Courtney Vandersloot Bio
Courtney Vandersloot (born February 8, 1989) is an American professional basketball player who plays point guard for the Chicago Sky of the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). Recognized as one of the greatest point guards in league history, she is a two-time WNBA champion, a five-time WNBA All-Star, and a multiple-time league assists leader. She has also built an award-winning career in European professional leagues and helped represent the United States in international competition.
Standing 5 ft 8 in and listed at 137 lb, Vandersloot has spent more than a decade orchestrating offenses at the highest level of women’s basketball. She ranks second in WNBA regular-season total assists and first in total playoff assists, and she holds league records for assists per game in both a season (10.0) and a career (6.6).
Early Life and Background
Courtney Vandersloot was born on February 8, 1989, in Kent, Washington, a Seattle suburb. Both of her parents worked for Boeing, and she grew up in a neighborhood full of children her own age. In a 2011 interview, she recalled that “all we did was play sports, all sports.” Her father built a sports court with a basketball hoop behind the family home, but Vandersloot preferred to play at a neighbor’s front-court hoop where other kids could see her, and she regularly competed against boys.
As a child, Vandersloot played basketball and several other sports, including fast-pitch softball, on a team that finished as runner-up in a Washington state tournament when she was 11. Her favorite sport, however, was soccer, and she kept a poster of Mia Hamm on her bedroom wall. She did not focus on basketball until high school, when club soccer started to interfere with her growing love for developing her game on the court.
During the third grade, Vandersloot wrote a school paper about her dream of one day playing in the WNBA, a goal she would later turn into reality. Her family background, rooted in the working-class community of Kent and the strong sports culture of the Pacific Northwest, helped shape her competitive drive.
Path to Basketball
Vandersloot became a basketball star at Kentwood High School in her hometown of Kent. Her coach, Keith Hennig, a former Central Washington University player, regularly challenged her with physical one-on-one sessions, an approach that helped sharpen her handle and toughness. She eventually reached the point where she regularly beat her coach off the dribble.
A pivotal moment came the summer before her sophomore year, when she attended the Gonzaga University girls’ basketball camp. She immediately fell in love with the program, though head coach Kelly Graves did not get an extended look at her until her junior year, on the day before the 2006 Washington Class 4A state tournament. Graves offered her a scholarship after watching her practice. She signed with Gonzaga in November 2006 during her senior year, citing the comfort of the program and a desire to avoid the stressful recruiting process.
As a senior, Vandersloot averaged 26 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and 5 steals, leading Kentwood to a third-place finish at the state tournament and earning state player of the year honors from the Seattle Times. She was rated the No. 64 national prospect by Scout.com before arriving in Spokane.
Courtney Vandersloot Career
Early Career (2007–2011): Gonzaga Bulldogs
Vandersloot arrived at Gonzaga as a quiet freshman, but quickly became the face of the program. As a freshman in 2007–08, she was named West Coast Conference Newcomer of the Year and earned All-WCC first-team honors while helping the Bulldogs post a 13–1 conference record. In her sophomore season, she set a school single-season record with 239 assists, won her first WCC Player of the Year award, and led Gonzaga to its first NCAA Tournament win.
As a junior, she led all of Division I in assists at 9.4 per game and broke her own school and WCC career-assists records, earning WCC Player of the Year and Tournament MVP honors for a second straight year. In her senior season, she became the first women’s player in WCC history to be named Player of the Year and tournament MVP three times, led Gonzaga to its first-ever Elite Eight, and set the Division I women’s single-season assists record. She also became the first Division I player in history to record 2,000 career points and 1,000 career assists, earning the Frances Pomeroy Naismith Award and the Nancy Lieberman Award in 2011.
WNBA Breakthrough with the Chicago Sky (2011–2022)
Vandersloot was selected third overall by the Chicago Sky in the 2011 WNBA Draft and quickly became the team’s starting point guard. She averaged 3.7 assists per game as a rookie, was named a WNBA All-Star, and earned All-Rookie Team honors with 10 of 11 possible votes from league head coaches. By her second season, she had cemented herself as a foundational piece of the Sky’s backcourt.
In 2014, she helped lead Chicago to the WNBA Finals against the Phoenix Mercury, though the Sky were swept in three games. That same season, she led the league in assists per game for the first time, beginning a run of dominance as the WNBA’s premier playmaker. In 2015, she led the league in total assists and was named a WNBA Peak Performer for the first time.
From 2017 through 2021, Vandersloot set and repeatedly broke her own single-season assists-per-game records, peaking at 10.0 assists per game in the COVID-shortened 2020 season. She became the seventh player in league history to post a triple-double in 2018, finishing with 13 points, 10 rebounds, and a career-high 15 assists against the Dallas Wings. In 2021, she started all 32 games, led the league in assists once more, and guided the sixth-seeded Sky on a stunning playoff run that ended with Chicago’s first WNBA championship, a four-game victory over the Phoenix Mercury in the Finals.
Liberty Era and Return to Chicago (2023–2025)
After the 2022 season, Vandersloot signed with the New York Liberty in February 2023. With the Liberty, she helped the franchise reach the 2023 WNBA Finals against the Las Vegas Aces, and in 2024 she was part of the New York team that won the WNBA Championship over the Minnesota Lynx. She dedicated the 2024 season to her mother, Jan Vandersloot, who passed away in mid-summer 2024.
In 2025, Vandersloot returned to the Chicago Sky, the franchise where she began her WNBA career. On June 8, 2025, the team announced that she had suffered a right anterior cruciate ligament tear during the previous night’s game against the Indiana Fever, requiring surgery and ending her 2025 season.
European Leagues
Beginning in 2011, Vandersloot played overseas during the WNBA offseason, suiting up for several of Europe’s top clubs. She spent stints with Beşiktaş in Turkey, Wisla Can Pack in Poland, and Yakin Dogu Üniversitesi in Turkey, winning two Turkish National League championships and a Turkish National League MVP award in 2017.
From 2018 to 2022, she played for UMMC Ekaterinburg in Russia, winning three EuroLeague titles in 2019, 2021, and 2023. Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, she left Ekaterinburg and joined Hungarian club Sopron Basket for the 2022–23 European season. In January 2023, she signed with Fenerbahçe in Turkey, where she added another EuroLeague championship before returning to the WNBA full-time with the Liberty.
Unrivaled
On September 16, 2024, Vandersloot was announced as a participant in the inaugural season of Unrivaled, a women’s 3-on-3 basketball league founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart. She also played for Mist BC during the league’s debut campaign.
Courtney Vandersloot Career Wins
Across her professional career, Vandersloot has built one of the most decorated résumés in women’s basketball. She is a two-time WNBA champion (2021 with Chicago, 2024 with New York), a three-time EuroLeague champion, and a two-time Turkish National League champion. She has been named WNBA assists leader seven times and WNBA Peak Performer seven times, and she has earned two All-WNBA First Team selections and three All-WNBA Second Team selections.
WNBA Highlights
Vandersloot’s first WNBA championship came in 2021, when she averaged 10.2 assists and 13.0 points per game across the Sky’s 10-game postseason run. Her second ring came in 2024 with the New York Liberty. Her most recent individual accolade is the 2023 Jordan Rising Stars MVP, and she owns the WNBA’s all-time records for assists per game in a season and in a career.
Other Wins and Performances
In Europe, Vandersloot captured three EuroLeague titles with UMMC Ekaterinburg, in 2019, 2021, and 2023, as well as Turkish National League championships in 2017 and 2023. She was named Turkish National League MVP in 2017 and has been a consistent leader for her overseas clubs throughout her career.
Courtney Vandersloot Family
Family Background and Personal Life
Courtney Vandersloot was born and raised in Kent, Washington, to parents who both worked for Boeing. Her mother, Jan Vandersloot, was a central figure in her life and was honored by Vandersloot throughout her career, including during the 2024 WNBA Championship run with the New York Liberty, which Jan tragically did not live to see conclude, having passed away in mid-summer 2024.
On December 27, 2018, Vandersloot married Chicago Sky teammate Allie Quigley in a ceremony in Seattle, near Vandersloot’s hometown of Kent, Washington. In May 2025, the couple announced the birth of their first child, a daughter.
2025 Season Performance
Vandersloot returned to the Chicago Sky in 2025, the franchise that originally drafted her in 2011, signaling a full-circle chapter in her WNBA career. The reunion was widely viewed as both a mentorship opportunity for the Sky’s younger guards and a final pursuit of a third career championship for the veteran leader. Early-season form suggested she remained a central playmaker and locker-room presence.
On June 8, 2025, the Sky announced that Vandersloot had suffered a torn right anterior cruciate ligament during the previous night’s game against the Indiana Fever. She underwent surgery and was ruled out for the remainder of the 2025 season, cutting short what had been an encouraging start and shifting the team’s offensive responsibilities to her backcourt partners.
Despite the injury, Vandersloot’s legacy in 2025 was reinforced by her earlier offseason participation in Unrivaled with Mist BC and by her continued work with the Sky’s developing core. The Sky’s outlook for the rest of 2025 centered on honoring her leadership while pushing for a playoff return in the WNBA’s increasingly competitive landscape.
