Monday WNBA links: Wrapping up the 2013 WNBA regular season, looking ahead to the playoffs

The majority of the weekend's games were meaningless, either because teams had nothing to play for or they had players sitting out.

So today's links are a mix of interesting reads from around women's basketball (and a bit beyond the sphere of basketball) to wrap up the season. For more on what happened this weekend, check out our "WNBA Scores" section.

• Terrence Thomas of the San Antonio Express-News summarized a finale to the San Antonio Silver Stars season that featured a number of milestones: Danielle Adams had a franchise-record 39 points, Shenise Johnson had a career-high 20 points, and Shameka Christon recorded a season-high 24 points. Not a bad way to finish a season ravaged by injury. Read more >>>

• Marc Allard of the Norwich Bulletin reported after the Connecticut Sun's 82-80 overtime win over the Indiana Fever yesterday that not even Anne Donovan expected the team to finish the season as strong as they did. After losing seven straight games in August, the Sun finished the season winning three of five games despite having to compete with an increasingly depleted roster. In addition, the Sun got to play spoiler yesterday: their win (along with the Washington Mystics win) contributed to the Fever ending up with the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference to face the Chicago Sky. Read more >>>

• Philip Hersh of the Chicago Tribune offered a brief primer of the Chicago Sky's matchup with the Indiana Fever in the first round of the 2013 WNBA playoffs, naturally mentioning that the Sky went 1-3 against the Fever during the 2013 regular season. Read more >>>

• Curt Cavin of the Indianapolis Star reports that Indiana Fever coach Lin Dunn was pleased with the way Katie Douglas performed in her first game since May after sitting out due to injury. She was still trying to get in game shape after Saturday's win, but the Fever are glad to have her back even late. Read more >>>

• Former Houston Comets executive vice president Carroll Dawson congratulates Tina Thompson on a stand out WNBA career.
  Aaron Lommers of the Everett Herald summarized the Seattle Storm's 45-minute post-game celebration of Tina Thompson, which included an address from former Houston Comets teammate Cynthia Cooper. Lommers reports that, "Thompson thanked family, friends, teammates and coaches in a speech that lasted nearly a half hour. In the ultimate show of respect, Shock players came out and watched the entire ceremony." Chuckarelei of SportsPageMagazine has a gallery of photos of the event as well and the Storm have posted a few clips on Instragram. With the win, the Storm finished at .500, one game better than last season's finish. Despite dropping their final two games to the Storm, the Shock also finished better than they did last year with 11 wins. Meanwhile, star center Liz Cambage seems to be enjoying her time rehabbing in Australia. Read more >>>

• Riley Jones of Sneaker Report looked at the shoe choices of three players from Friday night's games: Tamika Catchings, Ivory Latta, and Diana Taurasi. Catchings was wearing adidas adipure Crazyquick, of #QuickAintFair fame. Latta, naturally, was wearing her own shoe. Read more >>>

GIRLS B-BALL Players: Order client @wnba Allstar @IvoryLatta12 new shoe #IL12t by @NfinityBB http://t.co/Pjm5atWd4R pic.twitter.com/vGAUfMSNwP

— Carlos Scott (@NVisionMarketin) September 14, 2013

• Kent Youngblood of the Star Tribune reports that Seimone Augustus considered the extension she signed with the Minnesota Lynx to be a "no-brainer". With the chemistry the Lynx have built together - they'll enter the 2013 WNBA playoffs as the top seed looking to make a third straight WNBA Finals - Augustus is more than satisfied to remain in a winning situation after years of losing. Read more >>>

• Dave Schilling of Vice went to the Los Angeles Sparks' 85-84 win over the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday so that he "could judge the sport with an open mind, without all the casual misogyny". It's an entertaining, if not entirely positive, review of the experience of a first time WNBA consumer. A comment that sort of summarized the overall sentiment of his observations, and something we've discussed around here, was this: "the neverending stimulus also accentuates the sense that the game itself is not enough, and that the WNBA is a minor league." Read more >>>

• Glenda Burgeson of the St. Cloud Times writes about a primary reason why she and other women root for the Lynx that goes beyond the outcomes on the court: "For us, the excitement of the games is intensified by a tacit recognition that women’s professional team sports were unimaginable when we were growing up." She shares the stories of a couple of Lynx fans who see supporting the Lynx as supporting positive images of women. Read more >>>

• Molly Lambert of Grantland wrote about how Grand Theft Auto continues to treat female gamers like roadkill, with this quote standing out in particular: "I'm tired of hearing this message over and over again, whether it's stated directly or just suggested: You don't belong here. Not in tech, not in video games, not in music, not in sports. You are never the main character, you are just in the background or there to support the lead male. And if you don't like feeling marginalized in a group that makes it clear it doesn't want you there, you can kick rocks." You may recognize one of the screenshots from a long-running ad around SB Nation, which more than one site manager complained about. In the future, you too may complain about ads by emailing badads at sbnation.com. Read more >>>

There are plenty of other articles out there, but - as we've done all season - we've tried to limit this post to a semi-manageable number. Of course you can drop any additional noteworthy links you've found in the comments or create a fanshot. If you have a longer commentary to share with the community, write up a fanpost. In any event, thanks for reading the links this regular season!