The Lindsay Whalen era ends

I'm sure that I am not alone in this among Minnesota sports fans, but my interest in women's basketball pretty much started with Lindsay Whalen.

The couple runs the Gophers made with her were more of a fun novelty, in that they did not led me to becoming some huge fan of that program. But that's probably more due to the inability to sustain any sort of success.

And my WNBA fandom absolutely spawned from Whalen. The Lynx were just not a thing that interested me. The 1st game I went to wasn't until 2007...and that was to see Whalen's Sun. But then when the Lynx traded for her in 2010 I was instantly pumped. That season I went to 4 games....all losses. 🤨

Impossible to say if Whalen's presence alone would have sustained that interest, but in 2011 we got Maya, and titles began to roll in. And certainly I don't see the interest in the Lynx waning with her retirement.

But it's definitely the end of an era. Kind of the latest in a string. When Brett Favre retired, that was very much an era closing. In 2016 when Kevin Garnett, Peyton Manning, David Ortiz and Tim Duncan all retired, that was like my 20s were sent packing. And now with Whalen we see the 1st of the major stars for me of that next generation go. Could toss Adrian Peterson, Joe Mauer, Larry Fitzgerald,  maybe even Albert Pujols into that mix. All nearing the end. The major stars of my late 20s and early 30s. Kind of the last of the eras of really putting my favorite athletes, the ones I followed closest, up on something of a pedestal.