Three-time WNBA All-Star Allie Quigley has officially announced her retirement from professional basketball, confirming the news in a personal essay published Tuesday in The Players’ Tribune.
Quigley last suited up in the WNBA during the 2022 season, but had never formally announced her departure. Reflecting on her journey, Quigley shared the news with her trademark candor and a bit of humor, saying she “pulled an Irish Goodbye on the W.”
In her essay, Quigley revealed that after hoisting the championship trophy in 2021, she seriously considered walking away from the game; but she ultimately decided to come back for one more season in 2022: “By 2021, I knew I was close to retirement. Then, of all years, that year we finally won the championship — 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’d 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’s what I did. I didn’t 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 … I never ‘retired,’ though.”
Quigley entered the league in 2008 as a second-round draft pick and played her early years with the Phoenix Mercury. She later had brief tenures with the Indiana Fever, San Antonio Silver Stars, and Seattle Storm before finding her home in Chicago. A standout guard from DePaul and an Illinois native, Quigley joined the Chicago Sky in 2013, where she became a foundational piece of the franchise for nearly a decade. Her time with the Sky was filled with accolades: back-to-back Sixth Woman of the Year honors in 2014 and 2015, three straight All-Star appearances from 2017 to 2019. Quigley posted averages of 13.2 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 2.3 assists per game while shooting an impressive 45% from beyond the arc to help lead the Sky to their first-ever championship in 2021; and the following year, she started a career-best 34 games and logged more minutes per game (26.3) than she had the year before, finishing with an average of 11.4 points.
Quigley explained that her decision to move on became clear as she and her wife, fellow WNBA veteran Courtney Vandersloot, began preparing for parenthood. The couple welcomed their daughter, Jana Christine, in April. With the arrival of their baby girl, Quigley felt ready to close this chapter: “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’re most proud of. It was the greatest day of our lives. There’s nothing like it.”
Beyond the WNBA, Quigley also had a successful international career, spending WNBA offseasons playing for clubs in Italy and Turkey through 2022.
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