Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles were cornerstones of the Minnesota Lynx when the franchise won four WNBA titles in seven years.
So were Lindsay Whalen and Seimone Augustus.
Now Moore and Fowles will join their former teammates in the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame this weekend when they are enshrined as part of the 2025 class, along with Sue Bird. Whalen was inducted in 2022 and Augustus entered the Hall of Fame in 2024.
It's the first time that four players from the same WNBA team will be in the Hall of Fame. The Boston Celtics hold the record with nine players from their 1962-63 NBA championship team in the Hall.
“That’s one of the things that the legacy of our team, our culture at Minnesota, was we were committed to each other," Moore said in an interview with The Associated Press. “We had a core that stayed together longer than any other I think, in the history of the league.”
Augustus and Whalen will be at the Hall of Fame ceremony on Saturday presenting their former teammates. Whalen is currently an assistant coach with the Lynx, who play Saturday at Golden State, but she will skip the game to be at the Hall of Fame.
“I told Lindsay I didn't want her to miss the ceremony,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said.
Reeve, who is enjoying a Hall of Fame-caliber career of her own, would like better collaboration between the WNBA and the Hall so that teams could attend the ceremony and celebrate former players.
“It’s special to be a part of and it’s not every day you get a Hall of Fame nod, to not be a part of it is brutal,” she said.
Reeve was the architect of the championship run during which her team reached the Finals six times in that seven-year stretch.
“Four of the dynasty are in, it’s one of the best runs we’ve ever seen maybe second only to the Comets who won four in four years,” ESPN analyst Rebecca Lobo said of the Lynx quartet. “Looking at WNBA championship teams, they are the only ones with four in. It brings home again how incredible those Minnesota Lynx teams were in an era when you couldn’t build super teams. They built that the old fashion way, Maya was in the draft, Seimone was in the draft, Whalen was a trade, Syl was a trade.”
The dynasty started its run when the Lynx drafted Moore with the first pick in 2011 and won the title that season. They were champions again two years later with Moore winning Finals MVP honors.
After falling short in 2014 of reaching the WNBA Finals for the only time in that span, Minnesota added Fowles in a mid-season 2015 trade.
The 6-foot-6 Fowles made an immediate impact, earning MVP honors in the Finals that season and then again two years later when the franchise won the last of its four championships. A loss to Los Angeles in a decisive Game 5 in the WNBA Finals a year earlier fueled that final title.
“It definitely left a bittersweet taste in your mouth. I mean, credit to L.A,” Fowles said. “When you don’t achieve that goal and you are just one step away, getting a rebound, blocked shot, a putback whatever the situation may be. It definitely gives you that hunger to make you want to go back and chase that dream all over again.”
Fowles, who retired in 2022 as the WNBA's career rebound leader, went on to be the league's MVP and Finals MVP in 2017. She also has been the connecter to the current Lynx group that fell just short in the WNBA Finals last season and currently has the best record in the league and homecourt advantage throughout the playoffs.
“When I got there in 2015 they showed me the ropes and I thought it was very important that the next generation also understood,” Fowles said. “These are the things that we do here, and you can change it up a little bit, but these are your core values of what we stand for. This group definitely gave into that.”
Fowles is proud of the current team and how they've continued “the Lynx way” that Whalen, Augustus, Moore help start.
Now the four will forever be enshrined together in the Hall of Fame.
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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
Doug Feinberg, The Associated Press
