Chennedy Carter just wants to hoop. As a child, she sometimes slept with a basketball next to her pillow.
An All-America guard at Texas A&M, Carter was selected with the No. 4 pick in the 2020 WNBA draft by the Atlanta Dream, making her the highest-drafted player in school history. She averaged 17.4 points in 16 games as a rookie, became the youngest player in league history to score 30 points, finished second in Rookie of the Year voting and was named to the All-Rookie Team.
But in her second season, Carter played in only 11 games before the Dream suspended her in July 2021 for “conduct detrimental to the team.” After a trade to the Los Angeles Sparks, she started only two of the 24 games she played in 2022 and was waived the following March. She spent the entire 2023 season out of the league.
This past offseason, Carter signed a training camp contract with the Chicago Sky and accepted a role providing energy off the bench. But on June 16, she stepped into a starting role — her first since May 2022 — and scored 18 points in 28 minutes in a loss to the Indiana Fever.
For better or worse, Carter was thrust onto some people’s radar for the first time after the much-discussed flagrant foul against Fever guard Caitlin Clark on June 1. But she has been a bright spot for the Sky, who entered the All-Star and Olympic break at 10-14.
With a wicked first step, lethal speed and an ability to create and finish plays through contact, Carter is averaging 17.2 points, 2.9 rebounds and 2.7 assists in 24 games.
“I want people to know nothing was ever handed to me,” she said. “It’s girls that have walked into this game nowhere near as good as me — can’t grab the rim, can’t blow by nobody, can’t cross nobody over and step back consistently.
“I just want you to know that my game is truly my game. It’s talented. It’s not for me to go out there and try to do every single thing. You need to watch what I’m gifted at because this is my gift because a lot of girls can’t do what I can do.”
When I met with Carter at Wintrust Arena after a morning shootaround in June, she didn’t want to talk about the past, choosing to put her seasons in Atlanta and Los Angeles behind her. She hasn’t talked about the foul on Clark in weeks either.
Carter wants to focus on what’s in front of her, she says, and the support she has received in Chicago that’s different from what she experienced with other teams.
“First, I have a coach (Teresa Weatherspoon) that trusts in me,” Carter said. “I feel like she understands my value and she understands my talent. She’s a player’s coach, she’s been in my shoes before and she’s (been) helping me grow since I’ve been here. She’s completely taken me under her wing.
“I’ve been in places where — I’m a talented player, I’m a great teammate, I’m a great person — and I just wasn’t playing. It’s the fact that Coach is letting me play, letting me showcase my talent and just letting me be me and bring out that unique side of Chennedy Carter that people have never seen. Because I’ve been shielded away for different reasons, multiple times.”
While she was away from the WNBA for a year, Carter worked on improving herself on and off the court in hopes of another shot to prove herself. Getting with Weatherspoon on the Sky has given her that chance.
“As far as on the court,” Carter said, “I just tried to work on everything that I wasn’t good at: my ballhandling skills, my versatility, my quickness, my first step and my footwork. And then just my mental ability to be able to focus even when things are not going good for me.
“Still being able to focus and come off the bench when I haven’t played in a half and knock down a 3 or knock down a midrange shot, I think that’s a testament to the work I’ve put in and how hard I am on myself and how bad I really want this.”
The Weatherspoon-Carter relationship has been on display throughout the season. The two openly show their affection for one another. Carter speaks highly of Weatherspoon, expressing gratitude for the opportunity, and Weatherspoon speaks similarly of Carter — in the way a proud parent would.
“The one thing about Chennedy is she’s coachable,“ Weatherspoon said on July 10 after Carter scored 19 points in a 78-69 win over the Dream. “That’s why you see what you see. I coach Chennedy hard. I coach her extremely hard because I can. She responds to it because she knows I’m not asking her to do something she cannot do.
“This is a guard you’re looking at right here,” she continued, gesturing to Carter, “she 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. You can write it, you can print it, you can do whatever you want to — that’s our star.”
The pair’s bond is translating to on-court success for Carter. Weatherspoon has tapped into her in a way that gets through. The two seemingly speak the same language, one that others in the room can only witness but can’t fully feel.
Playing for Weatherspoon, who continually refers to her team as her “kids,” has given Carter the kind of support she needs to be her best.
“I’ve been in situations where I haven’t always been valued,” Carter said. “Coaches haven’t always had my back. She has my back on and off the floor. And that brings out the best side of me.
“I love being here. We’re building something special and I’m just so thankful to be a part of something like this. I was literally crying in the car, like, ‘God, I appreciate you so much for putting me where I belong.’”
Carter did have one other coach who she says allowed her to be herself, to be comfortable and to play freely.
Meet Gary Blair.
He reached the postseason 28 times in 37 years as a college head coach, including 23 NCAA Tournament appearances, a Final Four at Arkansas in 1998 and a national championship at Texas A&M in 2011. Blair’s Aggies reached back-to-back Sweet 16s in 2018 and 2019, Carter’s first two seasons in College Station.
Carter was the first player in program history to be selected to the All-SEC first team in her first three seasons. She owns Texas A&M’s top two single-season scoring averages — 23.3 in 2018-19 and 22.7 in 2017-18 — and was the unanimous national freshman of the year in 2017-18. She averaged 31 points in six NCAA Tournament games.
“Chennedy was born to be a pro,” Blair, who retired from coaching in 2022, told the Tribune. “From day one when her dad worked with her out in the backyard and her mom followed her around all the tournaments and everything like that … this kid was born to be a pro. I could just see it.”
Blair also has a connection to Weatherspoon.
“I signed her at Louisiana Tech in 1983-84,” he said. “She was going to be the point guard that was going to take over for Kim Mulkey, and she did. That was my first assistant’s job. I was mainly the head recruiter working under Sonja Hogg and Leon Barmore. So Weatherspoon … I love that kid today.
“I had a chance at the Final Four to talk to the Chicago Sky. People wanted to come talk about Chennedy a little because they were interested in her. I’ve talked to Spoon a number of times and I text her after ballgames. Spoon’s meant a lot to my career, first at Louisiana Tech. And Chennedy Carter had a lot to do with my career at Texas A&M.”
Though he and Carter haven’t spoken in a while, Blair checks in with how her career is going on TV. Because of his history with both as players and his familiarity with their games and personalities, Blair is the perfect person to speak about why the Carter-Weatherspoon connection is working.
“Chennedy lives for ball. I mean completely,” he said. “She might be watching an NBA game or something like that or working on her next move, but everything is about basketball to her.
“Spoon was the perfect person for her because of Spoon’s background — being an Olympian, being a pro, being one of the greatest ever at Louisiana Tech.”
A self-proclaimed “basketball junkie,” Blair said retirement has given him more time to watch the game he loves. He watches any game he can, keeping up with Carter and other players he coached or scouted as they make names for themselves in the pros.
“(Chennedy is) explosive … creative in her ability to get to the rack,” he said. “She was technically a better 3-point shooter in college than what she’s been in the pros, but that will come later. There’s no open looks in the WNBA. I think that will get better in time because she’ll keep working on it because people are going to give her those shots.
“But when she can take you to the rack and absorb contact, she can either finish, get a good shot or get people to come over and help.”
He spoke highly of Carter, sharing stories of her heroic efforts at Texas A&M. Some people, Blair said, couldn’t handle the star of the team being a freshman. Before her junior season, she was named to the 2019 U.S. Pan American Games team. Carter started all five games and averaged 11.4 points and 1.8 rebounds to help the U.S. to a 4-1 record and a silver medal.
In their three seasons together, Carter made an impression on Blair.
“Chennedy was a loner,” he said. “She’s her own person. Even after I left and now going forward, people still talk about her.
“She’s the greatest guard I’ve ever coached and I’ve coached some good ones. But the greatest guard to be able to create, score and pass — I didn’t say defend,” he added with a chuckle.
“I want her to be considered one of the greatest players, and that takes time and maturity and going forward. Those kids in Chicago, they really protect each other. It’s taken Chennedy four years to become the Chennedy that everybody thought she would be when she was drafted. She gets to just be a role player of stars. Not a role player on a team but a star by just playing her role of being able to create, and I think this is perfect for her.”
The Sky come out of the break holding the eighth and final playoff spot, and Carter’s contributions will be critical to their push for a sixth consecutive postseason appearance. She has found a home in Chicago, a place she belongs and a coach who gets her story.
“It has been really, really special,” Weatherspoon said. “You have to know the story to understand why it’s as special as it is. For someone to feel so excluded, so out — she uses the word all the time, not valued – and to see her so happy, to see her having fun again with her teammates.
“What she brings between those four lines, it’s unreal what she can do. I don’t think anyone can deny who she is as a player. I think everybody wants to see what she does off the floor.”
