The Story of Lindsay Whalen

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When you read through Lindsay Whalen’s list of accomplishments in her career, it starts back in her college days with the Minnesota Golden Gophers. She is the all-time leading scorer for the Golden Gophers and fifth on the all-time Big Ten scoring list. Whalen also holds the Gophers’ records for points, scoring average, games in double figures, free throws made and free throw percentage. All of this adds up to her being the only Gopher in history to be a four-time MVP. In addition to all of the individual accomplishments, she has helped her team to one of three straight NCAA tournaments. You can now find her jersey retired in Williams Arena.

Whalen was drafted fourth overall by the Connecticut Sun in 2004 draft. In her rookie season, she was selected to play in the WNBA vs USA Basketball game at Radio City Music Hall. She was also selected by fans to play in the WNBA All-Star game while leading the Sun to two WNBA Finals in which they lost. In 2010, Whalen was traded to the Lynx to play in front of a home crowd again. When the Lynx won the WNBA championship in 2011, they finished the season 27-7, the best record of any team that season.

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There have been few other WNBA careers that quite compare to one of Whalen. She has won four WNBA championships, has been named to the All-WNBA First Team three times, and the All-WNBA Second Team two times. It is obvious that people can see her success with a professional career, but you would have to just be blatantly ignoring the facts. She has been named the WNBA Peak Performer for assists three times, a two-time Olympic gold medalist, holds the Lynx career record in assists, and Lynx single-season record in assists. The one title she holds that quite possibly means the most in the state of Minnesota is as head coach of the Minnesota Golden Gophers’ Women’s Basketball team.

Her accomplishments are things that can be analyzed and talked about for days and they will be talked about for years to come. When you are one of the most winningest basketball players to ever come out of the state of Minnesota, your gameplay will be something to be examined for the rest of time, or at least until someone can compare to you. In reality, it will be many years before another Gopher’s stats can compare to Whalen. Until then, she will just keep coaching the Gophers and hopefully lead them to tournament after tournament.