Mock drafts aside, the 2019 WNBA Draft, scheduled for today at 6 pm CST, is still an important day for 36 young women hoopsters.
Lynx/WNBA
Sports: a space for local and national sports news, with emphasis on stories pertaining to African Americans.
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Reflections on Lynx greatness
For the most part, there was some consensus between the selections of Lynx-Timberwolves Broadcaster Lea B. Olsen (LBO) and original season ticket holder Debbie Montgomery (DM).
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WNBA president prevaricates on league issues
In her September 7 press conference transcripts, Borders seemed to dance around nearly every topic asked by reporters in Seattle, where the 2018 Finals began.
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Lynx made WNBA comeback history in their first successful season’s playoffs
An actual change of the guard took place in the months leading up to the 2003 season. Some at the time felt it was needed, a clean break from the Brian Agler era when early expectations too often turned into later disappointments.
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Paying our last respects to Aretha
Aretha Franklin wasn’t called “The Queen of Soul” for being a one-hit wonder. Franklin died last week of pancreatic cancer at age 76 in her Detroit home. Despite her worldwide fame, she never forgot her Motor City roots, which were grounded at the church of her late father, Rev. C.L. Franklin. She taught herself to […]
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WNBA playoffs ‘wide open’
“The league has flip-flopped,” Washington Coach Mike Thibault told the MSR after Sunday’s Mystics-Lynx contest. The Lynx (7th) and the Sparks (6th), the 2016 and 2017 championship finalists, must battle it out in a knock-out game rather than in the finals. The winner will play either Washington or Connecticut.
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Rookie Moore’s trade to Minnesota came at a bad time
Now, looking back, Moore saw the trade “was a validation that I am a good player in this league.” However, coming home to play in the downtown arena just minutes from where she grew up wasn’t the homecoming she had hoped for, Moore said.
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The W’s second half
If the first half was any indication, the next nine games or so of the 2018 WNBA regular season will perhaps go down as the most unpredictable season in league history.
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A WNBA All-Star experience to remember
But, the highlight of the weekend for me came near the end of the WNBA FIT Clinic when England’s five-year-old son Ahmir Crump put on a dribbling display that mesmerized the onlookers in attendance.
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Sportswriter’s All-Star streak continues
This reporter got a photo of the four Lynx All-Stars clowning around, sitting together in the locker room – the first time in league history four teammates were chosen as All-Stars. That quartet several weeks later that year helped bring Minnesota its first pro basketball championship since the Lakers in the 1950s.
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The behind-the-scenes local ‘MVP’ of this year’s WNBA All-Star game
Perhaps the “MVP” — the person who Lynx fans should thank for Minneapolis as the first-time host of the WNBA’s annual event — is the same person who has been instrumental in bringing last February’s Super Bowl and next year’s Men’s Final Four to the city, among other high-profile sporting events: Meet Minneapolis and Sports Minneapolis President-CEO Melvin Tennant.
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W players fire back at salary critics
“I think that perception [is] based on misinformation,” Kayla McBride said. “I think a lot of people who have this perception of women’s basketball or the WNBA compare it to the NBA most of the time. They compare it to the men’s story, their ways and salaries and stuff.”
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White and Black athletes should stand together against injustice
Lindsay Whalen, about this time two years ago, stood alongside her Black teammates wearing black T-shirts to protest the Philando Castile shooting in Falcon Heights, a similar shooting in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and other such tragedies.
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Pro hoopsters go to Harvard
Harvard Business Administration Professor Anita Elberse, who first started and teaches the semester-long course with NBA players, pairing them with MBA student mentors. This year a new program was opened to WNBA players.
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Lennox, a stand-out Lynx rookie in 2001, calls the team ‘my first home’
“It was my first [pro] team,” Betty Lennox recalled in a recent MSR phone interview. Just the season before, she and Grace Daley became only the second rookie duo ever to combine for the most made three-pointers (72) for the same team. Now 42, she is the women’s basketball coach at Metropolitan Community College-Penn Valley in Kansas City, Missouri.
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Former local prep stars who’ve reached the WNBA
Lindsay Whalen (Hutchinson, University of Minnesota, Minnesota Lynx), Tayler Hill (Minneapolis South, Ohio State University, Washington Mystics), Nia Coffey (Hopkins, Northwestern University, Las Vegas Aces), and Rachel Banham (Lakeville North, University of Minnesota, Connecticut Sun) have all made their marks thus far in the WNBA’s 20th season.
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WNBA rookie Wilson off to a strong start
Amber Stokes is one of two Black female coach/GMs in the WNBA. Now in her second year in Chicago, Stokes told the MSR that she has adjusted to her dual role.
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ESPN’s annual ‘Body Issue’ popular – and controversial
Serena Williams’s 2009 Body Issue cover still ranks as ESPN’s best seller – hers was one of six alternative covers used for the inaugural issue. This year it’s called BODY10, which hit newsstands June 29.
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Traditional ‘bigs’ give way to roaming centers
This season there are 25 WNBA players officially listed as centers, and seven others are listed as center-forwards. Williams, who has coached in the W for 15 seasons, says, “You need a big to alter shots or at least have [an] opportunity in the paint, a person with length who can move off screens and can play good defense. You got about five or six bigs who are top scorers in our league.”
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The sisters Ogwumike enjoy ‘tag-teaming’ each other
The older sister heads the players union. Her younger sister, a middle child in a family of four daughters, is virtually working two jobs at the same time. Both are WNBA stars. They are the sisters Ogwumike, Nnemkadi and Chinenye.