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After each of the Chicago Sky’s opening weekend wins, Elizabeth Williams received an award from coach James Wade: a WWE belt.
The postgame prize is a relic from the 2021 championship team that has since morphed into a team ritual. Each game, Wade awards the belt to the player who amassed the most of a key statistic — not points, rebounds or assists, but total deflections.
The tradition began well before Williams — who starred at Princess Anne High in Virginia Beach — signed with the Sky this season. But it might as well have been created for the ninth-year center who built her game around absorbing mistakes and miscues in the post.
“That’s what I’m here to do,” Williams told the Chicago Tribune. “That’s something I talked about with James in free agency: cleaning up the mess. I think the guards will adjust to me being there and helping. I hope they use that.”
For Wade, finding an elite rim protector was a “point of emphasis” in the offseason.
The Sky needed to fill the gaps left by Azurá Stevens and Candace Parker. More importantly, Wade needed to upgrade the rim protection if he wanted to follow through on the high-octane, high-risk defense he hoped to build this year’s roster around.
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Williams gives every player on the perimeter the confidence to gamble, knowing they’re well-insured by her presence in the paint. That confidence was clear in the season opener against the Minnesota Lynx, when seven players combined for 14 steals, including three by Williams herself.
“It’s just refreshing knowing that you got back-up behind you,” guard Dana Evans said. “(Williams) gives me more comfort and I’m able to apply more pressure because I know if I get beat, I have her back there.”
Williams is hard to bait into the air, keeping herself grounded until the last possible moment. Her game centers on using her advantage in each matchup: length against guards, strength against smaller forwards, swift footwork against longer centers.
For a Sky team with jittery perimeter defenders like Courtney Williams and Marina Mabrey eager to make gutsy plays, Williams provides a cooling factor that will be key to a balanced defense.
“She’s very disciplined,” Wade said. “When you have these jumpers — not jump shots, but players that are bouncing — you don’t see her leave her feet early. Her timing is good where she waits until you do leave your feet and then that’s when she makes her move. And she has enough length and speed and athleticism where you can be committed to what you want to do and she can still catch up to it.”
Williams’ next block will quietly carve her WNBA legacy deeper into the record books as she passes Hall of Famer Tina Thompson to become the 14th all-time career blocks leader. Only two other players ahead of Williams are currently active: Parker at fifth and Brittney Griner at third. (Tina Charles is 12th all-time and has not retired, but is not currently on a WNBA roster.)
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It took the 13 players ahead of Williams an average of 12.9 seasons to secure their place in the standings. Williams is on her ninth season, leaving plenty of runway for the center to continue staking her legacy among the top rim protectors.
“To even be in that conversation is great,” Williams said. “I love blocking shots, so I’m gonna keep doing it.”
Playing solid defense is nothing new to Williams, who helped Princess Anne High win two state championships before moving on to Duke. At Duke, Williams was the 2015 National Defensive Player of the Year; a four-time Associated Press All-American; the ACC’s first four-time Defensive Player of the Year; and the first player in ACC history to have more than 1,900 points, 1,000 rebounds and 400 blocks in her career.
Williams was drafted fourth overall by Connecticut in the 2015 WNBA Draft, spent six seasons with the Atlanta Dream and also played for the Washington Mystics before signing with Chicago.
In the WNA, blocking shots is the flashy side of Williams’ game — but the bulk of her impact is the grimy work that often fades into the background of a win.
The final seconds of Sunday’s win over the Phoenix Mercury showcased the unglamorous necessity of Williams in the post. The Sky led 71-67 with :33 seconds left on the clock. The Mercury had one clear target — Griner, who led both teams in scoring with 27 points.
A full six inches shorter than the 6-foot-9 Griner, Williams was outmatched physically, but she created her own upper hand through footwork and effective positioning. The moment Griner dropped down to the low block to seek out her post-up, Williams crushed their shoulders together, forcing her opponent fully behind her body while narrowing the passing angle to Diana Taurasi on the perimeter.
Once Taurasi went for the lob, Williams released and leapt into the air, opting to swat the ball away from Griner rather than fight with the larger center for possession. Courtney Williams snagged the free ball for the Sky, the Mercury were forced to foul, allowing the Sky to ride out the final seconds for their second-straight win.
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Fronting is an important defensive approach for Williams, whose focus on disrupting entry passes is a key to protecting the rim before opposing frontcourt players even have a chance to shoot.
“Being in denial positions, that’s going to be really important to be disruptive and disrupt people’s flow,” Williams said. “At the end of the day, as much as people talk about shooting threes, teams want to get in the paint.”
Williams’ impact became even more critical as the Sky frontcourt was halved in the weeks leading up to the season. Ruthy Hebard gave birth to her son Xzavier three weeks before training camp. Izzy Harrison underwent surgery for a torn left meniscus the morning of the opener.
In the wake of those absences, the frontcourt is relatively untested: fourth-year forward Alanna Smith, maternity replacement player Kristen Anigwe, WNBA first-year Morgan Bertsch and 20-year-old rookie Sika Koné.
But with Williams as an anchor, the beleaguered unit withstood its first two tests against star centers like Griner.
“We’re gonna play really hard and we’re gonna do what we have to do to bring success,” Williams said. “Whether it’s little things like screening, finishing, easy shots, defending, being pests — we’re gonna do those things.
“It’s obviously just a really different view for us, but I think we’re still a capable group.”