How Courtney Vandersloot's season-ending injury affects Angel Reese, Sky

Fiifi Frimpong, New York Daily News on Jun 10, 2025

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The 2025 WNBA season was supposed to be a time of growth for Angel Reese.

After being selected No. 7 overall in the 2024 draft, the young star went on to represent the rebuilding Chicago Sky franchise in the WNBA All-Star Game and later got selected to the All-Rookie team.

With sights set on a push back into the postseason, the Sky brought in proven veteran leaders to aid in the development of Reese and other young players. The return of Chicago legend Courtney Vandersloot was at the top of the list, but her return ended way too soon after a torn ACL in Saturday’s loss to the Indiana Fever ended her season.

“It’s been rough,” first-time head coach Tyler Marsh said of the days after Vandersloot’s injury. “I think that it’s been a time that we are able to — another point of adversity, we were able to come together and stick together as a squad and as a team. And we’re going through all this as a unit.”

The loss is brutal.

It relegates the 36-year-old (who played two seasons with the Liberty) to the sidelines for the rest of her 15th WNBA season. The franchise is now without the “Floor General,” a nickname fitting for the Sky’s all-time leader in assists (2,387).

More importantly for Chicago’s future, it leaves young frontcourt franchise cornerstones in Reese and Kamilla Cardoso without Vandersloot’s on-court guidance and leadership.

The Sky drafted Reese and Cardoso — another All-Rookie selection — in 2024 with hopes of anchoring Chicago’s frontcourt. Even with early numbers in 2025 season not looking promising, the physical presence of the experienced guard was supposed to uplift the young core.

Through the first seven game of the 2025 season, Reese’s overall field-goal percentage (30.9%), 2-point field-goal percentage (30.8%) and points per game (9.1) dipped from her 2024 season (13.6 ppg on 39.1% shooting from the field and 40.0% from 2-point range).

Cardoso, however, is having a better start to the new season. Her numbers through the first seven games — 10.9 ppg on 50.8% from the field — are closer to her All-Rookie year numbers: 9.8 points per game on 52.1% from the field.

Marsh believes what Vandersloot brings off the court will still pay dividends.

“I think that part of her leadership has been her vocal presence, so it’ll be good that we still have that,” Marsh said during Tuesday’s shootaround at Barclays Center. “Obviously we’re missing a floor general on the court and everything that she brings with her years of experience, but I think just from a morale standpoint, just to have her around and to have her be around this team and still in the locker room and and traveling with us when the time permits, I think it’ll still be a good uplifting for our players.”

Marsh said Tuesday that Vandersloot has yet to undergo surgery on her torn ACL, and the team didn’t provide a timeline beyond the 2025 season. For now, the Sky will handle Vandersloot’s absence “by committee,” per Marsh. This year’s No. 11 overall pick Hailey Van Lith logged 26 minutes off the bench following Vandersloot’s exit on Saturday. The head coach said Ariel Atkins and Rachel Banham will share “ball-handling responsibilities” as well.

The 23-year-old Van Lith is looking forward to the opportunity, saying that she’s helped her collegiate teams in unfortunate scenarios similarly to what the Sky are in now.

“I think in college, this is what I did. I stepped up and I led teams in uncomfortable situations,” said Van Lith, who spent time at Louisville, LSU and TCU. “I’m kind of excited that this is what I specialize in. So let’s see if I can do it at the next level.”

Van Lith and Reese starred together on the 2023-24 LSU team that eventually fell to Caitlin Clark’s Iowa squad in the Elite Eight. As both players look to develop for the rebuilding Sky, Van Lith feels her previous experience with Reese will aid in the process.”

“My relationship with Angel helps for sure. She’s a huge encourager for me, even in the game when the injury happened and I had to play 25 minutes, she was just reminding me what I do best, what spots I can get to, if I wasn’t aggressive,” Van Lith said. “She reminded me that I need to be aggressive. She’s great for me in that way. And she knows my game really well. So sometimes when I can’t see it, she sees it for me and tells me about it. So definitely going to help me a lot having her around. So yeah, I’m grateful for that.”