MINNEAPOLIS — Sunday’s matinee between the Minnesota Lynx and Indiana Fever at Target Center marked the first meeting of the season between the WNBA’s two highest-scoring teams. Indiana entered the day as winners of their last five games while eclipsing 100 points in all five, and boasting a league-best average of 96.4 points per game. Minnesota, winners of nine straight entering Sunday, held the second best scoring average of the league at 92.2, and eclipsed the century mark in five of the previous nine wins.
Both offenses delivered with scorching hot performances on national television, with the Lynx outlasting the Fever 108-100. The 69 points between the teams in the first 10 minutes alone marked the highest-scoring first quarter in WNBA history. Olivia Miles and Kelsey Mitchell exchanged offensive firework displays throughout the afternoon. Mitchell’s 37 points fell just one shy of matching a career high. Miles set a franchise record for eclipsing 20 points and 5 assists for the 10th time in a single season, surpassing Lynx legend Maya Moore, who held that record with nine such games in 2015.
Outside the arena, another streak continued: For the third time in as many games, anti-trans demonstrators organized by apparel company XX-XY Athletics held a pre-game rally in support of comments made by Fever forward Sophie Cunningham in a recent ESPN profile opposing the inclusion of transgender athletes in all levels of women’s sports.
As smatterings of protestors and counter-protestors met outside the Target Center on the corner of First Avenue and Sixth Street in downtown Minneapolis, Cunningham and Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve met on the court for a conversation during pregame warmups. Reeve declined to share what either said during the private conversation, but did imply that it was a positive interaction.
“I think it’s great,” Reeve said when asked about the importance of having the conversation. “I think it’s great. I think both of us understand that we have platforms. We both talked about, more than anything, wanting to educate. There’s some things you have in common, some things you differ on, just like any issue. I think it’s how you handle things. It was nice to be in person for sure.”
Reeve discussed the demonstrations and the various issues surrounding them after Minnesota’s practice on Saturday afternoon.
“I don’t feel like we should feel our safe space is being threatened,” Reeve said. “That’s what I enjoy about the WNBA, and I think we need to continue to safeguard that. I don’t think these demonstrators are not being peaceful, not that I’ve seen and I haven’t seen all of it. I haven’t heard everything that’s happened. Everyone has a right to peacefully assemble. Whether you agree with them or not, it happens every day.”
Reeve also called on WNBA leadership to provide proactive leadership in this space to ensure the league continues to be a safe space for all players and fans.
“In terms of my views, I come from a space of inclusion,” Reeve continued. “The narrative that I think is problematic is to suggest that number one, that transgender athletes are the biggest problem in women’s sports. I think this is what’s bothersome is that there’s a faction of people in this country that are making this a massive issue. We have some issues. Number one, we need to protect trans kids. Every kid. To me, it’s a human rights issue. Every kid has a right to sports. Regardless of gender diverse, transgender, every kid has a right to access [sports].”
Reeve is known for her home game day fits, featuring shirts that support a wide range of issues, along with her customary blazer. Sunday, Reeve wore a shirt declaring “trans kids belong.”
Responses from the Fever
Fever head coach Stephanie White echoed the sentiment of inclusion when addressing the demonstrations with reporters ahead of Indiana’s game on Friday in Portland.
“I wouldn’t say I’m educated enough from a scientific standpoint, but I don’t ever believe that exclusion is an answer,” White said. “I just don’t. I do think, when we think about various levels of sport, various governing bodies of sport and things that go into that, as I said, I’m not educated enough at the different levels. I know growing up that I played with the boys all the time. There weren’t girls’ sports back then.”
Friday in Portland was the first time Cunningham met with the media to discuss the demonstrations. A statement by the Fever given earlier in the week said that neither Cunningham nor the organization had any knowledge or involvement in the planning of the demonstrations, but Cunningham did offer support for all to exercise their right to peacefully assemble.
“I have honestly had nothing to do with [the demonstrations],” Cunningham said. “I think it’s just people practicing their rights of freedom of speech and doing what other fans have been doing since the WNBA has started. And so props to them, props to everyone who is able to be competent and be bold and courageous enough to speak their truths.
“I think everyone who knows me personally, they know that I’m full of love. I’m bubbly. I love the people around me. I love basketball. I love inspiring the next generation and doing that in a positive light.”
Fever star guard Caitlin Clark had not been made available to the media in either Seattle or Portland, but was part of the postgame press conference in Minneapolis on Sunday.
“For us it’s not really a discussion we really have in our locker room,” Clark said when asked about how she and her teammates were navigating the conversation on the issue. “I think it’s for leagues and the governing bodies to work with their athletes to find solutions, but our focus is on basketball. That’s what we talk about and how we can get wins, and obviously we didn’t do that tonight, so we need to find areas to improve in that way.”
When pressed for a follow-up, Clark responded, “I just answered for you.”
The Fever return home after their lengthy road trip and host the Las Vegas Aces on Thursday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. It’s unclear if the organized demonstrations will continue outside of Fever games at home or on the road as the season continues.
Reeve hopes for ‘more understanding’
Reeve said her hope is that the conversations lead to more education and more understanding of each other.
“I’ve chosen to educate myself about this space,” Reeve said on Saturday. “I’ve chosen to listen to transgender families, and what I know is exclusion is not the answer. We’ve got to find a common ground and be inclusive.”
She went on to say that “this issue” is not even the biggest one facing women’s sports.
“Whether it’s cis-gendered men who have held us down for years in spaces like being able to have access to facilities, uniforms, locker rooms, all the things, these young girls that are sitting at these games with anti-trans signs, do they understand actually what the real problems are? And how they’re being marginalized? We’re still not in a space where we have equality. We don’t even have the Equal Rights Amendment in all 50 states. So, there’s real issues.”
The Lynx are off until Thursday night, when they host the Los Angeles Sparks at Target Center. That game that will be preceded by the Fever’s game against Las Vegas as part of a Thursday Night WNBA double-header on Amazon Prime.
