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Less than a week into the WNBA season, the Lynx pettiness is in top form
Maya Moore’s wings poster inspires and so much more
A little girl preparing for her first WNBA game stood under a billboard just outside of a parking lot next to the Target Center in Minneapolis. Her arms outstretched as wide as she could get them, emulating the woman in the poster just above her head.
The woman the little girl was copying? Minnesota Lynx guard Maya Moore, who was recreating the iconic “Wings” poster that Michael Jordan did in 1989. “Wings” actually came out the year Moore was born, and Her Airness told reporters after the game that she had the poster in her room as a kid and still has it. And after seeing the tweet, Jordan Brand offered to send the father of the little girl a special copy of the poster.
And to think that Minneapolis only allowed Jordan Brand to have this billboard up for one day. That’s right. The poster of Moore, who has helped the Lynx bring home four WNBA titles in seven years, was only allowed in that space for a single day. But as the old adage goes, get it where you fit it, and one day was enough for social media to make people aware of the billboard and to inspire those who made their way out to it.
Daughters first @WNBA game and she’s inspired by @MooreMaya of the @minnesotalynx 💪🏾😊 pic.twitter.com/WUhZFAoVdh
— Justice Sikakane, Sr 🇨🇦 (@justicesikakane) May 20, 2018
🐐 meets 🐐 pic.twitter.com/9aZem84b47
— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) May 20, 2018
See, this WNBA season, the league is pulling no punches and bringing beaucoup energy to increase its viewership and expand its fan base. And, in case you missed it, all of that buzz preceded Minnesota’s much-anticipated rematch against the Los Angeles Sparks.
Before the game even tipped off, the Lynx set social media ablaze again when journalists covering the game tweeted out videos of the team playing its ring ceremony as the Sparks were in shootaround. Los Angeles would end up getting the last laugh, though, as Chelsea Gray contorted her body through a sea of Lynx defenders to finish with a buzzer-beating layup as the Sparks took the 77-76 win on the road.
Mind you, all of what happened in Minneapolis was on one day, and the third day of the new season and 38 percent more viewership from the year before. If for whatever reason you missed some of what’s happened in the first six days of the 2018 WNBA season, well, that’s what you have me here for.
To crack open the very first day of the season, Diana Taurasi hit her 1,000th 3-point shot in the Phoenix Mercury’s 86-78 victory over the Dallas Wings. Playing in only her 339th WNBA game, she joined Klay Thompson, Stephen Curry and Damian Lillard as the only players in NBA or WNBA history to reach that milestone in fewer than 400 games.
That was a terrific appetizer for the start of the league’s new season but an indication of what’s in store for basketball fans the remainder of the season. Stars such as Nneka Ogwumike, who is leading the league in points per game, Taurasi, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Moore, Breanna Stewart, Brittney Griner, Tina Charles, Allie Quigley and others are already wreaking havoc three games into the new season.
Rookies such as A’Ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, the Chicago Sky’s Diamond DeShields and Gabby Williams, the Indiana Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell and Washington Mystics’ Myisha Hines-Allen are also currently turning heads with their poise and production and finding their rhythm in the early stages of the 2018 season.
If you’d like to know more about what it’s like being a WNBA rookie, ESPN’s Sean Hurd is doing a diary with Williams as she moves through her first season and she discusses a myriad of topics. Mitchell, who was one of the most prolific scorers in college basketball, got the first 20-point game against the Sparks, last season’s WNBA Finals runners-up, in an 87-70 loss.
Again, this is only six days into the season, and there’s still one day left on that free WNBA League Pass. ESPN2 is broadcasting the Sparks game versus the Connecticut Sun, which is led by jack-of-all-trades Alyssa Thomas, Friday night.
If you loved the way the women’s NCAA tournament ended — and who doesn’t love two dramatic buzzer-beaters — then you may want to make that move and get into this WNBA season. Get with the winning team, y’all, and get into these basketball games and players.