History is hard to escape at the United Center.
It hangs in the rafters and echoes in the stands. And on Saturday, history was alive on the hardwood at center court as the Chicago Sky and the Indiana Fever faced off in the first WNBA game held at the arena.
For Sky veterans such as guard Ariel Atkins, the game — which drew a franchise record 19,496 fans — represented another breakthrough moment for a league experiencing meteoric growth in popularity.
“As a basketball junkie myself, it’s a great moment for women’s basketball,” Atkins said. “It says a lot about how much the game is growing. This won’t be the last time we play in an arena this size.”
The United Center itself held varying levels of weight to players for both the Fever and Sky. Yes, this is the house that Michael Jordan built — but many players on both rosters were born after the Bulls’ first threepeat.
“I’m a little too young for that,” star Angel Reese joked ahead of the Sky’s 79-52 loss.
But the legacy of the Bulls dynasty held strong for both coaching staffs. Fever assistant Austin Kelly — who acted as head coach Saturday in the stead of Stephanie White, who was away from the team for personal reasons — remembered watching the Bulls on box TVs in hotel rooms while traveling with his AAU team during the ’90s.
After shootaround Saturday morning, Kelly’s eyes kept drifting upward to the rafters of the arena, studying the retired jersey numbers of Jordan and Scottie Pippen.
“I have a lot of memories of watching the Bulls, watching Jordan growing up,” Kelly said. “They were everyone’s favorite team, especially the youngsters like us growing up in the ’90s. … It’s a surreal moment.”
For Sky coach Tyler Marsh, the game offered a full-circle moment of gratitude for his journey to helm his first team this year. Marsh first experienced the United Center during the 2020 All-Star Game as an assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors. Two years later, he returned to Chicago again for his first WNBA All-Star Game, this time as an assistant for the Las Vegas Aces.
And Saturday’s game was only sweetened by the presence of his father, Donnie Marsh, who watched his son coach the first WNBA game at the United Center from the Sky’s second bench as an assistant coach.
“It feels like Chicago has always been a pinnacle for those types of moments,” Marsh said. “For myself, it’s just about taking in the experiences as they come and enjoying it with who I’m working with and who I’m working for.”
Throughout the week, Sky players tried not to overstate the importance of the game — after all, their primary focus Saturday was erasing the memory of a season-opening blowout to the Fever in Indianapolis. But in the locker room throughout an extensive week of practices, it was hard not to chatter about the excitement of making history at the biggest arena in town.
Atkins said veterans on the team spent the week teasing rookies and second-year players such as Reese, Kamilla Cardoso and Hailey Van Lith about the new version of the WNBA that they ushered in. But those conversations were only half-joking. The recent wave of popularity sparked by the game’s youngest stars — including Fever guard Caitlin Clark, who missed her fourth straight game with a left quadriceps strain — have brought a new sense of appreciation from players both veteran and new.
For the Sky and Fever, the message surrounding Saturday’s game rang the same: This is only the start of something new for women’s basketball in Chicago.
“History is amazing, especially for women sports,” Reese said. “We just continue to make milestones for women. Women do belong here. I think it’s going to be the first of many. We can continue to see this and have all our games at NBA arenas.”
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