MINNEAPOLIS — The postgame ceremony honoring Sylvia Fowles’ inductions to various halls of fame was old hat for most of the Target Center faithful. Over the last handful of seasons, Lynx fans have seen the number of each member of the famed dynastic starting five take their places in the rafters alongside the four championship banners they helped raise.
Maya Moore’s No. 23 was the last of the legendary quintet to see her number go up. A tradition that started with Lindsay Whalen’s Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame induction in 2022 has been the hall of fame ‘makeover’ the banner receives following induction. The Lynx added the ‘Hall of Fame’ tag to Whalen’s banner during the 2023 season, Seimone Augustus received hers last year, and Saturday night saw Fowles’ get the same treatment. Moore’s will bear the same words at some point in the future, and there’s little doubt in the Minnesota Lynx community that Rebekkah Brunson’s No. 32 will require additional wording as well someday.
The practice is part of the fabric, both literally and figuratively, of the culture the Lynx stand on. A culture that builds for the future by maintaining connection with the past.
“It’s such an important part of our culture,” Minnesota Lynx president of business operations Carley Knox told The IX Sports. “I think there’s a lot of pride in the connection with our former players … To have absolute legends that are still so invested in the Minnesota Lynx, that have so much wisdom with all of their success and to be able to talk to the players about it after practice. To have that really authentic connection with our former players, both on the coaching staff and the ones that continue to come back every year and wanting to remain connected to the organization is pretty special.”
The weekend saw the return of fellow Lynx legends like Augustus, Taj McWilliams-Franklin, Jia Perkins, and Katie Smith. A typical weekend in which a Lynx legend is honored includes at least one big group dinner and at least one practice visit with the current team. For the first time since the tradition of the hall of fame makeover started, the practice visit wasn’t in the cards.
Fowles returned not only a conquering hero and Lynx legend, but also a member of the opposition as an assistant coach with the visiting Portland Fire — a new and competitive wrinkle to the celebration.
“I mean I hate it for Syl, but I hope we ruin her night,” Napheesa Collier said with a laugh after the team’s shootaround on Saturday morning. “It’s all love. When we’re stepping between the lines you’re competitors and you want your team to win, but as soon as that’s over, she [was] here for how many years? She’s such a part of the identity of the Lynx, so no matter the outcome of the game, I think everyone’s going to be happy to celebrate after.”
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Fowles echoed that sentiment before the game tipped off.
“It’s just a testament to how great Cheryl is and what she does year after year,” Fowles said. “To have this night against us, of course I want to get the win, to ruin their night and make my night a little bit better, but I think Cheryl is thinking the same thing. She wants to ruin my night, but celebrate me afterwards.”
As they say, ‘two things can both be true.’
“This recognition for Syl is pretty incredible,” Reeve said during her pregame press conference. “Obviously, her jersey’s already hanging in the rafters, but to be acknowledged as a Hall of Famer, a Naismith Hall of Famer, just really impressive. So happy to have her back and get to talk to her a little bit more and for everybody to love on her, I think it’s going to be a fun night for her. Hopefully not too fun from a basketball perspective.”
Fowles’ Lynx legacy of course includes the splendor of multiple championships, Finals MVPs, and the 2017 WNBA MVP award. As a member of the Chicago Sky, Fowles sat out the first half of the 2015 WNBA season to help facilitate a trade to Minnesota, marking one of the biggest acquisitions in franchise history. Whalen mentioned in her remarks at the postgame ceremony that there’s no way the Lynx could have raised their third and fourth championship banners without Fowles.
The banners and the rings are what made up the gaudy headlines. Though, for Reeve, a decision Fowles made before the 2019 season, well after the championship parties and parades were over, after Whalen retired and Moore stepped away from the game, is what endeared Fowles to her forever.
Reeve highlighted one moment when asked what defined who Fowles is as both a person and player for the Minnesota Lynx. That moment came in 2018, when, as Reece said “the band was breaking up.” “I went to Syl…”, sat down and said, ‘Hey, you’re a great player, a future hall of famer, I’d imagine you want a shot at competing for another championship. I’ll help you, you know, just tell me where and I’ll help you get there.’ She stood up and said, ‘What are you talking about? This is home. I’m not going anywhere else. This is where I want to be and I want to help us keep this thing going.’”
The Lynx may still be chasing that elusive fifth championship, but Fowles’ decision to stay in Minnesota helped shepherd in a new era of Lynx basketball without undergoing a hard rebuild. Most importantly, her presence helped jump start the career of Collier and ensured the promising rookie from the University of Connecticut would experience playoff basketball in each of her first three seasons.
“Syl was the first person to embrace me when I came to Minnesota,” Collier said. “She’s the kind of person that everyone knows her for the kind of person she is, and not the player, which says a lot because she’s a Hall of Fame player. To have someone like her be my vet, I just feel really lucky, so of course I want to celebrate her as much as possible. To have her here tonight to be able to do that is really special.”
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As the Lynx turned the page post-dynasty, they remained competitive and reached the semifinals during the 2020 ‘Wubble’ season before losing to the eventual champion Seattle Storm. Collier earned Rookie of the Year honors playing alongside Fowles in 2019, and also earned WNBA All-Star honors in both 2019 and 2021 (there was no All-Star game in 2020).
“I think just the importance of making people feel welcome and cared for,” Collier said. “It’s hard to come into the league. You’re surrounded by people who have been here for years, people you’ve looked up to, so to have someone like your vet take you under their wing and make you feel at home, it’s everything.”
Fowles provided that veteran presence and guidance to Collier, but she was quick to credit the culture she came into after that iconic trade in 2015 for paving the way.
“It started before me,” Fowles said during pregame. “[Others] did that for me. I think that’s just the culture we have here in Minnesota. I came into thing like we’re going to play well, but at the same time have fun. To see those rules that we stand by today still take place through [Kayla McBride] and Napheesa, and it’s going to carry on, so you just got to credit the young women that came before us that set those standards.”
Now Fowles is helping to set those standards in Portland, a burgeoning franchise charting its own path in a new era of WNBA basketball. She’s one of several players from those dynasty years who has found their way into the coaching ranks: players who accomplished so much for women’s basketball, now coaching the game’s future.
Saturday’s game ended in another Lynx win, their fifth in a row, with a final score of 101-93. As Collier predicted, both teams were happy to celebrate the Hall of Famer afterwards, with the entire Portland Fire team on the floor for the ceremony as well. A fitting scene merging the franchise Fowles starred in for so many years and the new franchise she’s helping to lead.
“Minnesota is definitely that stepping stone of what I needed to put a stamp on what my legacy should be,” Fowles said. “Just the things I came into, how we want to do things here pretty much made me fit into home. I didn’t have to claim it before that, I just kind of fell into that by how we ran things here. I’ll forever bleed this blue and green. This is home at heart forever and I’m just happy to have ‘Hall of Fame’ and my jersey hanging up in these rafters alongside a lot of great players up there.”
