Kahleah Copper says she’s ‘in the driver’s seat’ for the Chicago Sky after the departures of the team’s core

“It just all happened so quick.”

When Kahleah Copper found out Candace Parker, Allie Quigley, Azurá Stevens and Courtney Vandersloot weren’t returning to the Chicago Sky, she experienced a wave of emotions. They were not just her teammates but her friends.

“To have built such a great relationship on and off the court and for them to go, it was a lot,” Copper told the Tribune. “It was a lot to process in such a short time and then still have to figure out the team … just trying to keep everybody calm and out of the media. We’re going to be OK.”

The two-time All-Star wasn’t too worried. She was built for this. Growing up in “Norf Philly” made Copper a competitor with “toughness” and “swagger,” things she said shaped her and made her harder to handle.

We’re all products of the places and people we’ve been around. For Copper, that’s North Philadelphia and the departing quartet, but now it’s on her to mold the Sky — both in terms of her teammates and as an organization.

With a new season on the horizon, Copper has accepted a new role. She’s the veteran leader now and knows younger players will be looking to her to stay consistent and set the tone. She plans to “walk the walk and talk the talk.”

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And while fans might have been thinking about what was ending, she was looking at what was beginning.

“This year is very important because I’m now the Sky’s longest-tenured player, which is crazy,” Copper, 28, said. “I’ve had such great leaders throughout my career and it’s important for me to be able to step into this role.

“I think I’m ready for sure. I had great leaders show me the way, and they let me take a back seat but still lead, but now it’s no back seat, I’m driving.”

Sky coach/GM James Wade agrees.

“You can see her grow in front of your eyes,” Wade said. “Every year she’s taken bigger and bigger steps. She’s proven that there’s really no cap on what people think that she can be. She’s burst through every ceiling that people have tried to put on her. And so the next step is this.

“Her leadership is going to be key. She’s the one that’s been around to see our culture grow. So she’s going to be a main proponent of that on the floor and in practice and off the floor as well.”

Copper had been an assistant women’s basketball coach at Purdue University Northwest since 2020 when the WNBA wasn’t in season. Former Rutgers player Courtney Locke hired her, and Copper learned the ins and outs of coaching, recruiting and scouting. It helped Copper become more vocal, a trait she thinks will be necessary in helping bring success to the new-look Sky roster.

“I had a lot of responsibility and I could directly relate to the players as an active player,” she said. “I kind of got to them in different ways and I know how some will respond. So that was a great experience for me because I could see things from the coach’s lens and I could see that the different things was very important.

“I just made this joke with James about when I was doing scouting reports, and how important it is because I spent so much time watching film, breaking film down, and it makes me appreciate the coaches more because they put so much time into it. So you know when they give you a scout and they tell you don’t let your player go left, don’t let the player go left! Some of those small things were funny, but I think that the responsibility and just the communication and to be more vocal definitely helped me.”

Copper made use of that lens during free agency when she helped Wade with recruiting new players. She refers to herself as “assistant general manager.” Copper was “directly involved,” she said, with landing new players Isabelle Harrison, Marina Mabrey and Courtney Williams.

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She was “in constant communication” with Wade as the two navigated the losses of the team’s core. They discussed what the roster was going to look like and how to find — and recruit — players who would compliment Copper and the rest of the team.

What she had learned at Purdue Northwest was now second nature. Copper has been a leader and now, like Parker once was, she’s another coach on the floor, another set of eyes scouting, thinking, helping build a team she hopes will contend.

“I couldn’t imagine really being a GM,” Copper said. “You’ve got to sell it. I think this is why I appreciate and I’m super excited for this team because the players want to come despite what the roster looked like.

“Just wanting to come play with me, wanting to take the risk of seeing us put a team together. And putting it all out there. So I got lots of respect for these players that just signed not knowing what the team looked like. And seeing so many big names go and it looking like, well, they said ‘the sky is falling.’ ”

The talended Copper is excited about the additions of Harrison, Mabrey and Williams and the part she played in helping bring them together.

“Kahleah hit me and she was like, ‘Yo, let’s get after it,’ ” Williams said. “That’s all I really needed to hear. When it came down to it, she’s hungry, I’m hungry. When you bring players together that got that same mentality, it’s going to be something special.”

Most people wouldn’t want the weight of stepping into the void created by the losses ofParker, Quigley and Vandersloot. But Copper isn’t most people. She’s from North Philly, she learned under their hands and she’s ready to take the reins.

“It’s important that you never forget where you came from,” Copper said. “It’s just super important for me to always carry that and also just inspire so many little girls in North Philly who want to play at the highest level. Everybody doesn’t get a chance to.”

As she enters her eighth season in the WNBA and seventh in Chicago, Copper is appreciative of the journey to the present day.

She has grown and won a championship and a Finals MVP. She feels she was “always prepared and trusted the process,” and now with one year remaining of her two-year contract, she said she is ready for more — for bigger.

“I just want to be successful,” Copper said. “You bounce this basketball and it takes you to new heights and it’s unbelievable what this ball can do for your life. It gives you an opportunity to do things you never thought you could do.”

Chicago Tribune reporter Julia Poe contributed.