Patrick Reusse says we didn't need Caitlin Clark to have a great WNBA Finals

There should be no energy used to downplay those four WNBA championships and six appearances in the Finals by the Lynx from 2011 to 2017. Those were loaded teams and the last two five-game Finals, split with Candace Parker and the Los Angeles Sparks, provided outstanding drama.

The playoffs were played in Williams Arena in 2017, and the joyous postgame media sessions with Moore, Whalen, Fowles, Brunson, all of ‘em, after a victorious Game 5 in a jam-packed Barn remain memorable.

This is different, though, because the WNBA is now different. It has shaken off its roots as a league the NBA started out of obligation and to fill some dates in empty arenas in the summer.

The league started in 1997, and the Lynx started in 1999, and it should be pointed out that Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, who also owns the Minnesota Star Tribune, hung with it while most of his NBA contemporaries were bailing out. Taylor has been so committed to the cause that he spent $1 million to provide temporary air conditioning for the teams and fans at Williams in 2017.

The NBA gave up ownership in 2002, and it was a long build to this, but the WNBA has gained steam in 2024 beyond any previous moment. And with these Lynx as an unlikely force in the middle of it.

This is not based on the arrival of Caitlin Clark. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was correct in the preseason when saying the league was about more than one player, even though Caitlin Nation went goofy and never stopped complaining that Olympic coach Reeve was anti-Clark.

Ridiculous. Clark put more eyes on the league, for sure, but she didn’t belong on the Olympic team, and also could have been missing from the All-WNBA first team announced this week if receiving as much attention for her record-breaking turnovers as she did for points and assists.

Heck, I go way back as a Clark booster, but without her in sight, the favored New York Liberty and the relentless Lynx have put on an unforgettable Finals, and that was only three games into the best-of-five going into Friday night in Target Center.