Lynx 2015: Hiding In Plain Sight

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The Minnesota Lynx won their first two games of the 2015 WNBA season over the Tulsa Shock at home, and the Indiana Fever on the road.  With the NBA and NHL playoffs going on and the Twins playing better these days, most of you probably didn't notice.

The core regulars for the two-time league champions are all back:  Seimoine Augustus, Lindsay Whalen, Maya Moore and Rebekkah Brunson.  Janel McCarville is not.  She has chosen to take the season off to allow her body to heal after a grueling season of playing in Europe, or so the team says.

Unlike most professional athletes, women pro basketball players such as Augustus, Whalen and Moore play year-round not just in the WNBA and in international competitions like the Olympics, but overseas as well.  It's mainly because the WNBA is a summertime league that doesn't pay nearly as well as those in Europe or China.  The end result is that all that playing is bound to take a toll on their bodies, so the older these athletes get the more likely it is that they need time off.

Take the defending WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury, whose biggest star Diana Taurasi isn't playing this season because the Russian team she's contracted to for winter ball is paying her to sit out.  This may have been an understandable decision on Taurasi's part, but it doesn't make her or the WNBA look good.

Neither does domestic violence.  Brittney Griner of the Mercury is currently serving a seven-game suspension for an incident involving her and her married partner Glory Johnson, who just happens to play for the Shock.

The league's image has also taken a hit when the New York Liberty announced that Isiah Thomas has been brought in as president and part-owner.  Thomas, who has earned the everlasting enmity of Knicks fans for screwing up that franchise over the past few years, also happens to have had sexual harassment problems that make it hard for anyone to understand (beyond Liberty management) why he's the best choice to run a women's pro basketball team.

Back to the Lynx.  They may have won two titles, and are always a threat to win another with the collection of talent they've got.  But unless you buy a ticket to a game at Target Center, your chances of seeing them on TV are few and far between.

Fox Sports North currently holds the local TV rights to Lynx games.  Because the Twins take priority on the station during the summer, Lynx telecasts have to be scheduled on days when there's no baseball.   All others are either shown nationally on ESPN2 and NBA TV, or streaming live on the WNBA's website.

It's not as if FSN spends much money on covering the Lynx in the few games they do show.  The regular announcing crew of Marney Gellner and Lea B. Olson sometimes gives way to coverage provided by some of Fox Sports' other regional networks, even if the game is at home.

The Lynx are again the favorites to challenge for the WNBA title.  Our advice is to see this team as much as you possibly can, before age and time makes some of the players decide that taking a season off might be a good idea for them too.