MINNEAPOLIS — On April 21, 2016, the world lost one of its biggest musical icons, and the city of Minneapolis mourned one of its favorite sons.
Within just a few hours of the death of Prince Rogers Nelson, the streets of downtown Minneapolis turned into a communal gathering that was as much a wake as it was a block party.
A makeshift but serviceable stage was put together in the streets outside of First Ave, the historic concert venue where Prince’s musical career took off and where the film Purple Rain was shot. First Ave is an essential part of the soul of Minneapolis’ culture and history. A place where Prince’s presence was often seen, and his spirit was always felt. As natural a place as any for people to gather to mourn the loss of a beloved local legend.
It also stands mere feet away from the southernmost corner of the Target Center, another place connected to Prince both spiritually and physically.
It is no secret that the artist formally known as ‘The Artist Formally Known as Prince,’ was a massive basketball fan and played the game throughout his childhood. A diminutive but talented point guard, Prince played the sport at Bryant Junior High and during his time at Minneapolis Central High School.
He stepped away from the team when he decided to devote himself fully to music, but the game was never far away, and Prince was a frequent celebrity presence at Minnesota Lynx and Timberwolves games throughout his career.
To say choosing music over basketball worked out for him would be a bit of an understatement. He achieved just about everything any musical artist could imagine, but it’s important to remember that, among all the award-winning albums and psychedelic shows, of all the projects he helped orchestrate, his orchestrating of the greatest WNBA championship party of all time is something that will connect him to the heart of Minnesota’s basketball community for eternity.
“During our 2015 playoff campaign that we went on to win our third championship, Prince started coming to more and more games, following us, and retweeting quotes of Cheryl,” Lynx President of Business Operations Carley Knox told The IX Basketball. “He just got so into Lynx Basketball. He was diehard. He watched every single Lynx basketball game. He was coming to games through that whole playoff run.”
Prince watched from a Target Center suite as Minnesota toppled the Indiana Fever 69-52 in the WNBA Finals’ decisive fifth game. What happened next has since become one of the most legendary and revered chapters of Lynx basketball lore.
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“We had a whole party set up and planned across the street,” Knox said. “I had a band playing, lots of food, music, drinks, etc., and then I get a call, and they say, ‘Hey, we just heard from Prince’s team, and they want to send buses over. So can you stop that party and get on buses to go out to Prince’s house so he can put on a private concert for you?’
“In my head, I know I had just spent X amount of money, but yep. It’s all worth it, so all right everybody, let’s mount up, we’re going out to Paisley Park!”
News of the invitation eventually spread to the Lynx’s locker room, where the championship celebration was already in full tilt. The reality of the moment quickly set in.
“It was so special,” Rebekkah Brunson, who won four of her record five WNBA championships while playing with the Lynx, told The IX Basketball. “I think during the game, we had heard that he was up in the suite. So we knew that he was watching. We knew that he had been a fan of the Lynx and all basketball, really. So we’re excited for that, then you win, and we had all of these other plans of what we might want to be able to do, and then you have somebody come in the locker room and tell you you’re going to get to go to Prince’s house! For your own show!”
The pre-arranged party at a nearby venue was called to a halt. Invites extended beyond the players and coaches to staff members throughout the organization, who hastily secured transportation and organized carpools. Even though the clock was about to strike midnight, the ball was only just beginning.
“The most vivid memory that I have is when we got off the limo bus … you could hear music playing, and it was a Prince song,” Lynx head coach and President of Basketball Operations Cheryl Reeve recalled to The IX Basketball. “It’s midnight, maybe a little bit later, and we’re walking up, and I’m thinking that they’re setting the mood for Prince’s music. You walk in, you look up, and there was Prince already. When we walked in, he was already there playing. That was crazy.”
“We walked in, and I’m like, ‘Somebody’s just playing the song,’ and then you look up to the right, and he is literally on stage already performing,” Brunson added. “I think that was probably one of the things that blew our mind, because you’re just walking in, wondering what this is going to be like, because you have no idea. And you look up on the stage, and he’s just doing his thing. It’s majestic.”
Prince’s shows at Paisley Park had become a known but elusive commodity at the time. It wasn’t uncommon for him to hold secret or spur-of-the-moment shows with little-to-no publicity, and only vague information about how one could attend. On this special occasion, the details were a little clearer, with a guest list full of names that all had something to do with an organization winning its third championship.
Some were more ready for the type of celebration it was, at least in a physical sense.
“That year was a tough year,” Lynx point guard and now assistant coach Lindsay Whalen said. “We still won, it was the year we traded for (Sylvia Fowles), and a bunch of us were kind of banged up by the end of the season. I remember just sitting there, I got on the dance floor a little bit, I sprained my ankle so bad in Game 5, I had to sit for most of the night, honestly, it was just [swollen] so big.”
A sprained ankle was no match for the majesty of the moment. Reeve recalled memories of her players being right up in front of the stage, pulled up to dance with Prince himself as he rewrote his songs in real time to turn them into Lynx-themed anthems.
“It was so surreal. I think that party probably went on until like five or six in the morning,” Knox said. “We had the parade the next day, which was absolute insanity. People were looking a little rough, but it was so incredible, one of those once-in-a-lifetime moments, and one of his last performances before his passing. What an incredible experience.”
In the 11 years since that championship, and the 10 years since Prince left this world for another, the memories of that night live on through the hearts and minds of those who experienced it firsthand, but not anywhere else.
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There isn’t a team photo of the players on stage hanging on the wall of the practice facility. Videos of the songs Prince came up with on the spot are not on YouTube. Another thing one must understand about Paisley Park is its strict ban on cell phones and cameras of any kind. One must be fully present within the place in order to experience it.
Paisley Park is not on Instagram. Paisley Park is, as Prince once sang, in your heart.
When reminded of the milestone year since his death, Brunson, an avid Prince fan herself, had a hard time wrapping her head around it.
“10 years? Already? That’s crazy!” she said. “To be able to share that, not just share the championship, but share an experience like that with an artist of that caliber in his own space, I think that’s something that we’re always going to hold onto as one of the most memorable championship celebrations imaginable. It’s still so hard to believe we were dancing on the stage with Prince!”
There may not be any photographic evidence of that night in the Lynx’s practice facility at Mayo Clinic Square, or anywhere else for that matter, but it has its own special place and title among those who experienced it.
“We always call that one the ‘Prince Championship,’” Reeve said. “Prince’s fandom, I thought, was very meaningful to the players, the way that he supported (us). … For him to be in a suite that night, we remember that. I remember him tweeting about our team. There were all these ways he kind of invested in us that really made that championship special.”
April 21 has taken on a life of its own in Minnesota in the years since Prince’s death. Paisley Park and the very stage where the Lynx celebrated their third championship hosts some kind of Prince memorial each year. Songs from his unreleased vault are often released to the public on this day. And in the downtown streets outside of First Ave, in the shadows of the buildings that house Lynx basketball, passersby leave purple flowers beneath Prince’s star painted on the brick wall.
It’s hard to sum up the ways in which the enduring legacy of an artist can be forever linked with the legacy of a championship team, but Brunson gets pretty close.
“It’s majestic.”
