A Minnesota basketball legend returns: What led Lindsay Whalen back to the Lynx sideline?

Lindsay Whalen's return to the Minnesota Lynx as an assistant coach could positively influence the team's performance this season, making them potential favorites for bettors looking to capitalize on their championship run.

MINNEAPOLIS — Getting Lindsay Whalen back to the Minnesota Lynx sideline took two attempts from head coach Cheryl Reeve as texts sent roughly 18 months apart. When that second text came through this past fall — Reeve asked if Whalen was ready to get back to coaching — it was a quick, easy and resounding yes from Whalen. The player who had won four WNBA championships with the Lynx in the 2010s was ready to get to business as an assistant, hoping to help them win their fifth.

But when Whalen received the first message, her inclination was the opposite. She was not ready to consider coaching alongside Reeve for the Lynx. No, it still felt too fresh to be back on the sidelines. No, she didn’t need to sleep on it. Reeve wasn’t surprised. She knew Whalen hadn’t taken a break after her playing career, nor had she taken one during it. Although Reeve knew Whalen would benefit the Lynx family, she also understood that time away from the game would serve her well.

That first text had come not long after Whalen was fired as head coach of the University of Minnesota women’s basketball program. She’d led the Gophers for five seasons, which included two WNIT berths and a 71-76 total record. Six weeks before the end of her tenure — with just one year left on her contract — her anxiety was at an all-time high, she said.

“I thought about (the record) more than the process. As a young coach, you come in and you want to prove a lot, and, ultimately, you’re judged on wins and losses,” Whalen said. “And then when the wins aren’t coming, you kind of get yourself in a little bit of a spiral.”

But the end of the season had given her optimism. Minnesota won two of its last four regular-season games and was competitive in its only Big Ten tournament matchup. When she was called into the athletic director’s office in early March 2023, Whalen had spent the drive to campus making calls to recruits, not expecting a conversation that would end her employment. The change hit her with a surprising dichotomy: She felt failure and ... relief. After spending the previous 20 years chasing wins and titles, she couldn’t quite square away the idea that failure could come with a sense of reprieve. She didn’t know what would come next, and she was OK with the unknown. But she knew what she didn’t want to come next: more coaching.

She told Reeve thanks, but no thanks. She needed some time away.

“I knew my heart wouldn’t be in it,” Whalen said. She called the next stretch her “sabbatical.” She played more golf and picked up a tennis racket, quickly becoming obsessed. Soon, she was playing four times a week at local clubs in doubles practices and competitions. She got a USTA membership number, a requirement for playing in USTA tournaments, and planned to compete at nationals. She traveled to Ireland with her sisters, to Florida with her husband and to Phoenix to see her grandmother and sister. With her last university paycheck, she bought a boat and launched it in the lake where her parents have a cabin. She spent days there, bouncing between hours on the water and local tennis courts. Whalen spent more time away from the hardwood than she could ever remember.

“I got my break,” Whalen said. “I got to really miss it. I got to be bored.”

Whalen picked her moments to engage with basketball. She performed some skills coaching with players and worked with USA Basketball’s 3×3 program. She flew to Cleveland for the 2024 women’s NCAA Final Four and attended Lynx games during their 2024 playoff run. But otherwise, she tried to stay away.

Still, it wasn’t always easy to keep that space. As synonymous as Whalen is with Minnesota basketball, it was hard to stay anonymous. She led the Gophers to national prominence as their point guard from 2000-04, reaching the Final Four as a senior. She left as (and remains) the most decorated player in program history and was drafted fourth by the Connecticut Sun. Six years later, she returned to Minnesota in a trade with the Lynx. In eight years, she led them to four championships in one of the greatest stretches in WNBA history. The five core players from that run have their jerseys hanging in the Target Center rafters.

In 2012 and 2016, she played on Team USA, earning two gold medals. Whalen is the only player in the current eight gold medal streak to hail from Minnesota. While her high school gymnasium was named after her in 2018, her hometown of Hutchinson painted a mural of her in a red No. 4 USA basketball jersey. Whalen’s firing removed her from the sport for the first time in public consciousness, a disconnect for fans and strangers who had long associated her with hoops.

“It was a little like, ‘What are you doing now?’” Whalen said. “I remember coming home, being like, ‘I’m so tired of people asking me.’” She’d tell them she was still training kids but mostly playing tennis, spending time with her husband, Ben, her siblings and parents, and enjoying life. All of it was true. But slowly, in the background, especially as she enjoyed watching the 2024 Lynx, that basketball-sized hole in her life grew and nagged at her.

When Reeve sent a follow-up text last fall as Whalen prepped to leave for tennis practice, Whalen didn’t hesitate to respond that she was now ready. “That’s pretty much all I’ve been able to think about since that text — this team, being back coaching and what I can do and how I can add,” she said.

Reeve saw immediately how much of an addition Whalen was to the staff. Her credibility as a former player was obvious, but what she had learned as a recruiter at Minnesota and the insights she had gained with Team USA about player evaluations became beneficial as the Lynx tinkered with their roster to get over the hump this season. Whalen even surprised herself by how much her return to basketball invigorated her. She was excited about scouting players and coming into the office. When she was assigned her first game scout — the Lynx’s second game of the season, which resulted in a 14-point win over the Los Angeles Sparks — Whalen said she was so excited to get to work that she didn’t eat or sleep.

“That was clarity,” she said.

When the Lynx played at Phoenix two weeks later, Whalen had another clarifying moment. A few defensive possessions and ball movement sequences in that three-point road win were, in her mind, almost perfect, based on what the Lynx had practiced. She sensed how they — and how she — had bought into the process of growth. That night, like on many game nights as a player, Whalen was too wired to fall asleep. Finally, at 3:45 a.m., she got out of bed to rewatch game film. When she came into the office the following morning, Reeve simultaneously recognized the player she had coached a decade ago and the coach Whalen had become.

“It’s the same personality we got from her as a player. She just has a way about her that people gravitate to her,” Reeve said. “She connects easily with people.”

The Lynx have looked like contenders this season, qualifying to host the Commissioner’s Cup championship on July 1. Being back feels similar for Whalen to when she was a Lynx point guard, looking for tiny ways to improve and help her team mesh. She knows most careers go from assistant to a head coach and not the other way around, but since she got Reeve’s follow-up text last fall, she hasn’t looked back. She also hasn’t picked up a tennis racket.

“I’m just lucky,” Whalen said. “I got to play for my home state in college and coach for my home state in college. I got to play professionally in my home state, and now I get to coach professionally in my home state. Sometimes, you just have to be grateful and thankful.”

Whalen took a break from basketball, but her expertise could be vital in getting the Lynx back to the WNBA Finals.

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