Sky Should Sign Former Star Who Signed With Saudi Arabian Team

At this point, Chennedy Carter is running out of space on her passport. The talented guard and former Rookie of the Year runner-up is on the move again.

Officially, Carter has arrived in Saudi Arabia, where she’ll play for Al Ula. This isn’t her first time traveling across the globe to ball. Earlier this year, she dropped buckets in Mexico when she played for Adelitas de Chihuahua of the Liga Nacional de Baloncesto Profesional. 

At this point, it looks like Carter is doing whatever she can to simply stay afloat and remain relevant. Yet, she’s only drawing attention from teams on the other side of the world. And while we’re sure she’s grateful for those opportunities, the WNBA and specifically, the Chicago Sky, is where she belongs. 

So what went wrong? No one is sure.

Now, of course, Carter does have a bit of a reputation. She can be surly and always sticks up for her teammates, but during the 2024 season, her last in the league, she had zero technical fouls and was never ejected from a game. 

Did she get into it with various players, including Caitlin Clark? Without question. Did she ever cross the line? From our end, it doesn’t seem that way. 

From a production standpoint, the Sky have been awful this year. Angel Reese is leading them in scoring with 14.2 points a night, followed by Ariel Atkins, Carter’s de facto replacement, with 13.1 points a game. 

Both Reese and Atkins, along with Kamilla Cardoso, who’s dropping 12.8 points this season, are good ancillary pieces, but Carter was the nucleus that held it all together. 

Carter recorded the following stats in 2024: 17.5 PPG, 3.5 RPG, 3.1 APG, 48.7 FG% 

Those numbers weren’t empty calories either. Carter’s 577 total points in 2024, which ranked 14th overall that year, forced teams to respect her. And while winning 14 games in 2024 wasn’t jaw-dropping, there’s a good chance the Sky won’t crack double-digits this year. 

It’s not immediately clear what went wrong in the offseason and why exactly the Sky sis not offer Carter a contract from the Sky, but both sides need to sit down and realize that they need one another and make amends. 

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