On Sunday, October 17 the Chicago Sky won its first WNBA championship against the Phoenix Mercury. The score was 80-74. The Sky won their first and third finals game as well. 

The Sky started the playoffs as the sixth seed. They won against the Dallas Wings in the first round and Minnesota Lynx in the second. In the semifinals, they beat the Connecticut Sun and entered the finals as sixth in the league with a 1.5 net rating. “I thought it was amazing, The Sky were terrific,” Upper School history teacher Dan Greenstone said. “They played incredible defense, and they weren’t the favorite so it was fun to see an underdog win.”

Kahleah Copper, the guard for the Sky, won 2021 Finals MVP with an average of 17 points and 5.5 rebounds. Forward Candace Parker, a Naperville native who returned to Chicago from LA to play for the Sky this year, scored 16 points and had 13 rebounds. Guard Allie Quigley was born in Joliet and played college basketball at DePaul. She scored 26 points. “It’s good for women’s sports for a place in Chicago, because then it’s more personal for people in Chicago,” senior Jackson Antonow said.

The finals games were at Wintrust Arena with some tickets selling for more than $1,000. Games 3 and 4, which were over the weekend, were sold out. 

Fans of the Chicago Sky, including Chance the Rapper and Mayor Lori Lightfoot, celebrated the team on Tuesday with a parade down Michigan Avenue from Wintrust Arena to Millenium Park and a rally in Pritzker Pavilion. 

The Chicago Sky was formed in 2006. “I remember when I was really, really little going to Fred’s camp and stuff, watching the Sky games, and it’s just so cool,” senior Elsie Rattner said.

This year’s WNBA postseason and finals have been the most viewed since 2014 with 367,000 average viewers for the postseason and 548,000 viewers for the finals. Game 4 of the WNBA Finals had 417,000 total viewers. The game, which was at the Wintrust Arena was sold out. “It’s a good step in the right direction, particularly for Chicago, in getting representation,” Rattner said. “The Bulls haven’t won a championship but Sky has won the national championship.” 

For high school sports, a Chicago win could mean more turnout for girls’ basketball. According to Education Week, almost 3.5 million girls play high school sports nationwide, making up 43% of high school student athletes. “This is my 10th year here and about seven years ago we didn’t even field the girls’ team, which I thought was really sad,” Greenstone said. “I know that it’s a small school but a school like ours should definitely have a team, and hopefully people will be inspired by Candace Parker and the crew from the Sky, who are amazing on and off the court.”

Parker’s girls’ basketball season starts on November 1. “There are more girls than I’ve seen in the past,” Rattner said. “Right now we have about 30 or so and my sophomore year, which was apparently one of the bigger teams we’ve ever had, was only 25.”

In the past, there has been lower turnout to girls’ basketball games than boys’ games, including the annual “White Out” games played at DePaul. “This year we’ve seen a great turnout with lots of other sports and student athletes supporting all student athletes, like for the last few field hockey games we had a great turnout,” Rattner said. “I’m hoping that there’s similar energy for the White Out game. With the Sky winning there will be representation of ‘girls are good at sports, too’ that will get people to come and watch.”