CHICAGO — Stepping to the stage at Wintrust Arena on Tuesday morning, the next on-floor leader of Chicago’s WNBA franchise made it clear the journey she’d been on to get to this point.

During her introductory news conference, Teresa Weatherspoon made sure her passion for this latest step in basketball – and her faith in the Sky’s ability to return to championship contention – was clear.

“I am one who has been told many times ‘no.’ I am one who has been told many times or doors have closed many times, like my mother said, when doors close, there’s another one that’s going to open, and you better to be ready to get in it,” said Weatherspoon as she was introduced as the Sky’s head coach on Tuesday. “If you don’t get in door, come down the chimney, you better get in the window. So I’m coming through the window.”

“They don’t call me ‘spoon’ for nothing. I’m coming here to stir things up. I am beyond excited to be here. The one thing that I will guarantee you – you can write it in your books – that I will give you my all. I am all in. I am geared up.”

Those remarks were part of her passionate news conference with Sky operating chairman Nadia Rawlinson and three-time WNBA All-Star Kahleah Copper. She becomes the seventh full time head coach in franchise history, taking over for James Wade, who resigned that position and the general manager position in July.

Weatherspoon comes to Chicago after being an assistant for the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans since 2020, having joined them the year before as a two-way player development coach. From 2008 through 2014 she was at her alma mater Louisiana Tech, serving as head coach for all but the first season.

A highly successful player in college and a national champion in 1988, Weatherspoon was one of the WNBA’s first start when play began in 2007. Playing with the New York Liberty and Los Angeles Sparks, the guard was a five-time All-Star and two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year.

So what was the biggest factor for Weatherspoon in taking on the job with the Sky?

“It was very easy for me to hear the vision and where they were going and the players that I have with me, that was enough for me,” said Weatherspoon. “It’s not very hard to sell me on the game, it’s not very hard at all – I’ve been there, I’ve done that. I understand what the game is.

“But I wanted to know the vision, I wanted to know where we were going, and how we were going to get there, and the vision was sold to me quickly because we’re all on the same page, and that’s the most important part, is everybody being on the same page, and the vision is the same as mine.”

That appears to be the case, as the WNBA legend starts her latest chapter in women’s basketball in Chicago.