Editor’s Note: “A Decade Back” means just that. We’re looking ten years into the past at major events in the basketball landscape to relive the history. We should learn from the course of time and not soon forget the moments that brought us here.
Minnesota entered the 2010 WNBA Draft Lottery with the third-highest odds at the first pick, but they were good enough. The Lynx won the top selection, but they didn’t have it by draft day.
On Jan. 12, 2010, Minnesota shipped the No. 1 overall pick and guard Renee Montgomery to the Connecticut Sun for the No. 2 overall pick and guard Lindsay Whalen.
Montgomery had just finished her rookie season after the Lynx drafted her fourth overall in 2009, averaging 9.0 points and 2.1 assists in 22.5 minutes per game. Whalen was a six-year WNBA veteran, selected with the fourth pick in the 2004 WNBA Draft by the Sun, and had posted 12.3 points, 4.6 assists and 4.6 rebounds per night in the 2009 season, played in the 2006 WNBA All-Star Game and was named to the 2008 All-WNBA First Team.
With the top spot, Connecticut made Tina Charles, a center from the University of Connecticut, the No. 1 pick in the 2010 WNBA Draft. The Lynx drafted guard Monica Wright out of the University of Virginia with the second selection.
To add irony to the situation, not only did the trade send Montgomery back to her alma mater’s area, it did the same for Whalen, who spent her college days at the University of Minnesota and is originally from Hutchinson, Minnesota. She was instrumental to Minnesota’s 2004 Final Four run, the first in program history, and holds a myriad of school records at her former college and high school.
REACTION
“Minnesota had 428 chances out of 1,000 to receive the first overall selection by virtue of owning New York’s combinations (261) in addition to its own (167). … Minnesota had the combinations for the New York Liberty’s pick due to the trade involving Sidney Spencer, Noelle Quinn and Raffaella Masciadri on May 5, 2009.” – WNBA Press Release
“The Lynx sent Montgomery and the No. 1 overall draft pick to the Sun on Tuesday for Whalen and the No. 2 overall selection in a deal that should help both teams at the box office as much as on the court. The Sun are expected to take Huskies center Tina Charles with the top pick.
Both teams said the deal was strictly a basketball decision and did not hinge on generating more interest for a summer league that has struggled mightily to sustain consistent fan support. But Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve’s bold challenge to local fans strongly indicated otherwise.
‘I’d like to say to all the Minnesota fans out there that it’s not just about being aware that Lindsay Whalen is coming to play for the Minnesota Lynx,’ Reeve said. ‘It’s about paying for tickets to come watch Lindsay Whalen. That’s really important and that’s a challenge to the fans. Yeah, we’re all excited, but come watch her play.’” – Associated Press
“With the trade, the Lynx now own the Nos. 2 and 3 picks in the 2010 WNBA Draft, the first time in league history that a team has owned multiple picks in the top 3.” – Lynx Press Release
“Lynx CEO Roger Griffith tried feverishly to trade up in the 2004 draft to select Whalen.
Six years later, he finally got Whalen home in the prime of her career, turning the Lynx into a favorite in the West. But perhaps more importantly, Whalen’s arrival could spur interest in a team that has had monumental difficulties in a flooded Twin Cities sports market.” – Associated Press
“We anticipate a growth [in interest]. We have not tried to put a number on it. But we anticipate it will have an impact in the arena for a variety of different reasons. Partly it’ll be about her. Partly it’ll be about winning. Partly it’ll be about catching that fever again.” – Lynx CEO Roger Griffith
“There were great attempts that were made. Roger has displayed a great deal of patience. You don’t mortgage the franchise for a player. Or you’re not held hostage – when people know the value and they’re trying to use that against you, it takes fortitude to stand your ground and say, ‘This is about basketball.’ … This was the first reasonable offer.” – Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve
“It’s not just a PR deal. Cheryl, Roger and I all think Lindsay is one of the top three point guards in the league with Sue Bird and Becky Hammon. … Hopefully, this does for the Lynx what the Kevin Garnett trade did for the Celtics.” – Lynx assistant coach Jim Peterson
“With the trade, Whalen returns to her home state after elevating the Golden Gophers women’s program to national prominence during her storied four-year career at Minnesota, which included the school’s first-ever Final Four appearance in 2004, her senior year.” – Lynx Press Release
“I’m very, very excited. It’s about time. It’s about time for Lindsay, it’s about time for us to get her back home.” – Golden Gophers coach Pam Borton, Whalen’s college coach for two years
“I’m really excited about the opportunity to come home and play in front of my hometown fans. I believe Minnesota is a team with a lot of talent, and is ready to contend for the top spot in the Western Conference. I’m thrilled with the chance to play with one of the great scorers in the WNBA in Seimone Augustus and learn under the direction of Cheryl Reeve. With that being said, I’m very thankful for everything the Connecticut Sun organization has done for me the past six years; Coach Thibault and the entire staff there. I’m ready for a new challenge and expect to win a lot of games with the Lynx in 2010 and beyond.” – Whalen
“It’s a bittersweet moment for me and I’m sure Lindsay Whalen as well because you build a bond with the people that you go to in the beginning. I know she loves Connecticut and who couldn’t. It’s also a sweet moment (for me) because you get to come back to a place that you love.” – Renee Montgomery
“To say we’re doing a trade to get UConn players per se is ludicrous. That’s not why you do a trade. You do a trade to become a better team.” – Sun head coach Mike Thibault
“We had a rare opportunity to leverage a high draft pick and turn it into a bigger, more encompassing deal. There is no doubt our fans will miss everything Lindsay has brought to the Sun over the past six years, though this new chapter could be even more exciting.” – Sun Vice President and General Manager Chris Sienko
“By trading Lindsay and the second draft pick to Minnesota, we are able to acquire a young point guard in Renee Montgomery who, in time, can become one of the best guards in our league, as well as acquiring the first pick in this year’s college draft.” – Thibault
“Last fall, Connecticut Mohegan Sun coach Mike Thibault received a phone call from Lindsay Whalen during the Team USA basketball camp in Washington, D.C.
‘Lindsay says, ‘You need to get the first pick (in the 2010 draft),’’ Thibault said. ‘‘There’s a girl up at UConn (Tina Charles), kind of a big center, (who is) playing down there.’’
‘(Whalen) said, ‘Tina is pretty good.’’
‘I said, ‘Well, what do we have to give for the first pick?’’
‘She said, ‘I don’t know.’’
It turned out that ‘what’ was Whalen.” – Ned Griffin, The Day
“This is our once-maybe-in-a-lifetime (chance) to change the course of what we do, and we jumped on it. Not easily. Not quickly. But we did jump on it finally.” – Thibault
“Up until this past year, I think Lindsay was always in a position that she was very comfortable with everything (here). Over the course of the last couple of months … it became clearer that she was also thinking about what she could do after her career (in Minnesota).
In one of our conversations, she said, ‘If I ever had to go anywhere else, if you ever had to trade me, I prefer it only to be to Minnesota … And I’d understand if it’s the perfect business decision.’” – Thibault
OUTCOME
Montgomery played for the Sun for five seasons until she was traded to the Seattle Storm in 2015 with third and 15th-overall picks in the 2015 WNBA Draft for forwards Camille Little and Shekinna Stricklen. In her time with Connecticut, Montgomery averaged 11.3 points and 3.4 assists each night. She helped the team make the postseason twice in 2011 and 2012, both times as the No. 1 seed in the East, including a run to the 2012 Eastern Conference Finals. Montgomery is about to start her second season with the Atlanta Dream after a brief stint back in Minnesota and an even briefer time in Seattle.
Whalen spent the rest of her WNBA days in Minnesota, playing on the team until her retirement concluding the 2018 season. In her nine seasons with the Lynx, she posted 11.4 points and 4.9 dimes per game. Her impact during her tenure was vital as Whalen was a key contributor to Minnesota’s championships in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017, plus the team’s runs to the WNBA Finals in 2012 and 2016. She was an all-star in 2011, 2013, 2014 and 2015 and named to the All-WNBA Second Team in 2011, 2012 and 2014 and All-WNBA First Team in 2013.
Charles played for Connecticut from 2010-13 until she was traded to the New York Liberty in 2014 for Alyssa Thomas, Kelsey Bone and New York’s first round pick in the 2015 WNBA Draft. Through her first four years in the league, Charles averaged a double-double on 17.3 points and 10.8 rebounds per game, made two All-Star Game appearances (2011, 2013), was named to an All-WNBA team each season and won league MVP in 2012. The team made the playoffs twice in 2011 and 2012 and went to the Eastern Conference Finals in 2012. Charles still plays for the Liberty and is entering her sixth season in New York.
Wright played for Minnesota from 2010-15 and averaged 7.9 points and 2.4 rebounds in 19.8 minutes per game. After starting 24 games her rookie campaign, she never started more than nine games in a season again, becoming a consistent contributor off the bench for the Lynx for a handful of years. To bring the situation full circle, Minnesota traded Wright to Seattle in 2015 for Montgomery and the Storm’s second-round pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft. Wright spent one year with the team, then concluded her professional playing career overseas.
