Word started coming out of North Carolina in January.
Tanisha Wright was working out. She was feeling good and might be ready to return to the WNBA.
That's all it took.
Wright is one of the best defensive players of her generation. So perhaps what the Lynx did to acquire her should be called a full-court press. Coach and General Manager Cheryl Reeve flew to Charlotte — where Wright remains an assistant coach at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte — for a face-to-face meeting. Reeve brought a video of the team's practice facility. And then owner Glen Taylor picked up the phone and called Wright. If you want to come back to the WNBA, he said, come here.
So, for the first time since the end of the 2016 WNBA season, Wright is in uniform, this time for the Lynx. She's a 5-11 guard who has made 11 WNBA All-Defensive teams in her 12-year career, giving Reeve the best perimeter defender she's ever had.
"I wanted to be somewhere where I felt I fit well with the personality of the team," Wright said. "The program, the organization. And I wanted to go to a team that needed me. That was really important to me. Not just to have me here, but to use me on the court."
Although Wright has started 283 of 393 career games, she is now part of a defensive-intensive backup backcourt that also includes Danielle Robinson.
But Wright's role will stretch beyond the 16.3 minutes per game Jia Perkins played in that role last year.