Overview: WNBA Icon and Twin Cities Hoops
Sports Columnist Charles Hallman reports on Minnesota Lynx legend Sylvia Fowles returning to the Twin Cities in a brand-new role, along with a look inside the local summer league championships crowning new basketball talent across Minneapolis.
There are nearly 20 former WNBA players now serving as assistant coaches this season. This includes multi-time Hall of Famer Sylvia Fowles in her first season with the expansion Portland Fire.
“It’s been everything I could have expected,” said Sweet Syl, now Coach Syl, in her first time on the sidelines.
After a 14-year storied W career, including two championships during her seven seasons at Minnesota (2015-22), Fowles recently spoke to reporters prior to the July 15 Portland-Lynx contest — we briefly joked beforehand that I should have kept the tapes where she repeatedly said no to coaching after her playing career concluded.
A Legacy Rooted in Minnesota
Fowles smiled as she told us what drew her to the Pacific Northwest: “My general manager Vanja Cernivec spoke some really good things to me … on the things that we were trying to do in Portland, and how we wanted to treat our young women that come through the organization, and I was in for it,” recalled the W legend.
Standing 6-foot-6, Fowles is perhaps the last of the true great bigs in pro basketball, who ruled the paint like owning a Picasso. First drafted by Chicago in 2008, Fowles later made headlines by not re-signing with the Sky and sat out to force a three-team trade to Minnesota halfway through the 2015 season. She then cemented her place in W history with the Lynx.
“Minnesota is definitely that stepping stool of what I needed to put a stamp on what my legacy should be,” reaffirmed Fowles, whose post-playing career was to become a mortician and own her own funeral home.
“This is home at heart forever, and I’m just happy to have the Hall of Fame and my jersey hanging up in these rafters alongside with a lot of great players up there already.”
The first-year assistant coach stressed that she doesn’t have time to reminisce about her greatness to the Fire players.
“It’s all day-to-day basketball stuff,” she continued, “but it’s just a different approach of how we do that and being very intentional. I think we have a good group of young women that’s eager to learn, that want to learn, suck up a lot of information. So, I think I’m in the right place.”
It’s now chapter two for Sweet Syl, whose reputation for giving to her teammates and the community is continuing in the Pacific Northwest, and she loves it.
“I think the love for the game, and also feeling like you want to contribute,” surmised Fowles.
“I really did do some good things, and so hopefully I can sit back once it’s all set and done, and be like, ‘Dang, I really was a good coach.’”
Twin Cities summer basketball leagues crown their 2026 champions
Two local summer leagues are now in the books.
The YWCA Women’s Summer Basketball League: College/A League is one of the few in the Twin Cities just for women. It ran on Wednesday night from June 2 through July 22 at the Minneapolis Sports Center on Lake Street on the South Side.
Credit: Charles Hallman/MSR
“I feel proud because this is the most teams that we’ve had in the past few years,” said Director Bruce Smith. “This summer we had, I think roughly 25, 26 teams. Next year our goal is to get around 30. My goal is to do two nights a week and actually have a championship game at the Target Center.”
Across town, the Twin Cities Pro-Am Summer League concluded its summer season last week as YHIC defeated Strictly 104-96 for the championship. The three-week league (July 11-Aug. 5) was played three nights a week at DeLaSalle High School.
Credit: Charles Hallman/MSR
“First of all, shout out to the Twin Cities program for allowing us to play and have our Park Center alums on our team. It just means a lot,” said YHIC Coach James Ware, a former Park Center boys’ basketball coach.
“I put a lot of blood, sweat and tears to these guys when they were 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18 years old to move them to college (and) do their thing at Division I, Division II whatever, and then to be able to coach them.
“It’s nothing more gratifying than seeing their success,” said Ware, who becomes Hopkins boys’ coach this season. He coached at Park Center for a decade and won the 2022 Class 4A championship.
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