The Minnesota Lynx and Connecticut Sun tipped off for the 73rd and final time on Sunday afternoon at Mohegan Sun Arena. The 101-89 Lynx win gave Minnesota its 32nd regular-season win in the series, giving Connecticut the historical edge by a single game. The final regular-season tally stands at 33-32 in favor of the Sun, with the two teams splitting their two playoff series at four wins apiece.
The one-game margin of victory in the all-time series between the two teams is minuscule consolation for Sun fans as this chapter of WNBA basketball in New England comes to a close. Beyond sharing the floor competitively since both teams entered the league as expansion teams in 1999 (the Sun originated as the Orlando Miracle), the connective tissue between the teams runs deep.
A history filled equally with the intensity of the battles on the court, and the mutual respect off of it.
“More than anything, I think the message that needs to get out is that the WNBA owes the Connecticut Sun organization a lot,” Lynx assistant coach Lindsay Whalen, who starred for both franchises, said to The IX in July. “There’s a lot of years and a lot of times when Connecticut stepped up to host a draft, host an All-Star Game … there’s definitely no WNBA as we know it today without the Connecticut Sun. Without the leadership here, the owners, the tribal members, the coaches, the GMs that have been here, the players, the W like we know it is not [what it is] without Connecticut.”
The Sun were brought to Connecticut by the Mohegan Tribe in 2003, hiring Mike Thibault as their first head coach. In one of the biggest moves of his tenure, Thibault acquired the No. 4 overall pick in the 2004 WNBA Draft from San Antonio and used it to draft Whalen after her standout career at the University of Minnesota.
Mike Thibault was honored as a ‘Sun Legend’ during a post-game ceremony at Mohegan Sun after the conclusion of Minnesota’s win against Connecticut on Sunday.
“It was really good for me to come here right out of college,” Whalen said. “I stayed home for college so I always had my parents close, had my family close. I came out here, and I didn’t know anybody, so I had to figure it out. I had a coach in Coach Thibault that had to teach me how to be a pro, how to take care of my body, and how to live on my own. My mom wasn’t an hour away if I needed her.”
Whalen spent six seasons with the Sun, helping them to make Finals appearances in 2004 and 2005. Whalen’s No. 13 was added to the rafters of the Mohegan Sun Arena during the 2019 season.
Whalen, of course, returned to her home state of Minnesota in one of the most notable ‘win-win’ trades in league history. The Lynx acquired her ahead of the 2010 season in exchange for the draft pick Connecticut used to select Tina Charles in that year’s draft.
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Whalen is hardly the only Lynx guard to have started a career in Connecticut before finding her way to Minnesota.
“It grew me so much as a player,” Courtney Williams told The IX after a July 8 shootaround when asked about the early years in her career she spent with the Sun. “I think I really became who I am here. I spent my rookie season here, had some amazing [veterans], people that are like family. Wouldn’t change it for nothing, man, Connecticut made me who I am. … They always showed up, showed love, so definitely gonna miss it here.”
Williams spent five seasons with the Sun and helped the organization reach the Finals in 2019 and again in 2022.
Connecticut only made one trip to Minnesota in 2026. It was a game in which the Lynx made a point to properly bid farewell to the Sun with a halftime tribute video and a moment at midcourt for Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti.
“It was the right thing for us to do,” Lynx president of business operations Carley Knox told The IX in July. “To honor their legacy and the history, and we needed to stop and think about our connection to the Connecticut Sun. Whether it’s with Taj McWilliams-Franklin, or Lindsay Whalen, or the incredible playoff series we’ve had with them over the years.
“They’ve been one of our great rivals over the history of our franchise. I just wanted to honor their players, the history of their franchise, and really celebrate them the last time they came through [here].”
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Another current member of the Lynx who spent formative years in Connecticut is assistant coach Eric Thibault, who moved there when the Mohegan Tribe made his father the first head coach in Connecticut Sun history.
“Really nothing,” Thibault told The IX when asked what he knew about New England before it became home. “I’ve told this story a couple times, but he thought we were going to Portland and then the Portland team folded. Then the Connecticut thing happened, and I remember the first time being out there, probably house hunting before the season, like, ‘Where are we?’ You just land, and the drive is all woods, then here’s this big casino on this river.”
Thibault recalled what he described as “the expectation of professionalism” from every area of the organization from the moment he arrived. Whether that was from general manager Christoper Sienko or communications officer Bill Tavares, who ran the Sun’s press operations for many years, every aspect was treated with championship expectations.
“It was kind of an expectation of professionalism,” Thibault said. “Obviously with the fanbase that’s built in there, just right from day one felt like a winning organization and obviously that sustained beyond our time there.”
The internal expectations that led to years of successful results on the court didn’t just benefit the Sun. Their dedication to professionalism in all areas, and their status as pioneers as the first independent owners in the WNBA, helped carry the league through a time when it was common for ownership groups to pull resources out of the league rather than pour resources in.
“There’s so many memories of Connecticut. I think Connecticut was such a great league partner for so many years,” Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve said ahead of Connecticut’s final game at Target Center on July 6. “Back when the All-Star Game wasn’t something teams wanted because it cost money and it was hard to figure out how to make money on it, Connecticut was always there for the league.”
Mohegan Sun hosted a total of four WNBA All-Star Games (2005, ‘09, ‘13, and ‘15) and hosted the draft for three consecutive years from 2014-16. That’s 108 careers that started on draft night at the Mohegan Sun, including future Lynx players like Kayla McBride (No. 3 pick in 2014) and Rachel Banham (No. 4 pick in 2016).
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The Sun’s game against the Tempo on Thursday night may very well be the final time a WNBA game is played under the Mohegan Sun’s roof, but the building has established itself as a permanent fixture in the league’s lore, an essential detail for all future WNBA storytelling.
“What I reflect on the most now because of the sale of the team to relocate to Houston,” Reeve said during her pregame conference at Mohegan Sun on Sunday, “… how much the Mohegan Tribe, being the first independent owner in the WNBA, how much the Mohegan Tribe did for the WNBA, and I think should be talked about more.”
“I’m sad about the whole thing, to be honest with you,” Eric Thibault said. “Enough people have said it now, but that franchise played such a key role in our league surviving, for one. It was ahead of its time a bit in the sense that you had ownership with the tribe that really poured into that team at a time where we maybe had more owners taking money out, or moving teams, selling teams, folding teams. So I’m sad to see it go.”
After Thursday night’s game, the sun will officially set on what the organization has referred to as its ‘Sunset Season.’ The team will be reborn as the newest edition of the Houston Comets.
While the players, coaches, and support staff will have new jobs in Houston, New England’s WNBA fans aren’t left with much to sink their teeth into. Just the gratitude from those in the know that this moment and movement of WNBA basketball wouldn’t exist without them, and the hope that the league might have a home in their neck of the woods some day in the future.
“I just think about a fan base that was always there for them, and what comes to mind, what I’m going to remember is what a great partner they were for the league at a time when the league needed partners like them,” Reeve said. “I’m hopeful for the fans, the way that they poured in, [they] will have those memories, and when they do get another team here, we know that they’ll be able to support that team the same way. And so I feel a great deal of gratitude for the Mohegan Tribe.”
