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About nine years ago, the Minnesota Lynx experienced a heartbreaking end to the 2016 WNBA Finals, falling to the Los Angeles Sparks in the final seconds of Game 5 to come up short of a league title.
Though that loss was a hard one to overcome — and still is for those part of that team — the Lynx used that disappointment as fuel throughout that offseason and leading into the 2017 campaign, ultimately seeking revenge to claim the organization’s four WNBA championships.
Nine years later, Minnesota is going through a very similar situation, coming off a heartbreaking loss in Game 5 of the 2024 WNBA Finals against the New York Liberty where the Lynx were mere seconds shy of the league crown.
Minnesota knows this season is different and it can’t do anything to change the outcome of 2024. But the Lynx have and will continue to use that heartbreak as fuel to seek revenge in 2025.
“It’s over. We don’t agree with the outcome, but it doesn’t matter. You can sit there and whine about it or you can say we will use it as fuel,” Cheryl Reeve said. “What that means for each person is different. … They are each going to handle it differently. For me, I know every journey is so different.
“I’m not even thinking about getting back to the Finals. We’re in training camp, we’re trying to be successful in winning drills and play how we want to play. The other stuff takes care of itself.”
Similar Situation
There are similarities between the 2016 Finals and 2024 Finals for the Lynx, notably the outcome. But that learning process in 2016 taught them a lot, and multiple individuals on the current team know what it’s like to go through the end of a season like that — and how to bounce back from it.
Former Lynx players Rebekkah Brunson and Lindsay Whalen, who are both assistant coaches on Minnesota’s staff this season, were in the final stages of their careers with the Lynx in 2016 when the heartbreaking Finals loss occurred. Something they still think about to this day.
With that, they both know first-hand what that feeling is like and the toll it can take on you. But they also know the motivation it instills, that you can come back even stronger and know what it takes to get across the finish line the year following.
“You never get over a loss like that. … You just feel sick to your stomach because of how heartbreaking that was,” Whalen said. “One thing I said [in training camp]was, ‘We don’t get 2017 if we don’t go through collectively what we went through in 2016.’ We didn’t get that joy, that revenge in 2017 if we don’t go through everything in 2016. It bonded us even stronger. We already had a great bond, but now we went through that together at that stage of our careers.
“To be able to go through that, it gave us a lot of motivation. It brought us closer. … Once I took more accountability in [what took place in 2016], I was able to be the player in 2017 to help lead the team to where we eventually got to.”
To start the 2025 training camp, Reeve, Brunson, and Whalen spoke to the team about using that Finals loss to bounce back even stronger the next year. They are proof that you can turn disappointment into triumph if you put the work in starting day one.
“Because of what happened (in 2016), I came back in the best shape of my life because I understood that moment was done and it created an opportunity for us to change what had happened or avenge what had happened,” Brunson said. “I try to tell them that they can’t get back what happened last year. But you do have the opportunity of this season.”
“Yes, it sucks. But now what? What’s the story gonna end like? This year, you have an opportunity to finish the season saying you ended up where you wanted to be,” Brunson added. “I just tell them to let that go and focus on the opportunity they have in front of them. It is an amazing opportunity to come back with your core group and try to get things back.”
Ready for Revenge
What happened at the end of the 2024 season is over and done with, and now it’s time for Minnesota to turn the page to focus on the new year ahead. An encouraging thing for the Lynx is they are returning most, if not all, of the core group that got them to the Finals a season ago.
In 2024, part of the success Minnesota experienced at the end of the season started right away in training camp, with the team jelling from day one despite a good chunk of them playing together for the first time and trying to fully establish a team identity.
This year, they already have that familiarity and identity in place, meaning they believe they’re already ahead of where they were at this time a season ago.
“Our starting place is different than last year, in that this group formed its identity throughout training camp. We know our identity [this year], so our starting place is obviously accelerated,” Reeve said at the start of training camp. “But now, where can we go to be even better? We can’t be exactly the same as we were last year, it’s not going to work.”
Minnesota enters the 2025 campaign with its core from last year still intact. The starting five of Courtney Williams, Kayla McBride, Bridget Carleton, Napheesa Collier, and Alanna Smith will likely once again be one of the top starting units in the league. The supporting cast of Natisha Hiedeman, Dorka Juhász, Diamond Miller, and Alissa Pili all remain with the team as training camp continues.
“I look at last year as a block to build off of. We were so successful last year, but we don’t want to do it exactly the same this year,” Smith said. “We’re building off the foundation we’ve put down. … We have high expectations as a team.”
But the Lynx brought in even more talent to boost the depth of a group that ranked second in defensive rating (94.8) and fourth in offensive rating (102.8) in 2024. Minnesota’s deep and competitive training camp roster includes the additions of Karlie Samuelson, Grace Berger, the return of Jessica Shepard, and international rookies Marième Badiane and Anastasiia Olairi Kosu, among others who are and will continue to fight for roster spots.
That level of talent and depth spread throughout the roster will make for some tough decisions for Reeve and the Lynx, but they are hoping it will result in an even stronger season this summer and ultimately in the playoffs.
“Enjoy the process, enjoy the journey. That’s where you build the chemistry. … I think that’s always been our motto,” Williams said of this year’s team. “From the beginning, we’re stacking days. We’re stacking days because, when we get to that point [late in the season], we’re ready for it and we’re built for it. Enjoy this journey because when it’s over, it’s over. You can’t go back and wish you could do it better. Take advantage of it right now, this is where we start building, brick by brick.”
With a mix of key contributors returning from the successful year that was last season to go along with even more talent and depth spread across the roster, Minnesota is all in on the 2025 season. And they hope to seek revenge for the outcome of last year and replicate what happened in 2017 by crossing the finish line this time around as WNBA champions.
“[The end to last season] is a feeling you don’t ever want to feel again. So just making sure we’re coming in every day, starting today, with good energy,” Collier said. “The coaching staff was talking about how they lost in that heartbreaker in 2016 and used that to fuel them in 2017. That’s the story we want to have for this year.”
