Everyone has their own basketball journey. And everyone has their own path that they take to reach the professional level.

For Allie Quigley, her journey has taken her to five different WNBA teams, Phoenix Mercury, Indiana Fever, San Antonio Silver Stars and Chicago Sky, and three different European teams — Mersin BSB, Fenerbahce Istanbul and Galatasray. 

But the start of Quigley’s career was filled with multiple teams cutting her, forcing her to go to Europe in order to better her game for the WNBA. 

The team that eventually took a chance on Quigley was the Sky in 2013. The following seven years have gone just about as well as anyone could have imagined for both sides. 

The past six seasons has seen Quigley win the WNBA’s Sixth Woman of the Year twice and make the all-star team three times. She has also been one of the league’s best 3-point shooters in recent years, with the Chicago native leading the league in 3-point makes in 2019. 

But Quigley’s most recent accomplishment set her name in the Sky’s record books forever. On Sept. 2, against the Minnesota Lynx, Quigley became the Sky’s all-time leading scorer — passing Sylvia Fowles with 3,036 points and counting. 

“Right after I found out that I did it, we had lost, so it wasn’t a huge, happy moment in the locker room,” Quigley said. “But after getting text messages from friends and family, just seeing the support, I had a moment to think about it and realize it’s a pretty cool thing just that there are 12 [teams] in the WNBA. 

Quigley’s numbers continue to grow and she is among the Sky’s leaders in points and near the top in field goal and 3-point percentage. This season, she is averaging 15.4 points per game on 44.8 percent shooting from the field and 34.6 percent from behind the arc. 

“It’s been a lot of hard work, a lot of extra practice, staying positive because there’s been a lot of tough moments,” Quigley said. “But just never giving up and always trying to work to figure out the reason things were so tough. How can I get better? Learning from different coaches, different players and just trying to improve every single day.” 

Quigley’s record-setting night against the Lynx came a game later after her teammate, and wife, Courtney Vandersloot set the record for most assists in a game — with 18 against the Indiana Fever. But Vandersloot’s 18th assist was even more special because it came off a made basket from Quigley. 

“It was definitely a special week for us, her getting the 18th assist,” Quigley said. “It’s just unreal — it’s a record you never think will be broken. I hope she has it for a long time, enjoys it and she deserves it. She works harder than anyone else.”

Being an efficient scorer is nothing new to Quigley. At DePaul, from 2004-08, Quigley was a consistent top scorer for the Blue Demons and finished her career with over 2,000 points — a record only four other players have achieved at DePaul. 

“Allie Quigley was born a scorer,” DePaul women’s basketball coach Doug Bruno said. “She scored and drove in runs playing baseball against the boys growing up. She scored playing volleyball as an All-American outside hitter at Joliet Catholic. She scored the ball playing hoops against boys in grammar school. She scored the ball playing hoops here at DePaul.”

In Quigley’s first four years with the Sky, she only started a combined eight games. But in 2017, while starting all 31 games, she averaged a career-best 16.4 points per game on 43 percent shooting from the 3-point line. 

“It does not surprise me that Allie would become the Chicago Sky’s all-time leading scorer,” Bruno  said. “Earning her way into the WNBA after getting cut multiple times and becoming a three-time WNBA All-Star is Allie Quigley’s biggest score of all.”

The 2020 WNBA season has been unprecedented with the COVID-19 pandemic forcing the league to postpone in May. But the league got their season underway in July in one location in an effort to minimize the spread of the virus. The Sky finished the shortened season at 12-10, which is good enough to place them at the sixth-seed for the playoffs.

The Sky will open up the playoffs against the Connecticut Sun (10-12) on Tuesday in a first-round, single-elimination game. 

“Just for the league, for the players to pull this season off, I’m grateful we are able to have jobs right now,” Quigley said. “A lot of people don’t have [jobs right now] and we are grateful. They did so much work to make this bubble safe. Just feel really lucky that we are able to be apart of this, and will definitely be a special experience to look back on.”