The championship pedigree of the Minnesota Lynx coaching staff is unlike any other WNBA team – Andscape

For most of the last decade, when the weather cools in Minneapolis and the leaves change color, it usually means two things: Fall is here and with it the WNBA Finals.

“This is the final season,” Minnesota Lynx assistant coach Rebekkah Brunson said. “The clearer the air gets, you know. We always have that feeling at this time of year.”

From 2011 to 2017, the Lynx appeared in six WNBA Finals and hosted games at Target Center. They won four championships during that time, with Brunson playing in all four.

On Wednesday, Minneapolis returned to host the WNBA Finals series for the first time in seven years, with the Lynx about to usher in a new era for the franchise. For a fan base used to watching champions stack rings, this year’s team starts at ground zero of the championship. Only Lynx forward Myisha Hines-Allen has won a championship, in 2019 with the Washington Mystics.

Minnesota’s coaching staff, however, is a completely different story. The championship pedigree of the Lynx coaching staff is unique in the WNBA. Together they were involved in a whopping 16 WNBA championships.

Brunson won five championships as a player – her first with the Sacramento Monarchs in 2005 and the rest as part of the Lynx. Associate head coach Katie Smith won twice as a player with the Detroit Shock. Her Shock teammate Elaine Powell, also an assistant at Minnesota, won three championships as a player in Detroit. Head coach Cheryl Reeve has been part of six championships – four as head coach of the Lynx and two as an assistant at Detroit.

“It’s so important because they know exactly what to say. They were here,” said Lynx guard Kayla McBride before Game 2 of the Finals in New York. “You can get distracted by a lot of different things, a lot of different narratives, but they keep the same narrative because they know that.”

As the Lynx look to recover from a 2-1 deficit against the Liberty, they will lean on the lessons of their veteran staff and attempt to lead them to the franchise’s first title since 2017.

“They know what it takes to win,” McBride said.

As someone who has been part of multiple championship teams, Brunson knows when a particular group has that It factor and are able to cover the distance. She said the Lynx coaching staff can see that It immediately incorporated into this year’s team.

Brunson praises the construction of this Minnesota team, whose synergies both on and off the field have contributed to what she believes is a successful team chemistry.

“Going into this season, we knew our culture was a great fit and we didn’t have a lot of holes in the roster…We had all the skills we needed,” Brunson said. “But those It An important factor is the way they cared for each other. You could see that when they weren’t on the pitch. You could tell by how much time they spent together outside of basketball, how they treated each other and how they played for each other. In my experience, this is exactly what you need.

“You could tell early on that they had something special. If they accepted our strategy and played as well as they could, it could be that they would be playing at the end of the season because of the chemistry that existed between them.”

With so much title experience on Minnesota’s bench, the Lynx players quickly scoured their championship resources for tips and knowledge on what it takes to win. For McBride, that’s Smith – who, in addition to her two WNBA titles, also won two American Basketball League championships.

“I always talk to Katie before games,” McBride said. “We watch our film before the game and she always says the right things so I can focus on what’s important and the main thing remains the main thing.”

Despite playing in her first Finals with Minnesota, Natisha Hiedeman is no stranger to competing for a championship. Hiedeman, along with current teammate Courtney Williams, was part of the 2019 and 2022 Connecticut Sun teams that also appeared in the Finals. Hiedeman’s 46 career playoff games are fourth all-time for players who have yet to win a WNBA Finals.

Brunson called Hiedeman the “questioner” on the Lynx roster during those Finals.

“She’s one of the players I think we’re most excited about,” Brunson said. “She was in the playoffs when she played with Connecticut. And I think she’s very curious because they didn’t win, right? So she wants to know what the extra thing is that can help her get over the edge.

“She asked how it felt, what it was like and what the arena felt like. What did we say to each other? What have we said to help each other be our best? She is one of the more curious players and has already been to the final.”

Brunson knows that the stories and advice of the coaching staff can only take a team so far. Ultimately, there is nothing better than the learning experience of actually competing for a WNBA championship.

“It’s not just about the strategy. We know that, and we will give it to them. But when you get to the final, what matters most is how it feels,” Brunson said. “No one can tell you how it will feel. You really have to be there and feel it in those moments.”

However, there are lessons Brunson takes from her experiences in past Finals that she wants to impart to the current Lynx team in hopes they don’t repeat their past missteps.

In 2012, a year after winning their first WNBA title in franchise history, the Lynx faced the Tamika Catchings-led Indiana Fever in the finals with a chance at a repeat. Indiana robbed Minnesota of a back-to-back title, defeating the Lynx in four games. It’s a series that has stuck with Brunson and whose lessons she uses in her coaching today.

“I always go back to this show and the physicality of this show,” Brunson said. I use this because it’s one thing you can control as a player. You can’t control how you take all the shots. You can’t control every rebound, but you can always control the energy you play with. Dealing with the physicality of a finals series. I always say this is a series that really took a toll on us physically. I use this as a reminder to leave a show feeling like you just got beaten up, like they took it away from you, right? So make sure you don’t end up feeling like that.”

While being at Target Center brings back many exciting Finals memories for Brunson – some of which now hang as banners in the arena’s rafters – for now, she was most looking forward to seeing her Lynx players create their own Minnesota Finals moment could. Playing in front of a sellout crowd (Game 3 was the largest crowd in Target Center history at 19,521 fans) and enjoying the admiration of a fan base that has long yearned for a return to basketball in the fall.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been here,” Brunson said. They’ve never experienced this in their careers and I know how special that feeling is.”

For many on the Lynx, they head into Game 4 on Friday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN) with only the previous three games as career Finals experience. However, Brunson said that’s what’s great about the series – the ability to learn along the way. Brunson and the Minnesota coaching staff did what they could to mitigate the learning curve and did their best to help the Lynx create their own championship memories.

The Lynx will try to avoid elimination on Friday and force a Game 5, which would take place on Sunday in Brooklyn. The last time a team came back from a 2-1 deficit to win a championship was in 2017. The team that did that? The lynx. It would be Brunson’s fifth and final WNBA title.

“We try to tell them everything we have. The good thing about having coaches who have been there is they might listen to you a little bit more,” Brunson joked. “Just a little more.”