Lynx had special season, but WNBA Finals loss motivates star Napheesa Collier

The Minnesota Lynx starters and coach Cheryl Reeve sat down Tuesday to review the 2024 season.

There was talk of the chemistry this team experienced from the opening of training camp to a difficult loss in the fifth game of the WNBA Finals to the New York Liberty.

Center Alanna Smith called the team’s season a basketball fairy tale, but one that didn’t have a happy ending.

“Despite not having the end we wanted, it’s inspirational to have a team like that do what we did,” she said.

Napheesa Collier said it was her favorite team ever, talked about how Monday, after end-of-year meetings and physicals, nobody wanted to part.

“It was, ‘Let’s go out to one last dinner, because we’ll never be the same group again.’”

Yes, the Lynx starting five should return. Yes, there is a solid, wide base on which to try to go one win further than the 2024 team that started the season out of the national discussion and ended it on national TV.

But it won’t be the same.

Still, there were two things that stood out from the postseason interviews that bode well for the team’s future:

Reeve, also the team’s president of basketball operations, was so critical of the officiating at the end of regulation in Game 5 of the Finals — the non-call of a travel on New York star Breanna Stewart and the questionable foul call on Smith that ensued — but said Tuesday she wanted to look forward.

Not Collier.

“It’s easy to be appreciative of this team and see how special the season was,” she said. “But that loss is something I’ll never get over. To have it end that way, where it just feels super unjust, I don’t think that’s something I’ll ever be able to get over. It motivates me to never have a game that close again, where it could be decided by whoever it was decided by.”

It wasn’t just the words. It was the way Collier said them. If there is one silver lining to the way the Lynx lost, it’s the way it will motivate the Lynx’s best player.

Collier finished second in MVP voting and won defensive player of the year. She won a second Olympic gold medal. She was, as Reeve noted, the best player on the floor during the Finals.

And now? Watch out.

“I felt exactly the same when I was looking into her eyes after the game,” Reeve said. “How could you not be disappointed, angry? Maybe that’s going to burn inside her. I’m super-excited about what’s next for Phee.”

And for the team. There will be changes but the starters return.

“We will be able to build on that,” Kayla McBride said. Courtney Williams acknowledged the special nature of the 2024 Lynx, saying it took everyone on the roster for it to happen.

But with captains Collier and McBride leading the way — and with Reeve committed to adding people who fit the mold — it could continue.

“The culture starts with us,” Collier said. “With new people, we have to bring them into our fold.”

Reeve reveled at the way the team was able to get past difficult times, using humor as a weapon.

“They didn’t hold onto anything,” she said. “Not one thing.”

Her approach to building teams that are based on chemistry will remain the same, Reeve said, as the team looks toward next year. And that won’t be for a while, Reeve noted, as she plans on taking an extended break after a summer that included a run to the WNBA Finals and Olympic gold as coach of Team USA in Paris.

Reeve remains proud of the way the Lynx accomplished the run.

You have no idea,” she said. “We’ve been challenged as an organization to return ourselves to the place we got to this year. To accomplish it in the climate we’re in now is something I hope our organization understands how hard it is to do.”

And, Reeve said, she hopes other organizations can use it as inspiration.

“As it seems things are shifting, rules are shifting, accountability is non-existent,” Reeve said. “The opportunity we had to show you could build a team differently I think was incredibly important for the WNBA.”