The Chicago Sky’s season hasn’t gone according to plan as the team will miss the playoffs for the third year in a row.
On Tuesday, the Sky announced that marquee free agent signing Skylar Diggins would miss the remainder of the 2026 season due to a knee injury that’s kept her out since July 3. Hours later, Diggins held a press conference, where she shared she’s been nursing the injury all season.
She also said that her “biggest frustration” of the season was not having a consistent “home base” all year, which she expected would come when she signed a two-year, $1.86 million contract with Chicago. The Sky’s new $60 million practice facility was supposed to be ready by the start of the season, but was pushed back several times before the team announced in July that it would not be ready until after the season.
“I think a lot of us were promised that,” Diggins said. “We thought that was going to be the case.” The Sky also signed free agents Azurá Stevens and DiJonai Carrington this offseason and re-signed several others, including Rachel Banham, one of Diggins’s closest friends.
The team practiced in several different locations this year, including several Chicago colleges and Wintrust Arena, where they play their home games. According to documents obtained by FOS, the Sky paid $160,000 to practice at the University of Illinois in Chicago for about a month between April and May.
