For its 25th anniversary season, the Minnesota Lynx unveiled its new Nike Rebel Edition uniforms that the team will wear at least 11 times this season. Minnesota is one of five WNBA clubs with Rebel Edition uniforms, which were first launched in 2021 to honor important moments in league history.
It only seems fitting that the new Lynx uniforms would celebrate, along with its 25-year existence, the team’s achievements both on and off the court, including perhaps the franchise’s most significant and defining moment in team history that occurred back in July 2016.
The players then unveiled black warmups with “Change Starts With Us” on the front, to protest two Black men killed by police, and called for an end to racial profiling and senseless violence.
“We were the first [WNBA] team franchise to use that platform,” recalled Minnesota Lynx President of Business Operations Carley Knox. “We got some backlash. I am so incredibly proud of our franchise.”
A key uniform detail, “Change Starts with Us” sits in the center of the waistline and repeats down the side tape. It’s more than a catchy slogan, noted Knox. “These values have always been rooted in the franchise” since she joined the organization and she’s now in her 11th year with Minnesota.
The Lynx, along with the entire WNBA, a league that is majority-Black, has been front and center in promoting racial justice and protesting injustice in this country long before it became fashionable among other professional U.S. leagues. It became the first pro sports franchise locally and nationally to publicly advocate for Black lives.
“I’m more excited about our social justice [work],” continued Knox, who was part of four championships in seven years, the most of any Twin Cities pro team in modern history. “We used our platform the entire time I’ve been here. I am so proud to come to work every day helping to change the world and make it a better place.
“I think it starts with our core values and unapologetically using our platform whenever and wherever we see injustice,” she said. “I don’t see that changing with the people in our organization. It’s so deeply rooted… It’s about having an impact on future generations.
“This is bigger than basketball. It always has been. It’s been more than wins and losses,” said Knox. The Lynx players, past and present, “are incredible role models for both boys and girls in our community, and help raise the next generation to do good and help that change.”
Travel to games can be scary
WNBA officials are now working with Phoenix center Brittney Griner and her Mercury team on traveling to and from road games for the remainder of this season. This came after earlier this month the 6’9” veteran was harassed by a social media personality at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport waiting to leave.
Since Griner was released from a Russian prison last December, many have expressed concern about her safety.
“It’s scary,” Lynx guard Rachel Banham told us last week after a practice. She and her fellow W players throughout the league have expressed support for Griner as well as calling for better travel options for teams, since all teams typically fly on commercial flights.
“I haven’t been in any situation that I feel uncomfortable,” added the Lakeville native. “But you never know what is going to happen.”
Last week league officials announced that although teams will still continue to use commercial flights, clubs can use a public chartering service if available.
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