Minnesota Lynx

Team information

Inaugural season: 1999

Home stadium: Target Center

Owner: Alex Rodriguez, Marc Lore

Team colors: Blue, green, gray

Overview

The Minnesota Lynx are a franchise in the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA). Formally affiliated with the Minnesota Timberwolves of the National Basketball Association (NBA), the Lynx were established in April 1998 and began play in the 1999 WNBA season. Since their founding, the Lynx have become one of the WNBA’s most successful clubs. Through the first twenty-five seasons of WNBA play (1997–2021), the Lynx won four championships to tie them with the Houston Comets and Seattle Storm for tops in the league.

Sharing the Target Center in Minneapolis with the Timberwolves, the Lynx were owned by sports investor and entrepreneur Glen Taylor. In 2021, Taylor entered into an agreement with retired Major League Baseball (MLB) star Alex Rodriguez and his business partner Marc Lore that will see Taylor transfer ownership of the Timberwolves and Lynx to Rodriguez and Lore in 2024. According to the agreement, Taylor will remain in control of the two franchises until the completion of the scheduled transition.

Also in 2021, the Lynx unveiled new uniforms as part of the WNBA’s twenty-fifth anniversary partnership with Nike. As with other WNBA teams, the uniform collection included new home and road jerseys, plus an alternate third jersey. The Lynx adopted a blue jersey with green accents, a white jersey with green accents, and a black jersey with gray accents. They reflect the club’s official color scheme of blue, green, and gray.

History

After staging a successful launch in 1997, the WNBA began to grow rapidly. In April 1998, the league announced plans to add expansion teams in Minnesota and Orlando for its 1999 season. The Lynx unveiled their team name in December 1998 and made their WNBA debut as scheduled in 1999, playing before a crowd of more than twelve thousand fans in Detroit against the Detroit Shock. Minnesota defeated Detroit in the game but finished the 1999 season with a record of 15 wins and 17 losses, finishing outside the playoffs. The club posted an identical 15–17 record in 2000 before sliding to 12–20 in 2001. After a 6–13 start in 2002, the Lynx made the first coaching change in franchise history, replacing Brian Agler with Heidi VanDerveer. VanDerveer led the team to a 4–9 record in its thirteen remaining games in the 2002 season, prompting the Lynx to replace her with Suzie McConnell Serio ahead of the 2003 campaign.

Under McConnell Serio, the Lynx enjoyed their first winning season and playoff appearance. In 2003, the team finished the season with an 18–16 record and met the Los Angeles Sparks in their first-ever playoff round, a best-of-three Western Conference semifinal series. After taking game one by a 74–72 score, the Lynx dropped the next two games and were eliminated by the Sparks, who went on to reach that year’s WNBA Finals. In 2004, the Lynx once again finished with an 18–16 record, and once again lost in the first round of the playoffs, this time dropping a three-game series to the Seattle Storm by a 2–0 margin.

In 2005, the Lynx regressed to a 14–20 record to miss the playoffs. McConnell Serio was replaced by Carolyn Jenkins with eleven games to go in the 2006 season, but Jenkins led the team to just two wins as the Lynx struggled to a 10–24 finish and another non-playoff appearance. Coaches Don Zierden (2007–2008) and Jennifer Gillom (2009) also struggled to get positive results, with the Lynx posting losing records and finishing outside the playoffs during their respective tenures. However, the 2010 arrival of former Detroit Shock assistant Cheryl Reeve as the Lynx’s new head coach would soon lead to a major turnaround.

After adding several key players including Rebekkah Brunson and Lindsay Whalen during the 2009–2010 off-season, the transformed Lynx entered the 2010 WNBA campaign with promise and optimism. The team finished 2010 with an underwhelming 13–21 record but lived up to their potential in 2011 by posting a league-best record of 27–7. Buoyed by the star-making performance of rookie Maya Moore, whom the Lynx acquired with the first-overall pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft, the Lynx entered the playoffs as strong favorites. The team delivered on their potential, besting the San Antonio Stars and Phoenix Mercury in the first two rounds of the playoffs to reach the WNBA Finals for the first time in franchise history. There, the Lynx met the Atlanta Dream, with the Lynx sweeping the best-of-five series to capture their first WNBA championship.

Their 2011 championship run marked the beginning of an extended period of WNBA dominance for the Lynx. From 2011–2017, the Lynx were one of the league’s best clubs, reaching the WNBA Finals six times in seven seasons and winning four championships (2011, 2013, 2015, 2017). Moore was a fixture for the Lynx during this era. She was named a WNBA All-Star five times in eight seasons, peaking in 2014 with a points-per-game (PPG) average of 23.9 before stepping away from the WNBA after the 2018 season for personal reasons.

Since Moore’s departure, the Lynx have maintained their winning ways during the regular season but have not replicated their high-level playoff success. They made first-round playoff exits in 2018 and 2019 after posting 18–16 records in both seasons. In a shortened 2020 season interrupted by the COVID-19 global pandemic, the Lynx finished 14–8 and advanced to the “final four” in that year’s WNBA playoff tournament, where they came up short against the eventual champion Seattle Storm. In 2021, the Lynx earned a second-place finish in the WNBA’s Western Conference, going 22–10 to earn a bye into a single-elimination second-round playoff game against the Chicago Sky. Chicago defeated Minnesota 89–76 en route to their first WNBA title.

In 2022, the Lynx resigned Sylvia Fowles to a one-year deal. Fowles planned to retire at the end of the season. The team finished eighth that year and did not qualify for the playoff. The Lynx had a new head coach, Cheryl Reeve, in 2023. The Lynx finished in fifth place that year.

Notable players

In 2021, the ESPN sports network released its picks for the twenty-five greatest players in WNBA history to coincide with the league’s twenty-fifth season. The Lynx were well-represented in the list, which included Maya Moore (4th place), Sylvia Fowles (10th), Seimone Augustus (14th), Katie Smith (16th), Lindsay Whalen (19th), and Rebekkah Brunson (24th).

After being selected by the Lynx with the number-one pick in the 2011 WNBA Draft, Moore authored an illustrious career as one of the greatest offensive talents in league history. She captured WNBA Rookie of the Year honors in 2011, the same year she helped the Lynx to their first championship. During her career, Moore also won one league scoring title, one WNBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award (2013), and five inclusions on the All-WNBA First Team all-star roster. Moore also excelled on the defensive side of the ball, appearing on the WNBA All-Defensive Team twice (2014, 2017). She was also MVP of the WNBA Finals in 2013. Moore left the game in her prime, stepping away from the WNBA after the 2018 season to focus on her ministry service and criminal justice reform activism.

Fowles began her career with the Chicago Sky, playing for the Sky from 2008–2014 before joining Minnesota in a 2015 mid-season trade. Though she had already established herself as a star with Chicago, Fowles took her career to a higher level as a member of the Lynx. She helped lead the team to WNBA titles in 2015 and 2017 and was named WNBA Finals MVP in both seasons. Fowles has continued to perform at a high level late into her career, earning all-star nods four times from 2017–2021 while posting 16.0 PPG in her age-35 season in 2021.

Often overlooked due to the strength of the team that surrounded her, Augustus was another key member of the Lynx dynasty that captured four titles in seven seasons. The combination guard and forward was known for her versatility and evasiveness and made eight WNBA All-Star appearances with the Lynx before joining the Los Angeles Sparks in her final WNBA season (2020).

Smith starred for the Lynx during the franchise’s early years, becoming an offensive leader for the team while earning four consecutive WNBA All-Star selections from 2000–2003. She added one final all-star nod with the Lynx (2005) before joining the Detroit Sparks, where Smith won two WNBA titles and earned the 2008 WNBA Finals MVP award.

Minnesota native Whalen saw her already strong career flourish after joining the Lynx via a 2010 trade with the Connecticut Sun. Whalen went on to become a key contributor to all four championship Lynx teams and made four of her five WNBA All-Star appearances as a member of the Lynx. A dangerous scorer and playmaker, Whalen led the league in assists three times during her career and had the third-highest career assist total in WNBA history at the time of her 2018 retirement.

Brunson was a defensive stalwart during her fifteen-season WNBA career, during which she won five championships (2005, 2011, 2013, 2015, 2017). The five-time WNBA All-Star made seven career appearances on the WNBA All-Defensive team while also performing as a key offensive contributor and team player.

Bibliography

“Minnesota Lynx.” Basketball Reference, 2021, www.basketball-reference.com/wnba/teams/MIN/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.

“Minnesota Lynx History.” WNBA, 2006, www.wnba.com/archive/wnba/lynx/history/history‗index.html. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.

“Minnesota Lynx Unveil New Uniforms.” Minnesota Lynx, 8 Apr. 2021, lynx.wnba.com/news/minnesota-lynx-unveil-new-uniforms/. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.

“Timberwolves, Lynx Owner: A-Rod, Partner in Agreement to Buy Teams.” MPR News, 11 Apr. 2021, www.mprnews.org/story/2021/04/10/timberwolves-lynx-owner-arod-partner-in-agreement-to-buy-teams. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.

“WNBA’s Greatest Players of All Time: Ranking the 25 Best in League History.” ESPN, 2024, www.espn.com/wnba/story/‗/id/32210623/wnba-greatest-players-all-ranking-25-best-league-history. Accessed 21 Mar. 2024.