Heartbroken Angel Reese sends a curious message that might worry the Chicago Sky

Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky are watching the WNBA playoffs unfold from home, which might prove a bit painful for the team given it had possession of the eighth and final playoff spot for a good chunk of the 2024 season. Although Reese‘s wrist injury wouldn’t have allowed her to participate anyway, the near-miss was considered a step backward in Chicago, which made the playoffs in 2023 before drafting Reese and Kamilla Cardoso.

The Sky made it clear that the standard has to be raised in 2025 by firing first-year head coach Teresa Weatherspoon on Sept. 26. The decision proved controversial — analysts believed that Weatherspoon overachieved with Chicago’s 2024 roster, and Weatherspoon was also a strong Reese supporter, sticking by the All-Star as detractors slammed her offensive inefficiency during her rookie year.

Before entering the coaching ranks, Weatherspoon was a star guard for the New York Liberty, for whom she played between 1997 and 2003. Despite never averaging more than 7.2 points per game in a season, Weatherspoon was known as a premier defender — like Reese is now — and set the WNBA record for steals per game with 3.3 in 1998.

Weatherspoon was in attendance Tuesday night as the top-seeded Liberty defeated the defending champion Las Vegas Aces and moved to within one game of reaching the WNBA Finals for a second successive season. And Reese reacted on X/Twitter when “Spoon” was shown on the Barclays Center video board, revealing how much her former coach meant to her.