FanPost

Roaring for a Cure with the Minnesota Lynx (Catwalk not included)


The first Minnesota Lynx Roar For A Cure event was held last night in their new practice facility, across the street from the Target Center. Previously, this had been the Catwalk For A Cure event, and had been held usually at the Mall of America. This was a chance for the team and their fans to socialize and raise money to help combat breast cancer. Tonight’s guests of honor were 5 cancer survivors, and 1 newly diagnosed future survivor. I had been sitting unknowing with one of the survivors at the opening of the event, and had a great talk as they were from the SE part of Minnesota, where I grew up.

I had to splurge to partake of this event, as the entry donation to be a full participant was some 40% more than the cause of my season ticket. But I am friends with several survivors and I wanted to make an effort. The experience was well worth it, maybe even without the part where I got to have my picture taken surrounded by the team. (I made sure that I got a good shot of all of them by taking a knee in front of them, which bold move they were unexpected for; being 6’ I didn’t want to screen any of them as I had seen some of the other fans do before me.)

I greeted each of the team members had questions prepared for most of them. I also chatted with all 3 of the coaches, the DJ, the courtside host, and the Director of Business Operations. I decided to stop playing the games after beating Renee Montgomery in Foosball, Lindsay Whalen in Connect 4, and Seimone Augustus in Bags; I didn’t want to get banned from future events.

Seimone Augustus was pleased to report that her family was doing fine; you might remember that they had had to be evacuated from the flooding down in Louisiana last month. Her response to my query about the state of officiating overseas compared to the much-maligned WNBA crews, was that it was no contest; never expect a foul to be called upon an opposing player if they are native to that country. It just won’t happen.

Lindsay Whalen took full advantage of not playing overseas to do things that she has never had time for in the past. She tried out some new restaurants, watched some teams she hadn’t had a chance to, did some visiting, and just had some nice relaxing times.

Natasha Howard did not feel that she had received the Devereaux Peters curse in their trade this off-season. (Devereaux would usually pickup 1 or 2 fouls within the first two minutes after coming into a game, and once even collected a foul when she was on the bench (the official getting confused about the number of the actually guilty player). Natasha felt that it was just a consequence of her aggressive style of play. (At the event I was wearing a 2013 WNBA Champions hat signed by Dev.)

Rebekkah Brunson has not heard yet from Taj McWilliams-Franklin about breaking her record for offensive rebounds, and forced me to try one of the pastries at the table where she was standing by claiming to have made them.

Shelley Patterson was excited about the upcoming break before the league semi-finals, since that would give the coaches a chance to work more with the returning Olympians, in the same manner as they had with the rest of the team over the break. She also agreed that earning one of the top two seeds was so important this year, since so many teams had proved capable of beating each other on a given night, it was much calmer to think about taking opponents on in a best three-out-of-five scenario.

Jim Peterson was philosophic about not taking the Connecticut job, now that the GM position had been added to the head coaching job. With his dual roles working for the Lynx and the Timberwolves, he would have been taking a big cut to move over there.

I reminded Cheryl Reeve about meeting her at the pre-season game in Rochester and thanking her in advance for another great season. I assured her that she had definitely delivered. She chuckled and said that it had been very good so far.

I assured Jia Perkins that she had followed through on my preseason request from her to just play like Jia Perkins and that we would be all right. I complimented Keisha Hampton on how she always seemed to act confident when she went out on the floor. So many rookies of late have always started out hesitant each game, but she just jumps right in. Anna Cruz accepted my congratulations on her silver medal, and my thanks for returning to this team. Janel McCarville decided that the reason that she had 2 basketballs in the limited edition print while Keisha didn’t have any, was that it was a rookie hazing thing. That was her story and she was sticking to it. Keisha would neither confirm nor deny.

The coaches roundtable was pretty interesting. Talking about how they felt when Sylvia went down early against LA, and how you just have to put that aside and trust in Chuck Barta, the trainer, to do what he does and tell them the truth. Also, how the coaches and the team have instilled the habit of looking at the next game as being the important game, because it’s the NEXT GAME. Which shows by how they play each game. It is a pretty direct interpretation of the coaching adage: "It’s never too early to start winning." It was cool about how they were all conscious that their fans would be staying up late to follow the games on the West Coast, and how they want to repay that dedication by playing well. And talking to the survivors and recently diagnosed that they draw inspiration for their strength and courage, and try to repay them through entertainment and success.

Renee, Jia, and Seimone won the lip-synching competition, and Maya Moore was teased about having trouble accepting her loss. I think that her back-up singers cost her the title in her spirited rendition of Survivor by Destiny’s Child, since they just could not dance or keep the beat. The guests of honor were the judges for this event.

A final live auction included such items as: a team-autographed Minnesota Lynx Bags board: a dinner for two with Coach Reeve; a limo ride to school for a child and 5 friends with a Lynx player, who would also pass out prizes and host a Q and A; a luxury trip for 10 to the first home playoff game, including limo ride and dinner; and a trip for 2 to the first away playoff game, including plane tickets, hotel tickets, etc.

My talk with the Business Operations director included concerns held by other fans, feedback on past promotions which I would like to see again, and ideas for future ones. We had not met in person before, but had communicated electronically several times.

We also had samples of excellent food from restaurants around the metro to munch on during the evening’s program. I did not stuff myself, as I am participating in the 5K Run, Walk, Roar on Sunday morning before meeting my Mom to celebrate her birthday. Go Lynx!!!