It took four years for Chennedy Carter to be in the starting five again after her WNBA debut in 2020. From team to team, from bench to court, it’s been a rocky journey for the guard. But just when it seemed like Carter had found her footing in the ‘Windy City’, she might not continue with them after 2024. The Sky guard becomes a restricted free agent after the season, and there is no news of the franchise re-signing her yet. Meanwhile, her time with none of the franchises has been smooth.

Chennedy has been associated with the Atlanta Dreams and the Los Angeles Sparks. On both occasions, her conduct has been under the scanner. This might have contributed to her multiple shifts in franchises. But amid all these, during her exit interview on September 20, she dropped a veiled hint about her return to the Chicago Sky.

Chennedy was asked by Sky beat writer of Chicago Tribune, Julia Poe if her main goal was to return to Chicago in the next season. “My main goal is always just to be somewhere I’m wanted. I love being here. I enjoyed the season. It was fun. It was special. If Chicago wants me back, I’m interested in coming back,” Chennedy said in reply. One of the top scorers in the league, Carter had revealed in May that she “literally cried when she [head coach Teresa Weatherspoon] told me I made the team. I cried for sure.”

Having been drafted by the Atlanta Dream, Chennedy was ultimately suspended in 2021. It came after an altercation with teammate Courtney Williams. Williams had suggested that Carter should be more supportive from the bench, leading to a heated argument and escalating tensions, per Spencer Nusbaum of The Next. Former Dream interim head coach Mike Peterson had said back then, “She’s working through stuff with ownership to try to get a process where she can return.” However, Chennedy ended the stint with only 11 appearances.

Next up, she was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks for the 2022 season but still didn’t spend much time on the court. Carter played 24 games for the Sparks during the 2022 season. In a disappointing performance, the former No. 4 overall pick averaged just 16.4 minutes per game and scored just 8.9 points per game. As reported by the ‘LA Times’, the team benched her for poor conduct, and even though she was under contract for 2023, LA released her in the offseason. Then came an international career.

Carter had already played briefly in Turkey after her rookie season but reportedly wanted to be closer to home. However, when no team picked her in 2023, she decided to play there again with Bursa, which was good enough to draw WNBA teams to her once again. In came the Chicago Sky, with whom Carter has found a position in the starting five after her brilliant offensive display on the court.

“I love my teammates. I love being here. We’re building something special. I’m so thankful to be a part of something like this,” she had said in July. But that stint got her embroiled in one of the biggest controversies of her career. In Sky’s June 1 game against the Indiana Fever, Chennedy was slapped with a foul for giving a shoulder shot to Fever rookie Caitlin Clark. Initially, it was ruled as an away-from-the-ball foul. But on June 2, that was upgraded to a flagrant 1 foul after reviewing the play. That was not all.

In an August 21 game against the Connecticut Sun, she hit Sun’s guard Marina Mabrey in the face. However, Chennedy had shrugged off allegations of aggressive behavior by saying it was a part of the game. “I’m just saying, don’t form an opinion off of one little clip. And you didn’t even see the whole game and/or the play that led to that,” she had said after her foul against Clark.

Notably, Carter was not invited to play in the WNBA players-founded league Unrivaled, which begins to play in 2025. Carter further told Poe, “I don’t think that they have any interest in me. So my interest just has to be somewhere else at that point. But am I really good at 3-on-3? Yes. And will you see me playing somewhere in the future? For sure.” But while controversies surround her, he pulls off a considerably good performance.

Carter is currently top-15 in the WNBA in scoring (17.2 points per game) and field-goal percentage (51.8). She averages 2.9 rebounds, 2.7 assists, and 1.3 steals per game. She also leads the Sky in scoring despite playing the fifth-most minutes on the team. And no one can tell you that better about her than the Sky head coach.

Chennedy Carter is a “guard that can do anything”

“I’ve been in situations where I haven’t always been valued. Coaches haven’t always had my back,” Chennedy Carter said of her past WNBA experience in July. But then, Carter says, her outlook changed when she met Weatherspoon. “She has my back on and off the floor. That brings out the best side of me.”

Even if the league hasn’t seen her ‘best side’ in the last few years, what Weatherspoon likes most about Carter is that she’s ‘coachable.’ “I coach Chennedy hard. I coach her extremely hard because I can. She responds. She responds to it because she knows I’m not asking her to do something that she can’t do. This is a guard that can do anything. She does whatever she wants to out there and it’s hard to stop it. I coach her hard because I want nothing but greatness from her every night,” the Chicago Sky HC told ‘WGN’.

However, despite all the praise, Teresa had to intervene after the Caitlin Clark foul. “She [Chennedy] and I have discussed what happened and that it was not appropriate, nor is it what we do or who we are. Chennedy understands that there are better ways to handle situations on the court, and she will learn from this, as we all will,” Teresa had said back then.

Certainly, Chennedy Carter has been a game-changer for a rebuilding Chicago franchise. Last month, during her 4-match absence, Chicago went on to face back-to-back losses. As she came back in the September 7 game against LA Sparks, she contributed with 15 points, 9 rebounds, and 7 assists. Sky eventually won the game 92-78.

“Just her being who she is, being so dangerous with the ball in her hand, there’s a lot of attention that’s on her. She’s very good at creating space and actually taking two with her to be able to get that pass to a big,” Teresa had said about her. It’s unclear so far what will happen to this talented player who seems caught in a web of bad luck and fortune. Will the stars align and let her stay in ‘Chi-Town’?