The phrase became a meme before the word "meme" went mainstream. Following a loss, a player for the new expansion team in Minneapolis, one that wouldn't finish higher than third in its first 12 seasons, blamed the result on a failure to play "Lynx basketball."
The early adoption of a popular sporting cliche by a team with no pedigree became a talk-show one-liner. The first six coaches in Minnesota Lynx history would compile losing records and "Lynx basketball" became a reliable punch line.
Playing "Lynx basketball" means something different these days.
Want proof? Lynx basketball is sending four current players _ Maya Moore, Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles _ and coach Cheryl Reeve, plus a player under team control who will compete for Australia, to Rio for the 2016 Olympics to support another dynastic team: U.S. women's basketball.
Lynx basketball has won three of the last five WNBA championships, and the four Olympians already have a combined six gold medals.
Lynx basketball might have built its most talented roster ever this season.
Lynx basketball provides one of the more engaging gameday experiences of any sport in town, as a handful of the world's best players sign autographs and hold on-court dance parties for one of Minnesota's happiest fan bases.
"Lynx basketball" is not only no longer a joke, but it is a phrase that commands admiration from First Avenue to Europe and Asia, where Lynx stars play during the winter.
How did a losing franchise in a mediocre arena become a comfortable haven for the world's best players and Minnesota's most relentlessly excellent team?
As with most success stories, there are simple and complex answers.
The simple: talent. The Lynx feature three No. 1 overall draft picks, a second and a fourth pick, two of the top 15 scorers in league history, one league MVP and three Finals MVPs, including one of the world's best players in Maya Moore.
The complex: The Lynx hired a remarkable coach in Cheryl Reeve, have maintained continuity with assistant coaches and management, developed a system and team dynamic that emphasizes unselfishness and maximum effort, made deft trades and was lucky enough to be bad at the right time.
"I wish all of you could be in the huddle and see the look in their eyes and see them go out there and see the determination they had to get a stop to win the game," Reeve said after a recent victory. "This is so much fun to be a part of."
The transformation began when the Lynx, following a 14-20 finish in 2005, selected prolific LSU scorer Seimone Augustus with the first pick of the 2005 draft. Augustus would become a world-class pro, and her injuries in 2009 would lead to another 14-20 finish, the departure of coach Jennifer Gillom and the hiring of Reeve, who, by percentage, is the winningest coach in league history.
"Our patience is probably the common theme in this story," said general manager Roger Griffith. "And Seimone's patience with us _ her willingness to stick with us through the difficult times so she could enjoy the good times _ is a big part of our success."
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