“They don’t call me Spoon for nothing. I’m here to stir things up.”

New Chicago Sky head coach Teresa Weatherspoon’s WNBA journey may have started over 25 years ago, but the excitement and passion she played with on the court has not waned as she enters the next phase of becoming a head coach in the WNBA.

“It’s energy that I don’t try to control, because that type of energy, the positive vibe from it all, it becomes contagious,” Weatherspoon told Marquee Sports Network. “It also lets me and everybody know that there’s a level of excitement that lives in me. I want the world to know and to feel what I feel.”

That ‘electric energy’ is something that 3-time All-Star and 2021 Finals MVP Kahleah Copper immediately gravitated towards when she first started having conversations with Weatherspoon near the end of the 2023 season.

“I’ve never had a coach that could really match my energy, and that was just something that really had really hit me,” Copper said in Weatherspoon’s introductory press conference. 

Creating those types of relationships with players is what Weatherspoon wants to continue to do with the rest of the roster. Weatherspoon spent the last four seasons as an assistant coach within the New Orleans Pelicans organization, creating a close relationship with Zion Williamson.

“I’ve learned along the way the X’s and O’s are the X’s and O’s, they’re going to be able to do the X’s and O’s and execute it properly, but the most important thing is to have a relationship,” Weatherspoon said. “Find out what makes them go, you know why they do what they do. And when you gain that relationship with them, you know, your conversations, your deepest conversations, your hardest conversations are easy, because they’re gonna know that you are for them in the right way.”

While there’s still some questions regarding the roster and who will become the next general manager of the Chicago Sky, Weatherspoon is ‘gearing up’ for her inaugural season at the helm for the 2024 WNBA season.

“Gearing up is bringing your best self, everything in you,” Weatherspoon said. “You bring all your energy, you bring all of your effort, you gear up, you don’t leave anything behind, gear up. Don’t be left behind. Because we’re gearing up. We’re gearing up to take over.”

To hear more from the new head coach, watch the exclusive interview above.