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Dana Evans couldn’t stand to be second into the gym.
The first day of training camp for the Chicago Sky began promptly at 9 a.m. So Evans strolled into the team facility at 7:58 a.m. with a cup of coffee in hand, budgeting plenty of time to warm up and get up a few shots before the rest of the team assembled.
For Evans, time in the gym was all that mattered in the weeks leading up to her third season with the Sky. She stayed after each practice to drill 3-pointers, curling around screens and launching the high-arcing shot that has become her signature.
The level of effort might not seem entirely necessary. Evans’ spot on the Sky roster was guaranteed, the team’s investment in the Gary, Ind., native only deepened by the extension of her contract through 2024.
But for Evans, this always has been personal. Chicago is her home. And whether she’s starting or coming off the bench, the Sky are her franchise — a team she hopes to mold on and off the court as a primary ballhandler this season.
“I just want to set the tone,” Evans said. “I just want to be that person like, ‘Damn, she just works so hard. I see her on the court at all times. I never see her taking a break. I see her be the first one in and the last one out.’ I just want to set that tone and let them know this is the standard.”
After the departure of star point guard Courtney Vandersloot, coach James Wade had one message for Evans this offseason: “It’s your time now.”
For her first two seasons in Chicago, Evans mostly rode the bench behind Vandersloot, taking every advantage to learn from one of the preeminent point guards in the league. But now that Evans is moving into a new role, the Sky don’t want her to model her play after anyone but herself.
“We want Dana to be Dana,” Wade said. “That’s the most important part of it. We want her to be her. And she’s ready for this moment.”
Evans averaged 9.7 minutes in her first two seasons with the Sky, picking up the majority deep in the secondary rotation and in mop-up minutes. Now the Gary native is shouldering the mantle as one of the team’s primary ballhandlers.
This might seem like a burden or gauntlet for a third-year guard with minimal starting experience. But Evans’ teammates haven’t wavered in their faith that she can command the new-look offense.
“I know what she can do,” veteran Kahleah Copper said. “I’ve seen her, I’m confident in it. I want her to bring what she can do and make it work with the team. I want her to really help us get along. I want her to be able to facilitate, I want her to be herself and be able to score and I want her to lead us. I want her to really take that point guard position with pride.”
Evans is no stranger to waiting. She came off the bench in her first two years at Louisville, then won the first of two consecutive ACC Player of the Year awards as a junior. She understands the value of biding her time.
Still, it was impossible not to feel the impatience. For the last two years, Evans pushed Wade for more playing time. He continued to urge that her time would come, emphasizing the importance of learning from Vandersloot as she scraped up minimal minutes.
It’s a familiar path for Copper, who assumes her new role as the Sky’s leader on and off the court after six seasons as a secondary star behind Vandersloot and Candace Parker.
Evans’ growth is another part of the Sky that Copper feels a singular responsibility in cultivating.
“This is why it’s so special. I see flashes of me,” Copper said. “That’s been my process, and I see how one wrong turn can take you one way and another turn can take you another way and I didn’t have a me. I didn’t have anybody who had that similar process. So I know what it’s going to take for her to reach that stardom. I just want to be able to be in her corner and navigate her through that.”
With increased expectations came increased requirements for the offseason, which Evans spent playing for Beşiktaş in Turkey, with whom she averaged 23.5 points and six assists. Evans lifted twice a day in Turkey, packing on visible muscle to strengthen her core and durability.
“I always have an advantage against any player because I know I’m in better shape,” Evans said. “I can outrun you and I can pick you up full court but I know you can’t do the same to me because you’re going to be too tired.”
Fitness always has been a key to Evans’ game. But this season she doesn’t want her play to rely solely on athleticism.
As the primary scorer and ballhandler for Beşiktaş, Evans had plenty of opportunities to focus on breaking defenders down in 1-vs.-1 situations, aiming to add a layer of craftiness to her game.
She studied both the NBA and WNBA, taking notes from Steph Curry off the ball and Kyrie Irving on it. But Evans had the ultimate tutor in her first two years with the Sky — Vandersloot, who modeled the importance of pacing to free up space from a defender and giving teammates the opportunity to get open.
“Watching (Vandersloot) taught me patience,” Evans said. “You take your time, then you go. For me I’ve always been so much faster than my opponent, so I’m just always going full speed the whole time. But now, I’m stopping and going, I’m picking and choosing and I’m building that rhythm to outsmart my defender.”
Throughout training camp, Evans often found herself surrounded by the rest of her guard unit — Copper, returning guard Rebekah Gardner and new addition Courtney Williams. Marina Mabrey quickly joined the informal huddles as a late arrival after the end of the EuroLeague season with Schio in Italy.
Even with limited time to train together in the preseason, Evans already was scheming optimal ways to play off her fellow guards — running Williams off stagger screens to open up her pullup jumper, utilizing kick-outs to Mabrey to stretch defenses thin.
The veteran group described Evans as eager to learn, absorbing critiques and challenges voraciously.
“She’s like a sponge,” Williams said after the Sky’s second practice. “She’s just soaking it all up.”
If Evans is honest, it still hasn’t sunk in — her increased role on her hometown team, the expectations surrounding her third season in the WNBA.
Sure, it has been more than two years. She has logged close to 70 games in a Sky uniform, won a title, carried the trophy through the streets of Chicago on the back of a celebration float. But midway through a phone call with her father during training camp, Evans found herself marveling yet again at her current situation.
“I don’t think it ever will (sink in),” Evans said. “I always came to games, I always watched but I never really envisioned myself playing for the Sky. So I don’t think it will ever set in. It’s too special.”
