No energy should be expended downplaying the Lynx's four WNBA championships and six Finals appearances from 2011 to 2017. These were overloaded teams and the last two five-game Finals, shared with Candace Parker and the Los Angeles Sparks, provided outstanding drama.

The playoffs were played at Williams Arena in 2017, and the joyous postgame media sessions with Moore, Whalen, Fowles, Brunson and everyone else after a victorious fifth game in a packed barn are unforgettable.

But this is different because the WNBA is different now. It has shaken off its roots as a league that the NBA founded out of obligation to fill some slots in empty arenas over the summer.

The league started in 1997 and the Lynx started in 1999, and it should be noted that Timberwolves owner Glen Taylor, who also owns the Minnesota Star Tribune, stuck around while most of his NBA contemporaries dropped out. Taylor was so committed to the cause that he spent $1 million in 2017 to provide temporary air conditioning for teams and fans at Williams.

The NBA gave up ownership in 2002 and it was a long build to get there, but the WNBA has gained more momentum in 2024 than ever before. And with these lynxes as an unlikely force in the middle.

This is not based on the arrival of Caitlin Clark. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was right in the preseason when she said the league was about more than one player, even if Caitlin Nation got silly and never stopped complaining about Olympic coach Reeve being against Clark .

Ridiculous. Clark certainly had more eyes on the league, but she wasn't on the Olympic team and could have been left out of the All-WNBA first team announced this week if she had gotten as much attention for her record-breaking turnovers as she got Points and assists.

Heck, I've been a Clark booster for a long time, but without them in sight, the favored New York Liberty and the relentless Lynx put together a forgettable finale, and that was just three games into Friday night's best-of-five at Target Center.