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Take a moment and behold the Minnesota Lynx Decade

By Howard Megdal

WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 17: The Minnesota Lynx huddle up after their victory against the Washington Mystics in Game Three of the Semifinals during the 2017 WNBA Playoffs on September 17, 2017 at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images)
WASHINGTON, DC - SEPTEMBER 17: The Minnesota Lynx huddle up after their victory against the Washington Mystics in Game Three of the Semifinals during the 2017 WNBA Playoffs on September 17, 2017 at the Capital One Arena in Washington, DC. NOTE TO USER: User expressly acknowledges and agrees that, by downloading and or using this photograph, User is consenting to the terms and conditions of the Getty Images License Agreement. Mandatory Copyright Notice: Copyright 2017 NBAE (Photo by Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images) /
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WASHINGTON—Cheryl Reeve, setter of standards and ultimately coaching avatar for our age, smiled and deflected the success of this, the Minnesota Lynx decade, to her players on Sunday afternoon.

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“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet for them,” Reeve said, standing in the hallway of Capital One Arena in Washington early Sunday evening, after an 81-70 win for the Lynx over the Mystics lifted her team into a sixth WNBA finals in the past seven seasons. “It might not until they’ve finished playing. They’re so in the moment.”

The question was about Reeve’s success, but this is how she always responds, making it about her players. Naturally, the converse is true as well.

“I think a lot has to do with the coach and who she want to pick on at that time,” Lynx center Sylvia Fowles said, asked how the players decide who will take over in games, and when. “I think our point guard does a really good job of getting us into an offensive flow. Us taking into consideration what we can do at any given point and making sure we go out there and do it when needed.”

And it is that co-existence of team buy-in and individual brilliance that has made playing the Lynx an exercise in futility for so many. It is easy to minimize what Reeve, Fowles, Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson have done, in part because there are so many of them, such a talented collective, that the assumed success becomes a kind of silencer for the generational nature of their accomplishments.

Sure, the Lynx are in the finals again. Then comes Halloween and Thanksgiving.

But just because Reeve has spent the decade of the 2010s navigating what are, let’s face it, first-world problems, doesn’t mean doing so as successfully as she has is any less impressive.

A team built around Moore, Whalen, Augustus and Brunson managed to incorporate Fowles midseason in 2015 sufficiently well to win the WNBA title that season, with Fowles winning WNBA Finals MVP. Nor was that enough for Reeve or Fowles, who collaborated on an improvement that landed Fowles a 2017 MVP, defying the aging curve by getting even better in her 30s than she was in her 20s.

Speaking of defying the typical career norm, did you see Seimone Augustus go out and end Washington’s season? Augustus is 33. She’s an easy Hall of Famer already. But she went out and had her most efficient shooting season in five years in 2017, while coming out of the locker room for the third quarter with a simple mission: to take over the game. A 10-0 Augustus run later, the Lynx had crushed the spirit of the Mystics.

“Seimone, we asked for halftime, we needed a little bit more; get involved offensively because she’s been a key to the series,” Reeve said. “She took that to heart. Really was aggressive, made some shots, played some great defense.”

WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 17: Seimone Augustus, Cheryl Reeve, Sylvia Fowles
WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 17: Seimone Augustus, Cheryl Reeve, Sylvia Fowles /

And that is how the Lynx operate, how they ended Washington’s season, really: picking the right person at the right time. Moore early, into double figures before the first quarter was out. Augustus, going on a run of her own, which she can do in the flow of the offense or in iso sets, which remain a vital component of her game (and not surprisingly, Reeve went to multiple times during this series out of timeouts).

And then Whalen in the fourth, eight points in the quarter and orchestrating this team like the weeks she missed with her broken her were the most ephemeral of fleeting moments.

That is a testament to Whalen’s greatness, yes, but also of the group, and of Reeve herself. This league is filled with players and coaches who never stop working. Somehow, the Lynx just decide to get better, and then do. Augustus made it all sound so easy Sunday afternoon, explaining this Benjamin Button roster as occurring because “we just keep working”. And they do, and surely this is why. But so many players, already so accomplished, finding another level? That doesn’t happen. It certainly doesn’t last this long.

“Whalen’s an emotional leader,” Augustus said. “When she gets fired up, whether we in practice or a game, it really changes the momentum of our team mentality. How aggressive we become, the intensity. So, when we see Whalen, we always say get to cussing and spitting, when Whalen cusses and spits, you best believe the length we’re probably going to run, or something good is about to happen.”

That’s why so many see Whalen as the Reeve proxy on the floor: there’s no letting up. Up 2-0, the Lynx didn’t come to Washington Sunday feeling self-satisfied. They went for the kill, and got it, and Reeve set the tone pregame, at halftime, in practice, even during the rare lapses, calling timeout after the Mystics got a layup too easily and racing onto the court so fast, it looked like she was ready to defend dribble penetration herself.

The results are clear for everyone to see. There have been many talented teams in league history. No one has done what Reeve’s Lynx have managed to accomplish: six WNBA finals in seven seasons is unprecedented, with a fourth title now in reach—though hardly assured, the defending champs from Los Angeles standing in the way.

Even the Sparks provide a window into the astonishing length of Minnesota greatness. Back in 2011, Candace Parker played for the Sparks, yes. But so did Ticha Penicheiro, Tina Thompson, DeLisha Milton-Jones. Jelly Bean Bryant coached them. It was a fundamentally different era in WNBA history.

ATLANTA, GA – OCTOBER 07: Head coach Cheryl Reeve, Lindsay Whalen and Maya Moore in the final minutes of Game 3, 2011 WNBA Finals
ATLANTA, GA – OCTOBER 07: Head coach Cheryl Reeve, Lindsay Whalen and Maya Moore in the final minutes of Game 3, 2011 WNBA Finals /

Except: Lindsay Whalen led the league in assist percentage. Rebekkah Brunson led the league in rebound percentage. Maya Moore and Seimone Augustus finished 5-6 in the league in win shares. (First was a young Chicago Sky center named Sylvia Fowles). Cheryl Reeve won Coach of the Year.

And the Minnesota Lynx played for a WNBA title. Just like always, it seems.

So sure, the Lynx are in the moment, but you can take this week, ahead of Sunday’s WNBA Finals Game 1, and let it all sink in.

Don’t let how ordinary it’s become blind you to how extraordinary it all is.

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