WNBA Chicago Sky

Chicago Sky 10th Season Tip-Off Press Conference Quotes

Published on February 5, 2015 under Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA)
Chicago Sky News Release


WNBA President Laurel J. Richie

(Opening statement....)

"I have three nieces and one nephew, and much of the work that I do at Girl Scouts and now even more importantly at the WNBA is really thinking about the future that I want to create for her. The WNBA and its players, its owners, its coaches are a very big part of that. I'll give you one side story and then I'll get on to the business of the day, but it's a story about her that I love to tell. She is from Chicago, and her first professional sports game was the Chicago Sky and her second was the Chicago Bulls. She turned to her mother at the Bulls game and said 'Mommy, I didn't know boys played basketball. How nice of the girls to share their game with the boys,' so I'm very biased. I love Ella and I love her view of the world. "

(On the Chicago Sky's 10th season celebration...)

"Today is all about the Chicago Sky. I am thrilled to be here celebrating. I think it is somehow very, very fitting that we're doing this on National Girls and Women in Sports Day, I think it's really important, and I think it's also very true to the WNBA brand and the Chicago Sky brand that we would not only mark the 10th anniversary but we would do it in a way that engages young women in the sport of basketball and also related opportunities for careers that go beyond the court. I think as much as we know what happens on the court it takes a lot of people off the court to make these things successful so I love the way the Sky has chosen to mark this anniversary."

(On Chicago Sky Principal Owner Michael Alter...)

"The owners of the WNBA are a very talented group of people. I have the honor of working very closely with them, and what has impressed me most about all of them, and about Michael in particular, is a real understanding and commitment to creating opportunities not only for the women who are in the WNBA to have a place in our country to play professionally but to also make a positive impact on the communities in which we compete and having done that for 10 years here is really, really impressive. I'm grateful. What you guys might not see behind the scenes is Michael is also one of our most active owners, really working with the league to push us forward and to make sure that we will be here 20, 30, 40 years from now and with his leadership here in Chicago and across the league I know that will happen. So Michael, this gives me the chance to thank you publicly for all you do, to thank Margaret, you've been a part of this as well. Elena, we couldn't do it without you guys, I'm very clear that the players are the ones who run the league, and Pokey for your leadership in coaching this team and I think you guys had a terrific 9th season leading you into the celebration of your 10th so congratulations on behalf of the league and we're very, very proud to have you in our ownership group, so thank you."

Chicago Sky Principal Owner Michael Alter

(Addressing Laurel J. Richie...)

"Thank you Laurel. It was nice of you to come all the way just to say nice things about me. I appreciate that. No, I do, really. Taking the time to come out here to participate with us, and I want to thank all of you for being here as well."

(On the first 10 years of the franchise...)

"It is hard to believe that it's been 10 years. In some ways it feels like 100 years, in other ways it feels like it's been 10 seconds, so it's been, as they say, a long, strange and wonderful trip. It was 10 years ago when then-commissioner David Stern came to Chicago. He also had with him the current NBA commissioner Adam Silver, who came along as well. At that time, I spoke about what it was that motivated me to get involved in this league and those memories are still very real to me because really not much has changed in terms of that motivation. I got involved with this league because I thought it was really important that Chicago have a team. In fact, I was quite shocked and embarrassed that the league had been around at that point I think it was about 9 years in other cities and Chicago, which is in my view as a Chicagoan the best sports town in the country, if not the world, and to think that Chicago wasn't part of this league...I really felt that we needed to do something about that. I met some of these young women and I was unbelievably impressed with their passion and their abilities and I just knew and felt that they would be such phenomenal role models. Not just for young girls but for young boys, for all of us. We had to have that team here in Chicago."

(On the beginning...)

"I had a lot of help, and I want to acknowledge two of them who are here today, actually two of the most important ones so it's not coincidental. One is Margaret Stender, who you're going to hear from very shortly, but the other person I want to mention is John Rogers, who's been an investor with us from the very beginning and has more recently become much more involved and taken a much larger participation in the ownership group as well. For me it's just wonderful to have John as a real partner in this."

(On the Sky's progress over the years...)

"Despite the motivations I gave as to why I got involved, there's no question that this continues to be a business. It's a for-profit business, and we are very committed to making this league sustainable and long-term, and there's a couple important milestones that I want to mention here in terms of where we've come in our journey over these past 10 years. Before I mention that, though, I just want to give a little context to that. Chicago is an unbelievable sports town. The major sports teams that have been in Chicago have been here for all of them over 100 years and a number of the Chicago teams were founding members in their leagues. In fact, the NBA team, the Chicago Bulls, is really the baby of those teams. It's only been around 50 years. People ask me to try to compare us to the Bears and the Bulls and the Hawks, which by the way I like being compared to them because we aspire to be where they are, but people forget that that didn't happen overnight. It didn't even happen in 10 years and it frankly didn't happen in 20 or 30 years. The WNBA and the Sky are actually a lot further along in our development in this period of time than many of those leagues were in their period of time. George McCaskey, who is the owner of the Bears, has told me lots of stories about how his grandfather, George Halas, literally begged and borrowed to keep the Bears out of bankruptcy not just on one occasion but on a couple of occasions and there were many moments when the Bears weren't going to make it and barely got through. It's hard to imagine that that's the case now that you're talking about these multi-billion dollar businesses, but the Bulls and I remember in my lifetime the Bulls in the late 60s and early 70s when they were in their infancy. Frankly, in their first 10 years when they were lucky to get a few thousand people at the then Chicago Stadium. It took quite some time for them to get to where they are (today). So if you look at where we are in that context, I'm extremely proud of the accomplishments that we have made.

In our 10 years, we have doubled our attendance from where we were in our first year to now, which is a significant increase, and we've also doubled the number of sponsors that we've had over that same period of time. Also, I'm very happy to say that we made it into the WNBA finals last year for our first time within 10 years. It took the Bulls 25 years to get to their first NBA Finals, although to their credit they did win the first time, so we didn't so we've got to work on that, but to have done as much as we've done in 10 years is a great accomplishment. Having said that, we've got very big ambitions for the next 10 years and we're very excited about where we're coming from but more excited about where we're going and we've got a fantastic group, from the front office to the back office and most importantly on the court, so I'm looking forward to the next decade and to a lot more wonderful, great things to come. On behalf of the Chicago Sky, I want to thank you all for being there with us and supporting us along the way."

Chicago Sky Chairman and Minority Owner Margaret Stender

(On National Girls and Women in Sports Day...)

"Isn't it great? 10 years. I am so thrilled to be a part of this decade celebration. Thank you so much for including me. It's also the 29th anniversary of National Girls and Women in Sports Day so as we reflect on sports, I think we should be asking ourselves what is so important about sports for girls and for women and why should we care. Sports is so much more than a game. The visibility of sports in our society and the joy that it brings to so many people allow it to serve as a guardrail for equity in our education system and for a beacon for social change. I think those of us that have been involved with this team for a decade have seen that happen over, and over, and over again. Do we remember that prior to the passage of Title IX in 1972 it was perfectly legal to discriminate against women? Girls were discouraged from the study of math, science and technology. The nation's law schools, medical schools, business schools, they all had quotas on how many women they were allowed to admit. There were no sports programs for girls in 1974, 1972. Maybe a little tennis, maybe a little swimming, absolutely no team sports. Prior to the passage of Title IX only one in 34 girls even had access to high school sports. It's a competitive world, right, so how are we to learn to compete if we can't play? We can't learn how to compete. We can't learn how to lead. How do we learn how to take risks?

In the early 1970s, at the height of the feminist movement, Billie Jean King noticed that even the great visionary Gloria Steinem did not appreciate how important sport was to women and the power for it to highlight the equal rights issues. So as the story goes Ms. King reached out to Ms. Steinem and said "Gloria, you have to use the athletes more," and Ms. Steinem said "Billie, this is about politics," and Billie Jean exploded and said "Gloria, we are politics!" That's how important this social change can be.

The law of Title IX is about fairness and equality and all aspects of education, and we know that educating girls in a competitive and comprehensive manner changes our communities. Playing sports helped girls like me and girls like you find your leadership voice and then have the confidence to use it. It helps us contribute in meaningful ways. The healthy behaviors that sport requires is what is so important to the society's well-being. Positive body imagery, strong muscles and bones, higher self-esteem, stronger independence....In the past 40 years since the passage of Title IX there has been a change of progress. Girls participating in high school sports has gone from one in 34 to one in 2.5. Female college athletes from a mere 30,000 to now 180,000 and most of those women receiving some form of financial scholarship. And thankfully women have many options to participate now in careers in professional sports, from a broadcaster/journalist, from a business professional, from a coach and general manager and of course as an athlete."

(On the Chicago Sky's impact...)

"The Chicago Sky, the WNBA, having a group of women competing as a team in public and having people willing to buy tickets to go and watch them? Wow. That has a predominant and important effect on girls and their families. The whole environment is set in a station of equality. It says you matter. It says confidence. It says importantly if you want to do it, then do it, an impact far, far greater than just the sport itself. It seems natural today that we see women leading in all walks of life, but we can never forget, nor underestimate, the power and the influence of role models. It is so hard to dream it if you cannot see it. So thankfully, today please join me in welcoming an amazing role model who thankfully allows us to see her work, her leadership and her enormous basketball talent in Sky blue and gold. She is a two-time WNBA All-Star, she was 2013 Rookie of the Year and she is Chicago sky forward Elena Delle Donne."

Chicago Sky Guard/Forward Elena Delle Donne

(On what it's meant to have female role models in her life...)

"Ever since I picked up a basketball, I was lucky enough to have women to look up to. I'd be in the backyard beating up on my brother and his friends and I'd be like "Yeah, I just Sheryl Swoopes'd you" and I wasn't talking about the guys. I had women like that to really look up to so it's a special era that we're coming from and like you said we do have to remember where it came from and how important it is to continue to grow. Just having that dream with one single basketball I was able to work really hard to get to where I am today and I have a women's professional basketball league that I can play in and that's where I stand right now. It's amazing that if you can dream it, you can now attain it."

(Announcing the Sky's DRIBBLEON initiative...)

"I'm also here because I'm really excited to announce that the Sky has created a Dribble On program, and that stems from this whole idea that with one basketball, with one dream, you can get anywhere with a lot of hard work. In this program, in the 2015 season the Sky players, coaches and staff are going to distribute 10,000 basketballs to underserved children all in the Chicago area. With the help of my teammates and coaches, I'm going to start this thing off by donating enough tickets to provide everybody who's here today a basketball, so we're going to kick this thing off strong. I'm going to challenge now my coaches to maybe match me or go above that and definitely when my teammates get back from being overseas I'll challenge them as well. But thank you so much for being here. I'm so proud to be a part of the Chicago Sky for two short years, but it does feel amazing and I think we have a lot more to accomplish and further to go. Thanks."

Chicago Sky Head Coach & General Manager Pokey Chatman

(On the city's support...)

"I'll start with something that's so important. I don't want to reiterate things that have been said, but the irony of it all is listening to Elena speak and the reason that so many people and young girls can see is because I'm looking at the media back here. And I want to start there because it's well-versed and I get an inside peek at the hard work and the vision of the leadership and the sponsors and the people in our organization that are rockstars but we have so much to be excited about this season, and so much of it stems from the fan support, but more importantly the media. I want to give you guys a hand for how you truly embraced us and covered us. It did make going to Jewel-Osco shopping a little bit harder to do, which I loved, but understand I like to see how all that comes together. And it's great to see all that hard work so it's more than seven games on television and you can witness the greatness of someone like an Elena Delle Donne."

(Announcing the 2015 season slogan...)

"Last year when we reached the WNBA playoffs we coined it 'Our Moment,' and this year in conjunction with our 10 year celebration we're going to do our best to be there again. The goal is going to be everything that we do is going to be for our town. We're going to compete for 40 minutes, every second of the game, for our town. We're going to do community outreach for our town. We're going to cultivate and inspire youth, young girls, for our town, and ultimately we want to win a championship for our town."

(On season-long initiatives...)

"We want to encourage the fans through social media and those platforms to use hashtag #10ForOurTown as they reminisce about Sky moments, photos, to keep that momentum going. Also, we encourage so many of you guys to go to those basketball games and experience what Ella (Laurel's niece) experienced when she went to a Sky game, and there's going to be so much more...highlights of people that are important to the organization, special moments in Sky 10 year history, etc. We want to make sure that you guys are there for that, but also online. In our social media world and online, there will be a section dedicated to "10 For Our Town" commemorating special events to keep everyone motivated in gaining that momentum and more importantly when we start the season on June 5th at Allstate (Arena) and as we conclude the season with our Fan Appreciation Night on September 11th we want it to be a special moment as we celebrate 10 years with so much hard work, so many dedicated people behind the scenes and know that it can't be truly appreciated without you guys, the fans, but also the media. Thank you for everything that you do. It's appreciated."

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