Point guard Courtney Vandersloot has agreed to a one-year deal to return to the defending WNBA champion Chicago Sky, sources told ESPN on Friday.
Vandersloot turned 33 on Feb. 8. She has led the WNBA in assists the past four seasons and holds the league's single-game assist record of 18, set in 2020. She matched that number in the 2021 playoffs.
This past season, Vandersloot averaged 10.5 points, 8.6 assists, 3.4 rebounds and 1.7 steals for the Sky, who went 16-16 in the regular season but caught fire in the playoffs and won the franchise's first championship.
Vandersloot raised her game even more in the 2021 playoffs, averaging 13.0 points, 10.2 assists and 5.4 rebounds. She had 12 points, 18 assists and 10 rebounds in the Sky's semifinal series-opening win against the top-seeded Connecticut Sun, just the second triple-double in WNBA playoff history, matching Sheryl Swoopes' feat in the 2005 postseason.
Vandersloot, an unrestricted free agent, has spent her 11-season WNBA career with the Sky, who drafted her third out of Gonzaga in 2011. Vandersloot has become a fan favorite in Chicago, which got the top free-agent signing last year with Candace Parker moving from Los Angeles to the Sky. Parker became a prime component to the team's championship run.
Vandersloot's return wasn't certain, however. ESPN's Holly Rowe reported at the start of the WNBA's free-agency period last week that Vandersloot had not been pleased with the Sky's offer to her at that time.
Chicago has lost two other key players from its championship team: center Stefanie Dolson, who signed with the New York Liberty, and Diamond DeShields, who was sent in a trade to Phoenix. The Sky received point guard Julie Allemand in that deal.