Editorial: Sky's title run gives hope to little girl dreams
Today, all of Chicago (or almost all of it) is abuzz over the prospects of the Bears, who open the NFL season playing host to the Buffalo Bills.
We are, conventional wisdom and most analytics maintain, a Bears town, a football city, and thinking about, talking about, fantasizing about and dissecting the team has become an almost year-round passion.
And that's fine. All well and good.
But there's another opener today that also deserves our attention, another gutsy team that is worth the region's frenzied affections.
At 2:30 p.m. today (televised on ABC), the Chicago Sky goes where the franchise has never gone before — the WNBA Finals. The final round to a championship promises to be the toughest.
The Phoenix Mercury is one of the best professional women's basketball teams ever assembled and the heavy favorite as this best-of-five-game series begins.
But the Sky has overcome long odds all season, first because of injury and illness and then winning against favored opponents in the playoffs. In the first round, the Sky came from 19 points down to pull out a 1-point victory over the Atlanta Dream. In the conference finals, the team rallied after losing the first game to win the final two against the rival Indiana Fever.
How inspirational is this team? Its star center Sylvia Fowles missed the first third of the season because of hip surgery. Its superstar sophomore Elena Delle Donne missed the middle third because of a chronic illness. Backup forward Jessica Breland has survived cancer. Starting guard Courtney Vandersloot missed a chunk of midseason because of a leg injury. The starters only began playing together in the last few weeks.
Yes, the Mercury is formidable. But who's to say the Sky can't overcome tough odds again?
To be sure, the Sky has its mix of attendance and ratings challenges. And every year, it seems, the WNBA's future appears to be in doubt.
But as guard Allie Quigley observed, the significance of the Sky advancing this far is “huge. I mean, it's never happened before and I feel like everything we're doing is kind of history.”
Championship runs are always fun. They're always worthy of celebration. And they all matter.
But some matter more.
Two generations ago, girls had almost no opportunity to participate in sports. One generation ago, because of Title IX, they had an opportunity to participate but little cause for aspiration. There were few role models, outside of professional tennis and the Olympics perhaps, to suggest that some day they could grow up to be athletes.
Today, that's different. Today, little girls can cheer on heroes who look like them. Today, little girls can dream,
The success of the Chicago Sky is part of the reason they can.