming to an end leaves some form of self-assurance at the ending. The epilogue to the season’s eulogy, the one thing the Sky might be able to say at their 2023 funeral: “At least we ain’t go out like Minnesota.”
