Basketball star Allie Quigley loves being a mom, so much so that she has decided not to return to the WNBA.
In a recent op-ed for The Players Tribune, Quigley penned an official goodbye to fans, acknowledging that she never officially announced her retirement after taking season after season off in pursuit of building a family with wife and fellow basketball icon Courtney Vandersloot.
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Quigley hasn’t played since 2022. “I just took the 2023 season off … then I took the 2024 season off … then I took the 2025 season off….. You get the idea,” she said. “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… becoming a mom.”
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“To be honest, I thought I would get pregnant fast,” she continued, “then at least leave the option open to play one more season. But things didn’t happen as fast as we would have liked. They did happen, though!!”
On April 8, the couple welcomed Jana Christine Vandersloot Quigley into the world.
“We are over the moon to welcome our baby girl to the world,” the couple told People. “We have been dreaming of this moment for a long time, and it’s better than we could have ever imagined!”
“I know I speak for both myself and Courtney when I tell you that as special as the [Chicago] 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.”
Vandersloot and Quigley played together for the Chicago Sky (Vandersloot is still on the team). In 2021, they became the first married couple to win a professional sports championship together. The pair married in 2018 after keeping the relationship under wraps for over five years.
On Mother’s Day, the couple posted an adorable photo of their daughter wearing a blue bow and asleep on a basketball. “Everyone, meet Jana Christine,” they wrote, “our whole world.”
In her op-ed, Quigley wrote that “now that Jana is here” she feels “ready to finally and officially say goodbye to my basketball career.”
“One day, when she’s older, I think I’ll tell Jana all about my 14 seasons in the WNBA — or maybe other people will tell her, I don’t know. What I know I’ll tell her about, though, are the lessons I learned along the way. I’ll tell her that when you want something in life, I mean really want something, you don’t stop at the first obstacle. Or the second. Or the third. Or the fourth!!!”
“I’ll tell her how I got cut FOUR times before I found my place in the W — and how I wouldn’t 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 … they led me to the Sky, and some of the best people, teammates and coaches I could ever ask for … and most of all?? They led me to her mama :)”
The 38-year-old praised the moms who return to the sport after having children, saying she would do the same if she were 10 years younger.
She also spoke directly to Vandersloot: “Courtney, I’m so grateful we found each other. I think our best days are ahead of us. And as we start this new chapter of our lives, and guide Baby Jana through this world together, I’m so glad I get to be on your team.”
After the pair announced Jana’s birth, the Chicago Tribune wrote that Quigley and Vandersloot “elevated the Sky to the highest levels of the WNBA” during their 10 years playing together.
“Few pairings have defined a sport in Chicago like Vandersloot and Quigley,” the publication declared, but now it seems Quigley is content with the legacy she has left and is on to new adventures.
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