My Neighbors Hold Out Hope Chicago Sky Drafts Vida The Rebounding Dog

CHICAGO — Meet Vida, the rebounding dog.

I was introduced to the tiny, almost 2-year-old Lakeland terrier as she stalked air balls at the Langley Park court in Pullman with pesky persistence.

"There's something about a bouncing basketball that she's obsessed with," my neighbor Bridgette Davis said the first time I spotted Vida using her front paws to snag a board, and using her nose to dribble the ball back to her owner.

Each time, Vida furiously wagged her tiny tail, as if to say, "Again, shoot it again."

Davis and her wife, Ellen Sale, say the coronavirus quarantine and the Chicago Sky's WNBA title run might are likely responsible for the gray, 15-inch-tall purebred's laser-like focus on snagging rebounds and dishing passes.

Lakeland terriers are known in dog show circles as bold "big dogs in small packages" with "cock-of-the-walk swagger" and nearly insurmountable energy. And smart enough to fend away boredom by picking a hobby.

For Vida, it's basketball. She's a hooper.

Sky superfans, Davis and Sale say it's likely that their tiny dog became enamored with basketball thanks to time spent snuggling with them while Chicago's WNBA team played on TV.

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And then there was the day that Vida found a stray basketball on an empty tennis court.

"She was a puppy and the ball was way bigger than her head. She just started rolling it around with the side of her head and nosing it," Davis said. "It was pretty funny."

So, Davis got Vida a Sky blue-and-yellow mini basketball and set up makeshift agility courses in the basement and garage.

Ever since, Vida has insisted on a strict regiment of two-a-day basketball drills — immediately after breakfast and supper, like clockwork.

"Her skills have definitely improved since the fall," Davis said.

I've seen it myself. Vida noses a basketball with point-guard proficiency that might impress Sky stars Candace Parker, Allie Quigley and WNBA Finals MVP (and proud dog mom) Kahleah Copper.

It wasn't until the weather started to warm that Davis realized Vida wasn't just obsessed with a ball, like a Labrador with a one-track mind.

It's the game of basketball that Vida loves.

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That was clear as soon as the tiny dog spotted neighborhood kids shooting around at the Langley court on a recent warm afternoon.

Vida immediately ditched her doggie pals and wriggled her tiny frame through the bars of a wrought iron fence onto the court to grab rebounds with Pullman kids.

"Bridgette has been coming home and telling me, 'Well, today the mailman stopped and took a video of Vida rebounding.' Or, 'Today Vida played basketball with five teenagers,'" Sale said.

"I had no idea what she was talking about. And now, Bridgette has been shooting with her so much that [Vida] is locked in. She's so small and focused. The other day, I swear I saw Vida strip Bridgette of the ball."

Word of Vida's half-court prowess has spread around the neighborhood. When local TikToker Trequawn Edwards spotted Vida in action, he pulled out his phone and started filming.

"She can board, she can pass … she can do it all," Edwards said. "It's crazy."

I even heard someone refer to Vida as the "doggy Dennis Rodman of Langley Park."

While Vida seems content playing pickup games at the park, Davis, well, she's a dreamer.

"I keep imaging a world where Quigley is shooting 3-pointers and Vida is her rebounder," Davis said. "The Chicago Sky, of course, they don't know that Vida is a No.1 fan and aspiring ball girl."

Until now, that is.

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docuseries on CNN and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary "16 Shots.
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