Setting the Stage

Before I dive in to our victory tour, I want to set the stage for this season. Lynx Nation had come off of a relatively disheartening end to the 2014 season, but we were pretty confident that this season would be different. No one really wanted to say it out loud for fear of jinxing us, but we all knew this was likely to be our year. At the end of 2014, we lost to the Phoenix Mercury in the Western Conference Finals. For quite a few years, the unwritten rule of the WNBA had been that whoever won the Western Conference Finals was sort of a shoe-in for the championship. I will not go into the details of our loss, but just know that it was a rough one.

The 2014 Minnesota Lynx
From Left to Right:
Janel McCarville, Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen, Monica Wright, Rebekkah Brunson

At the beginning of this season, we were hit with some tough news. Janel McCarville, beloved center and University of Minnesota graduate, would not be returning to play with our team this season. If you are anything like me, you immediately thought through our roster and came to this conclusion: If we did not get a new center (and fast!) we would be left with either Devereaux Peters or Damiris Dantas starting, whether we moved Rebekkah Brunson to center or not. This, based on the performance of these two players in 2014, was unacceptable. Luckily, we made a few moves and acquired Asjha Jones, a 6'2" veteran who had been an Olympian in the past. In addition to Asjha, we also acquired Anna Cruz, a second year guard from Spain, from the New York Liberty. We also drafted Reshanda Grey and Shae Kelley. We also lost Tan White and Asia Taylor in the off season, but no one was too torn up to see them go (especially Asia Taylor). Despite losing Janel, we were starting to shape up decently for the upcoming season. We still had our Core Four (Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson, and Maya Moore), so we felt pretty good about our chances, especially considering what was happening in the rest of the league.

Here's a quick look at what the roster looked like going into the season:

Pos.	Starter	Bench
C	Asjha Jones/Damiris Dantas	Devereaux Peters
PF	Rebekkah Brunson	Reshanda Grey
SF	Maya Moore	Tricia Liston
SG	Seimone Augustus	Anna Cruz Monica Wright
PG	Lindsay Whalen	Jennifer O'Neill

Of course, by the end of the year, our roster looked quite a bit different. But more to come on that as our victory tour progresses.

During the off season, Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury announced that she would be sitting out the 2015 season at the behest of her Russian team for whom she plays during the WNBA off season. Her team, UMMC Ekaterinburg, paid her to sit out this WNBA season. This, of course, poses some important questions to WNBA fans. Was this a horribly selfish thing for her to do? What does this mean for the WNBA? Is this going to become a regular thing? Do Mercury fans feel betrayed, or do they support her decision to leave them without their biggest star (although not without their most marketable player)? Will she be welcomed back to the league with open arms? Would this be happening if America cared about women's sports? Don't worry, Lynx Nation, I will flush out all of these questions in a future post. I'm sure you're all on the edge of your seats. All of this is a bit beside the point I'm trying to make at the moment. I bring up Diana Taurasi's absence to highlight the position the Lynx were in at the start of the season. Barring a devastating injury to one of the Core Four, we were in a pretty good place.

Of course, the season did not go as smoothly as it originally appeared it might. We had a lot of ups and downs, and there were moments when each of us almost wavered in our steadfast belief that we deserved the title more than anyone else. Even in the lowest of moments for our team, we knew we were the luckiest fans in the WNBA. People say this all the time, but our team truly has a lot of heart. I never understood what people meant by that until I had the opportunity to follow this amazing group of ladies. As always, GO LYNX!