Diggins says she remains committed to Sky despite season-ending knee injury

Skylar Diggins will not play another game for the Chicago Sky this season.

The team announced Tuesday that the guard will be shut down for the remainder of the season with a reaggravated right knee injury, an issue that held Diggins out since a July 7 game against the Phoenix Mercury.

The final hours before Diggins stepped back from the team in July were filled with turmoil. The guard was moved to the bench. Diggins openly criticized coach Tyler Marsh for the decision and the organization for delays in completing the team’s training facility, which did not open this year despite promises made to free agents. Yet despite her lengthy absence and vocal frustrations, Diggins said she remains committed to playing for the Sky in 2027.

“The decision that I made and that we made as far as … shutting it down for this season has nothing to do with next year, in my opinion,” Diggins said. “We’ll just have to see how the offseason goes, but we’ve never had any talks with the organization about trades or wanting a trade or anything like that in this process. … One of the big reasons why we’re shutting this down is to prioritize my health and for the future and for the future with this organization. … I haven’t had any or expressed any desire to not talk about me in a Chicago Sky jersey next year.”

Diggins signed a two-year, $1.86 million deal with the Sky ahead of the 2026 season. Her acquisition was crucial due to the team’s lack of a point guard while awaiting the return of Courtney Vandersloot, who made a full recovery from a torn ACL. Diggins racked up 14.2-point, 4.9-assist averages during her brief playing time, but ultimately logged only 19 games for the Sky.

Early in the season, Diggins reaggravated her knee after a months-long recovery process that took place during the offseason. Diggins said she underwent a meniscus repair and scope procedure last October, a process that ultimately held her out of the 2026 Unrivaled season. The guard did not expect the injury to linger into the 2026 season; however, the Sky planned to rigorously monitor her workload throughout the season due to her injury history and age.

Diggins stuck to this plan closely, sitting out for large swaths of practice and foregoing most shoot-arounds to allow her body necessary recovery time. But before she stepped back to focus on rehab, Diggins was averaging a team-leading 29.1 minutes per game despite lingering discomfort from the knee injury.

The turning point occurred on July 6, when Diggins learned that she was being benched from her starting position in favor of fellow veteran guards Natasha Cloud and Courtney Vandersloot. On Tuesday, Diggins said she never expected to come off the bench in Chicago, although she did anticipate shifting her role to accommodate Cloud and Vandersloot’s strengths.

On July 6, Diggins slammed the benching in a series of social media posts, which she followed up with veiled comments to the media suggesting that she would not “make sacrifices” for the Sky while the training facility remained unfinished. Diggins did not play another game after that incident.

Diggins spent most of the last two months undergoing treatment and physical therapy at Notre Dame, her alma mater, which allowed her to have around-the-clock access to facilities while also staying close to her children at home in South Bend, Ind. Although Diggins was physically separated from the team for most of the season, the guard said she remained “in lockstep” with the Sky.

“We’ve had a lot of conversations since we’ve been able to reflect with both Tyler and I, (general manager) Jeff Pagliocca and I, the organization, (owner) Michael Alter and just trying to continue to work in lockstep about what this process will look like,” Diggins said.

Diggins described her decision to step back and focus on recovery as a “layered” issue, noting additional off-the-court concerns such as the tumultuous two-year process of divorcing her ex-husband, Daniel Smith. The divorce placed Diggins into a “single mother” role that informed her decision to move closer to home in Indiana.

But the guard also didn’t obscure her frustrations with Sky leadership regarding the lack of a training facility, which left players in the lurch without consistent access to training and recovery resources. Diggins said players will take a tour of the new training facility next week, a highly anticipated moment for the team after months of delays.

Diggins also did not voice outright confidence in Marsh — who she openly criticized at various points in the season for a perceived lack of leadership and a “loser mentality” in the locker room — but shared a willingness to continue working on their relationship.

“I’ve only known Coach (Marsh) for this season,” Diggins said. “Looking back on it, because we were so young, because there was so much going on, (I could have) tried to take the time to have a little more conversation. For me with him, (I’m) just trying to continue our line of communication and how I can be helpful, checking in with him on the sidelines, during the games and practices when I can.”

Some of these concerns will be assuaged by the start of the 2027 season. But for Diggins — and the Sky as a whole — the future is still murky after a third straight summer ends without a playoff berth.