From their first playoff win over the Atlanta Dream in 2014 to their championship victory in 2021, the Chicago Sky have seen plenty of memorable wins throughout their growing history.
Led by guard Kahleah Copper and forward Candace Parker, the Sky won a franchise-best 26 games in 2022 with plenty of memorable wins in the Commissioner's Cup and beyond. Defining wins over the Connecticut Sun and Phoenix Mercury would ultimately highlight a 2021 campaign saw them build their way up from a 2-7 season start to a the first championship in the team's history. The Sky won the first game in their franchise's history. They claimed a 1-point victory over the Charlotte Sting in 2006. The game saw forward Candice Dupree drop a team-leading 19 points off the bench.
This year was no different.
From three wins over the Los Angeles Sparks to a 15-point win over the Dallas Wings, the Sky had a handful of memorable wins that lit up an up-and-down season. The Memorable Win of the Year will celebrate the best wins of the 2024 season, ones that defined what would ultimately be a bridge year before the next chapter in the Chicago Sky's history.
Winner: Chicago Sky at Las Vegas Aces, July 16
If there is one thing the Sky have struggled to do in recent years, it's defeat the Las Vegas Aces.
Chicago last posted a winning record over the Aces in 2020. The Sky went 2-7 against the Aces in the three seasons before their 2024 run. They went 0-3 against Las Vegas in 2023. They fell to the two-time WNBA champs at home in June. The game saw three Aces log 20 points or more.
Still, it wasn't impossible.
Even as Aces forward A'ja Wilson tried to hold off a win with a dominant all-around night, the Sky pulled out an 8-point victory in the home of the back-to-back champions in July. Guard Chennedy Carter, who broke out into a scoring leader during her first season with the Sky, led the squad with 34 points in a season-defining performance for the 5-foot-9 scoring guard. Her confident cuts and pull-up shots led to 14 made shots on 24 attempts.
Runner-Up: Chicago Sky at New York Liberty, May 23
The Sky earned their first defining win of the season when they took down the eventual WNBA champions in their third game of the season.
The May win in the Barclays Center saw now-Sun guard Marina Mabrey lead the Sky with 21 points and seven assists. Carter added 12 points and four assists off the bench. The Sky broke away from the Liberty following a closely-contested beginning to the fourth quarter. Chicago's guards ultimately sealed the win with a barrage of fourth-quarter makes. The Sky would push their record up to 2-1 before moving on to face the Sun at home.
Second Runner-Up: Chicago Sky at Indiana Fever, June 23
The Sky played on one of the largest stages of the season when they faced the Indiana Fever for the third time in June.
Chicago's 1-point victory over the Fever amassed an average viewership of 2.3 million viewers on ESPN's broadcast. It barely beat out the CBS broadcast of the Sky-Fever matchup from the week before for the most-viewed WNBA game in 23 years, according to ESPN. Sky forward Angel Reese logged 25 points and 16 rebounds in the home win. Her rookie frontcourt partner in center Kamilla Cardoso added 16 points and 10 boards.