You know that phrase, \u201cIrish goodbye\u201d? Where you\u2019re at a party or something, and you just kind of\u2026.. leave, quietly, without making a big thing of it? Well I heard someone say recently that I pulled an Irish goodbye on the W. That made me laugh.<\/p>\n
And I guess it\u2019s pretty true. By 2021, I knew I was close to retirement. Then, of all years, that year we finally won the championship\u00a0\u2014 and I thought for a second, Wow. What a way to go out. But after thinking about it a little more, I realized I actually wanted to savor the end of my career. I wanted the experience of walking into each arena and knowing it might be the last time I\u2019d ever play there. And I wanted the experience of trying to defend our championship that we worked so hard for, for so long. So that\u2019s what I did. I didn\u2019t tell a lot of people, but I played in 2022 thinking it would probably be my last season. I really, truly soaked it all in.<\/p>\n
I never retired, though.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I just took the 2023 season off \u2026 then I took the 2024 season off \u2026 then I took the 2025 season off\u2026.. you get the idea. But all jokes aside, I never actually meant to do an Irish goodbye. When I sat out after 2022, it was for a very specific reason.<\/p>\n
It was so I could start the next phase of my life: becoming a mom.<\/p>\n
To be honest, I thought I would get pregnant fast, then at least leave the option open to play one more season. But things didn\u2019t happen as fast as we would have liked. They did happen, though!!\u00a0And I\u2019m thrilled to say that on April 8th, 2025, Courtney and I celebrated the birth of our baby girl, Jana Christine. We named her after both of our moms: Courtney\u2019s mom, Janet, who passed away last June. And my mom, Christine. And I know I speak for both myself and Courtney when I tell you that as special as the Sky winning a championship felt, and as proud of a moment as that was, bringing a baby into the world is our accomplishment we\u2019re most proud of. It was the greatest day of our lives. There\u2019s nothing like it.<\/p>\n
But also, now that Jana is here\u2026\u2026. I feel ready to finally and officially say goodbye to my basketball career.\u00a0<\/p>\n
One day, when she\u2019s older, I think I\u2019ll tell Jana all about my 14 seasons in the WNBA \u2014 or maybe other people will tell her, I don\u2019t know. What I know I\u2019ll tell her about, though, are the lessons I learned along the way. I\u2019ll tell her that when you want something in life, I mean really want something, you don\u2019t stop at the first obstacle. Or the second. Or the third. Or the fourth!!! I\u2019ll tell her how I got cut FOUR times before I found my place in the W \u2014\u00a0and how I wouldn\u2019t trade those four times, or any other tough times I faced, for anything. Because they led me exactly to where I was meant to be. They led me back home to Chicago, 40 miles from where I grew up in Joliet \u2026 they led me to the Sky, and some of the best people, teammates and coaches I could ever ask for \u2026 and most of all?? They led me to her mama \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n
Courtesy of the Quigley Family<\/p>\n
Now that I\u2019m saying goodbye, though, there are so many people I want to thank.<\/p>\n
Thank you to my entire family. To my mom: Thank you for teaching me how to be humble \u2014 and for SHOWING me how to be tough. Mom, you are the toughest person I know. To my dad, who passed away when I was 7: Thank you for treating me just like my brothers when it came to sports. (As my mom wrote in the scrapbook she made us to remember him by, \u201cDad loved the fact that you could throw, catch and hit like any boy around.\u201d) To Donnie: Thank you for stepping up for us \u2026 and for always rebounding for me on that chain net!! We love you so much. And to my sister, Sam, and my brothers, Jake and Ryan: Thank you for our backyard battles growing up. They\u2019re what made me who I am as a basketball player. None of this would have been possible without you all \u2026 and without you in my corner, watching in the stands and in so many other ways, none of it would have been nearly as sweet.<\/p>\n
Thank you to all my Joliet fam. If you\u2019re from Joliet, or you know Joliet, then you know how tight-knit our community is \u2014\u00a0and how much that community has supported me on this journey. Thank you!!!<\/p>\n
Thank you to Ann Meyers Drysdale, who was the GM in Phoenix when I was a rookie. I averaged 7 minutes a game that year, pretty much only playing when we were up 30 or down 30. But then in my exit meeting, Ann told me something that blew my mind: \u201cI see you having a 10-to-15 year WNBA career.\u201d When you have a career as long as mine was, you end up having a lot of conversations with a lot of people \u2026 but certain conversations you just don\u2019t forget. And it\u2019s hard to convey how much Ann\u2019s words stuck with me. They were like this reminder during those first few years, and anytime I needed them \u2014 that I was persevering for a reason. That I was good enough.<\/p>\n
Thank you to Pokey Chatman, Amber Stocks and James Wade. I had three head coaches during my 10 seasons in Chicago, and I have such gratitude for each of them. Thank you Pokey for giving me a chance, and for believing in me when no one else did. Thank you Amber for giving me the opportunity to start, and for believing I could thrive in that role and unlock another level of my game. And thank you James for believing I was someone who could do the one thing I always wanted to do most in this league: help a team win a championship.<\/p>\n
Kena Krutsinger\/NBAE via Getty<\/p>\n
Thank you to the Chicago Sky organization, specifically Michael Alter, and thank you to the incredible Sky fans. It was an honor to spend a decade with you guys. So many big moments, small moments, and special memories.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thank you to ALL of my teammates \u2014 and after a 14-year career, there are obviously too many to mention. But I\u2019ve truly been blessed. From getting to learn from Diana Taurasi (the GOAT!!) as a rookie, to getting to play with so many exciting young players as a vet, to getting to play with a group where it all came together so perfectly like it did for our championship year in Chicago \u2026 I crossed paths with so many great athletes, and great people. If you\u2019re one of them, and you\u2019re reading this, thank you.<\/p>\n
And thank you to my best teammate of all, #22. Since the day that the Sky had us share a car service together (after we were both late to training camp \u2014 my first with the Sky, sorry again!!!), my life has never really been the same. And thank God. I\u2019ll mention the basketball stuff first because it\u2019s what came first: our uncanny, indescribable connection on the court (shirt, pistol, backdoors, iykyk) \u2026 our endless days shooting together \u2026 our ability to spend hours and hours and hours together just analyzing the game \u2026 I\u2019ll miss all of it. And I\u2019m already sad thinking about how I won\u2019t get to experience any of it again. (Well, except for the shooting together part. I\u2019m still gonna make you rebound for me every once in a while.)\u00a0<\/p>\n
And then as for the non-basketball stuff\u2026\u2026.. I guess I\u2019m pretty freaking lucky. Because I won\u2019t have to miss any of that stuff. That stuff, I get to do with you for the rest of my life. I still sort of can\u2019t believe how it worked out. I mean, literally\u00a0\u2014 if you\u2019d told me on that first car ride of ours together, everything the future had in store, I think I wouldn\u2019t have believed you. OK \u2026 so you\u2019re going to be here for TEN years \u2026 and find your true self as a basketball player \u2026 and become a three-time All-Star \u2026 and then cap it all off with a WNBA championship \u2026 for your hometown team \u2026 oh yeah and along the way you\u2019re going to meet your wife?!? \u2026 and actually, she\u2019s sitting next to you right now. That\u2019s a crazy story, you know??? But it happened!!! And somehow it\u2019s still happening. Courtney, I\u2019m so grateful we found each other. I think our best days are ahead of us.\u00a0And as we start this new chapter of our lives, and guide Baby Jana through this world together, I\u2019m so glad I get to be on your team.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of the Quigley Family<\/p>\n
And lastly \u2026 Thank you to the WNBA.\u200b\u200b<\/p>\n
It\u2019s wild to think about, but I was 9 years old when the league was announced. I was 10 during the Atlanta Olympics. And I turned 11 on June 20th, 1997.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The first WNBA game was played on June 21st.\u00a0<\/p>\n
So when I look back on my childhood, it really does feel like I grew up in that moment. Like \u2014\u00a0there\u2019s \u201cbefore,\u201d when I was just a kid. And then there\u2019s \u201cafter,\u201d when I was a kid who dreamed of making it to the WNBA. And in that sense, I kind of feel like I\u2019m part of this unique generation of players. Where we\u2019re the last generation who can remember a time when there wasn\u2019t a W. Or to put it another (better) way: We\u2019re the last generation who will ever have to remember a time when there wasn\u2019t a W.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I\u2019m so proud of that. And I think there\u2019s a pretty cool perspective that comes with it \u2014 especially when I look back on how far our league has come since then. I see all these great players like Stewie and Sabrina and A\u2019ja now starting to have signature shoes, and I just think back on how exciting it felt when my mom first bought me a pair of Cynthia Coopers in the late \u201990s. Or I see kids wearing #14 Quigley jerseys at Sky games, and I just think back on how much wearing a WNBA jersey meant to me when I was a kid (one year my friends and I actually all dressed as W players for Halloween \u2014\u00a0I wore a bright yellow Lisa Leslie #9 Sparks jersey and thought it was so cool). Or I\u2019ll watch the Draft now, and see what a huge deal it\u2019s turned into, with the Orange Carpet and prime time on ESPN and everything else, and I just think back on being in my dorm room at DePaul in 2008, watching my own Draft by myself on NBATV. It was a Wednesday afternoon, which meant that my teammates were all in class or at workouts, and my family was all at work or at school. So I just kind of had a party for one, you know?? And then of course I got picked, and I got a call from Brian Agler, and it was the most amazing feeling \u2014 so I think that part\u2019s stayed the same: No matter what year or what round, getting drafted to the WNBA is a dream come true.<\/p>\n
And then maybe the biggest thing, when I think about how much the W has evolved, it\u2019s how much better things have gotten in terms of the league supporting players as moms. To be very honest, Courtney and I were ready to have children for years. But because of the arc that our careers took, where we both started having success on the later side (in the WNBA and in Europe), it was just tough at certain points for either of us to imagine pressing pause on basketball. And for a long time the league wasn\u2019t really set up for players to balance their career and motherhood successfully, like it is now. But I\u2019m so proud of the changes that have been made \u2014 and fought for. And after having Jana, I\u2019m even more impressed with all the W moms who\u2019ve come back and continued to play. I\u2019d definitely try to do the same now if I was 10 years younger. And while I wish I was \u2026 I love knowing that these next generations of players are just going to get to play in better and better and better versions of the W.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I love knowing that I can look back on my career and say it was really, really good \u2014 but it was part of the beginning of something truly great.<\/p>\n
Alright, guys\u2026\u2026\u2026 that\u2019s it for me. I guess I didn\u2019t pull an Irish goodbye on you after all. But I\u2019m still Irish, so I\u2019m going to end this with a favorite blessing of mine if that\u2019s OK.<\/p>\n
May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face;
the rains fall soft upon your fields and until we meet again,
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.<\/p>\n
Thanks for reading.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Thanks for everything.<\/p>\n
Love,
Allie<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"You know that phrase, \u201cIrish goodbye\u201d? Where you\u2019re at a party or something, and you just kind of\u2026..…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":72084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-72083","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}