I’m not even a huge Minnesota Lynx fan and the trade for Lindsay Whalen had me so excited about their prospects that I could hardly formulate words on the screen.
I have finally found the inner peace to do so.
Tom Powers of TwinCities.com writes, “[Lynx] Executive vice president Roger Griffith referred to the move as a "basketball decision" that results in "added benefits."”
What excites me about this trade is not all those sentimental “Home Again” “added benefits”, though it does make a very nice storyline for the WNBA to either build on or squander.
For me, this trade is fascinating as a “basketball decision” even without all the homecoming stuff.
As Bethlehem Shoals once wrote, the WNBA needs more Whalen. More precisely, the WNBA needs more Whalen showcased in a contending situation. And obviously, this trade has visions of 2004 dancing in the heads of Minnesotans. That’s all good.
However, this trade for this player to this team at this time is not just good for the Lynx or the WNBA.
The fact is that on paper it’s hard to imagine constructing a more balanced, deep, flexible, and potent basketball team than the Lynx have put together.
This trade makes the Lynx the type of team that basketball geeks like me dream about. It’s beyond an embarrassment of riches. It’s the type of team I’ve always dreamed about my beleaguered Golden State Warriors becoming.
The Lynx are like a basketball thought experiment come true. What’s occurring here is much more akin to what the Portland Trailblazers represent for the NBA but better. We’re still waiting on the Blazers and Whalen is a better WNBA point guard than Andre Miller, Steve Blake, and Jarryd Bayless are combined as NBA point guards.
On paper, this feels like a basketball version of what Hans-Georg Gadamer describes as a fusion of horizons: a situation in which what is brought together by two actors broadens the range of possibilities for both while simultaneously minimizing their pre-existing limitations. The team almost seems to have unlimited basketball possibilities.
It’s a basketball version of wirkungsgeschichtliches. And no, I still cannot pronounce that either. Which only accentuates the fact that this team is so near perfection as to be beyond comprehension.
It’s rare that basketball fans ever get to see a team like this.