Consider Ass Kicked!

Wow. I don't know where to begin. I'm overwhelmed. Overstimulated. I. Am. Buzzed. (Which is probably why I set a personal-best on my morning constitutional today.) Like some other people I could name, I am feeling it.

So. The Chicago Sky concluded their playoff run yesterday afternoon. It was one which culminated in a stirring 80 – 74 victory over the Phoenix Mercury and a WNBA championship.

But it didn't go according to script.

The team I saw through the first the three quarters was one I haven't seen in a while. Perhaps a dozen missed lay-ups and point-blank shots. Threes lofted early in the shot clock with no one underneath to rebound. 

And considering they were shooting just eighteen-percent, there were lots of them.

Errant passes. Rushed passes. Sluggish defensive rotations. It was not pretty. But considering how fast the Sky had gone from zero to sixty these past weeks, it would be entirely understandable if they were feeling the heat of a white-hot spotlight.

Nevertheless, it served to mute the sold-out crowd. Their unmet expectations pooled behind them like water in a reservoir. The faces gathered at the Sky bench during time-outs were dour. Disappointed. This was not happening.

After being outshot and outscored in each of the first three quarters, the scoreboard read Mercury 63, Sky 54. Not an insurmountable margin, to be sure. But with so little evidence it would be, fans could be forgiven for steeling themselves against the possibility the Sky might not clinch this day. 

I know I was.

I'm not sure exactly when it changed.

In my happy haze, I remember Allie Quigley hitting several threes. Then it was Candace Parker's turn. A match had been lit. Fans expressed their pent-up delight. The arena was stirring.

Something was definitely afoot.

The revitalized Sky continued to score. Defend. Pass. To play like the team they had been throughout their wondrous run. It was one of Stefanie Dolson's shots from the paint that finally put them on top. The crowd erupted. Delirium was Wintrust Arena's new normal.

A Courtney Vandersloot jumper and and two free throws put the icing on the cake. The screaming and the cheering and the bedlam did not stop. So this was what it's like to be at a championship clincher!

I was beside myself, but in a healthy, non-multiple-personality-disorder kind of way. This couldn't be happening, could it? Not after those first three quarters? I checked the guy next to me. He was beaming. “Can you believe this?” he said. I shook my head “No.” I was smiling beneath my mask.

I raised my arms above my head and howled.

On the Mercury's final possession, Brittney Griner put up a three. It bounced off the rim and fell. Parker picked-off the rebound and dribbled up court. Only seconds stood between the Sky and a title.

The horn sounded. Disbelief. They had done it!

The realization that it was over was both a happy and sad one. I watched the players congregate at center court, where bits of gold and blue foil floated down from above. Hip-hop boomed over the PA. To (almost) quote David Bowie, I was floating in a most peculiar way.

At last I exited the arena. The late-afternoon sky was cloudless and brilliant blue. Perfect. I went for a walk to soak up whatever ambiance might be lying around. The Phoenix team bus was stationed at the southeast corner of the arena. Two players exited to applause from a pair of die-hard fans.

It was not acknowledged.

(I later learned that Griner, Diana Taurasi and Skylar Diggins had boycotted the post-game press conference. Their petulance reminded me of the Detroit Pistons and the 1991 Eastern Conference Finals, where Isiah Thomas and Bill Laimbeer (among others) skulked off the floor before the game four rout had even concluded. Is it possible Taurasi and the two Pistons are somehow related?)

Finally, I must give a shout-out to Dolson and starting center Azura Stevens. They endured the brunt of inexplicable calls against the Sky. To wit, Griner and Mercury forward Kia Vaughn appeared to body, shove and grab Stevens and Dolson with impunity, while the Sky centers were hit with fouls if they so much as perspired on their Phoenix counterparts.

Ditto an invisible offensive foul on Quigley. Huh? In one aspect at least, the WNBA has achieved parity with the NBA: its officiating is equally inconsistent and arbitrary. In the context of that officiating, yesterday's game was a horror show.

Okay. Enough.

I drove home in contented silence, happy for all concerned. I hope they keep this memory close for the remainder of their lives. It is so very, very special.

There's Something Happening Here...

On the surface, the season was a letdown. After the signing last May of two-time MVP and future Hall-of-Famer Candace Parker, you could say the sky was the limit. Armed with a pair of all-star guards in Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley, the Sky seemed primed to make some serious noise.

But injuries to Quigley and Parker helped stunt what should have been a coming out party, and the Sky stuggled to a .500 record, finishing 16 – 16.

But as innummerable promotional campaigns have stated: That was then. This is now.

Edging into the playoffs as the number-six seed, the Sky defeated the Dallas Wings in a win-or-go-home contest 81 – 64. Considering Dallas went 14 – 18 during the regular season, was the number-seven seed and that the game was played in Chicago, well, it could almost qualify as a foregone conclusion.

The surprise came in round-two.

Facing the four-time WNBA champion Minnesota Lynx (22 – 10) in Minnesota, the Sky had a great big challenge in front of them.

They played tough in a see-saw battle until mid-way through the third quarter, when a series of fast-break opportunites broke the game open. Outscoring the Lynx 27 – 20 in the fourth-quarter, the Sky walked away with an 89 – 76 win.

Four players finished with between fourteen and nineteen points (Vandersloot, small forward Kahleah Copper, center Azura Stevens and reserve Diamond DeShields) while another (Quigley) ended with eleven.

And what of power forward Candace Parker? Eight points, three assists and four rebounds.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, was the beauty of it. Up against a team six games ahead of them in the standings and on their floor, the Sky beat the Lynx by thirteen with their most-prominent player suffering through a mediocre game.

Kaboom.

And the Sky have continued that onslaught against the Connecticut Sun.

The Sun ended their season on a fourteen-game tear to finish with the WNBA's best record at 26 - 6. Four of their starters were named to the All-WNBA Defensive first or second team. And the Sun owned the legue's best defense, finishing with a defensive rating of 91.7.

All the Sky have done is beat them in a double-overtime thriller that featured just the second triple-double in WNBA playoff history and then apply their own defensive clamps while pulling out a 86 – 83 victory yesterday afternoon in Chicago.

On the cusp of a WNBA Finals appearance for just the second time in franchise history, fans can be excused for looking forward. I've been following sports for half a century, and this team has every earmark of being a Cinderella.

They're peaking at just the right time after a season of stops and starts. With that season under their belts, they're gelling and surging and appear to have that magic combination of talent and grit.

Forcing fourth-quarter turnovers against the Sun and then watching as Vandersloot tore down court and fired the ball to Copper or Quigley or hit the shot herself was as thrilling as anything I've seen in professional sports lately.

Especially from a team with 'Chicago' on its chest.

I can't speak for other WNBA franchises, but seeing the Sky perform in an arena at seventy-percent of capacity was heartening. The NBA's poor cousin, the WNBA—however deserving—doesn't enjoy the wall-to-wall coverage and isn't the mass-marketed colossus its big brother is.

But like seeing a band on the verge of breaking through, yesterday's game was played in front of passionate fans not-at-all hesitant to vocalize their support. No, it wasn't a sell-out. Scalpers aren't salivating over game-four.

But the fans in attendance were genuine. Real. No one was there to be seen. (And if they were, there weren't enough ESPN cameras to capture their on-trend prescience.)

Something's happening here. The Sky are rocking the WNBA, and it is so very, very cool to witness. At the risk of sounding like some deranged BDSM submissive, I am going to beg these women to kick my ass. 

And kick it hard.