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The championship pedigree of the Minnesota Lynx coaching staff is unlike any other WNBA team

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When the weather begins to chill down and the leaves start to vary color in Minneapolis for much of the past decade, it normally means two things: Fall has arrived, and with it the WNBA Finals.

“It’s the final season,” Minnesota Lynx assistant coach Rebekkah Brunson said. “You know, the more energizing the air gets. We at all times have this sense this time of 12 months.

From 2011 to 2017, the Lynx participated in six WNBA Finals, hosting games at the Target Center. They won 4 championships during this era, and Brunson was an element of all 4.

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On Wednesday, Minneapolis returned as host to the final WNBA series for the first time in seven years, and the Lynx were in the process of defining a brand new era for the franchise. For fans accustomed to seeing championship rings, this 12 months’s team begins with the Ground Zero Championship. Only Lynx forward Myisha Hines-Allen has won a championship, doing so with the Washington Mystics in 2019.

Minnesota’s coaching staff, nonetheless, is a very different story. The championship pedigree of the Lynx coaching staff is unlike any other in the WNBA. Between them, they participated in as many as 16 WNBA championships.

Brunson won five championships as a player, the first with the Sacramento Monarchs in 2005 and the rest with the Lynx. Associate head coach Katie Smith won two games as a player for the Detroit Shock. Her Shock teammate Elaine Powell, also an assistant with Minnesota, won three championships as a player in Detroit. Head coach Cheryl Reeve has been involved in six championships – 4 as head coach of the Lynx and two as an assistant with Detroit.

“It’s very important because they know exactly what to say. They were here.” Lynx guard Kayla McBride said before Game 2 of the Finals in New York. “You can be distracted by a lot of different things, a lot of different narratives, but they keep the same narrative because that’s what they know.”

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As the Lynx attempt to bounce back from a 2-1 loss to Liberty, they’ll lean on the lessons learned from an experienced staff as they struggle to make them their first league title since 2017.

“They know what it takes to win,” McBride said.

Minnesota Lynx associate head coach Katie Smith (center) with assistant Rebekkah Brunson (right) during a playoff game on Sept. 22 at the Target Center in Minneapolis.

Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images

As someone who has played on quite a few championship teams, Brunson knows when a gaggle has that factor and might go the distance. She said the Lynx coaching staff immediately saw that think about this 12 months’s team.

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Brunson is grateful for constructing a Minnesota team whose synergy each on and off the field has contributed to what she believes is winning team chemistry.

“We knew at the beginning of this season that we had an amazing culture and didn’t have many gaps in the squad… We had all the necessary skills,” Brunson said. “But the factor is the way they took care of each other. It was visible after they weren’t on the field. You could see it in the amount of time they spent together outside of basketball, how they interacted and the way they played for every other. In my experience, this is exactly what you would like.

“At first you could possibly tell that they had something special about them. If they adopted our strategy and played in addition to they might, they might play until the end of the season because of the chemistry between them.

With a lot experience winning titles on the Minnesota bench, Lynx players were quick to ask for guidance and knowledge on what it takes to win. For McBride, it’s Smith – who, along with her two WNBA titles, also won two American Basketball League championships.

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“I always talk to Katie before games,” McBride said. “We watch our pregame film and she always says the right things, it keeps me focused on what’s important and the most important thing is the most important thing.”

Although Natisha Hiedeman competed in her first finals in Minnesota, she is no stranger to competing for a championship. Hiedeman was a member of the 2019 and 2022 Connecticut Sun teams together with current teammate Courtney Williams, who also appeared in the Finals. Hiedeman has played in 46 playoff games in his profession, rating fourth all-time amongst players who’ve yet to win a WNBA Finals.

Brunson called Hiedeman “the questioner” in the Lynx lineup during these Finals.

“She’s one of the players I think I’m most excited about,” Brunson said. “When she played at Connecticut, she was in the playoffs. And I believe it is very interesting because they didn’t win, right? So she desires to know what that extra thing is that might help her recover from the hump.

“She asked how it felt, what it was like and, you know, what the arena was like. What did we tell each other? What things did we say to help each other be our best selves? She is one of the more interesting players and has already been in the finals.”

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Brunson knows that stories and advice from the coaching staff can only take a team thus far. Ultimately, nothing beats the experience of actually competing for a WNBA championship.

“It’s not just about strategy. We know that and we will give it to them. But when you get to the finals, it really depends on how it feels,” Brunson said. “No one can tell you what it will feel like. You have to really be in it and feel it in those moments.”

Minnesota Lynx players Courtney Williams (left) and Natisha Hiedeman (right) during Game 1 of the 2024 WNBA Finals on October 10 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

However, there are lessons that Brunson draws from her own experiences in previous finals that she hopes to pass on to the current Lynx team, hoping they do not repeat her past mistakes.

In 2012, a 12 months after winning the first WNBA title in franchise history, the Lynx met Tamika Catchings’ Indiana Fever in the finals with a probability to repeat. Indiana stripped Minnesota of back-to-back titles, defeating the Lynx in 4 games. It’s a series that has stuck with Brunson and whose lessons she uses in her coaching today.

“I always come back to that series and the physicality of it,” Brunson said. I take advantage of this since it is one thing you’ll be able to control as a player. You cannot control taking all the shots. You cannot control every bounce, but you’ll be able to at all times control the energy with which you play. Dealing with the physicality of the final series. I at all times say this is the series where we actually got beat up physically. I take advantage of it as a reminder after I leave the show and feel like I’ve beaten you, like they’ve taken it away from you, right? So make sure that you do not feel like that at the end.

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While being in the Target Center brings back many exciting Finals memories for Brunson – some of which now hang as banners in the arena rafters – what she was most enthusiastic about straight away was that her Lynx players had created their very own Finals moment in Minnesota. Play in front of a sold-out crowd (Game 3 hosted the largest crowd in Target Center history with 19,521 fans) and bask in the admiration of fans who longed to return to fall basketball.

“It’s been a while since we’ve been here,” Brunson said. They have never experienced anything like this of their profession and I know the way special it feels.

Many Lynx players will enter their fourth game on Friday (8 p.m. ET, ESPN), having only made three previous profession Finals appearances. But Brunson said that is the beauty of the show – the ability to learn over time. Brunson and the Minnesota coaching staff did what they might to ease the learning curve, doing what they might to assist the Lynx create their very own championship memories.

The Lynx will attempt to stave off Friday’s elimination and force a fifth game, which can happen on Sunday in Brooklyn. The last time a team went down 2-1 and won the championship was in 2017. The team that did it? Lynx. This can be Brunson’s fifth and final WNBA title.

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“We try to tell them everything we have. The advantage of having coaches who have been there before is that they might listen to you a little more,” Brunson joked. “Just a little more.”

Sean Hurd is a author for Andscape, primarily covering women’s basketball. The pinnacle of his athletic development got here at the age of 10, when he was voted camper of the week at Josh Childress’ basketball camp.

This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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Jalen Milroe can follow the Jalen path in NFL

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Star Black playmakers aren’t any longer an exception – they’re the rule. Throughout the entire football season, this series will discover the importance and influence of black QB from bottom -up to NFL.


Indianapolis-keep me, should you heard it earlier: playmaker Alabama born in Texas, who’s a stronger runner than a passerby, will probably be called outside the first round of the NFL Draft.

The playmaker was undefeated in Sec as a primary -year starter.

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The playmaker never played for the same offensive coordinator.

The name of the playmaker is even Jalen.

But it isn’t clear that Jalen hurts. This winter he was busy winning the Super Bowl MVP, and he didn’t play Iron Bowl or against Michigan.

Instead, it’s a former playmaker of Crimson Tide Jalen Milroewho last week Combine Combine tried to convey the case to the trainers and evaluators that he – like his namesake – is price being their playmaker franchise in the future despite questions on his ability.

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“I went through adversity. I saw everything as a quarterback, “Milroe said on Friday. “I played at the most difficult conference in the country. It would be easier to play at other conferences, but what I could see in Sec catapulted me that I was ready to play NFL. “

Alabama, Jalen Milroe, talks to the media during the NFL mix at the Lucas Oil stadium on February 28 at Indianapolis.

Justin Casterline/Getty Images

Departing from Katy in Texas, she originally got involved in Texas in 2019, but a 12 months later she fell to Alabama. After he was sitting behind the Crimson Tide Starter Bryung for 2 seasons, Milroe took his reins in the 2023 season. He helped Alabama survive Sec (8-0) this 12 months, won by the conference rival and two-time defender Georgia in the SEC championship, which caused Crimson Tide to the play-off collection.

But while Milroe had a big arm (his 10 yards for the test took third place in Sec in 2023), the pass was not his strong suit. For two seasons as a starter Milroe never achieved 3000 yards in one season, the first starter of Alabama, who did it because it … hurts.

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Hurts, from Houston, led Crimson Tide to the National National Championships in 2016–17, but during these two seasons were lower than 5,000 yards. While Hurts was a singular Rusher (1,809 yards and 21 sticks) at the moment, his weakness as a passerby is known for led to the spare Tua Tavailoa during the break of the national championships in 2017.

In the mix, Milroe decided that despite his pedestrian passes, he was still worthy of being a start at NFL.

He is aware of his weaknesses and swore that he worked in the ass to enhance outside being “one dimension.” He could move when his legendary trainer, Nick Saban, retired after the 2023 season, but decided to not fall off. He traveled six miles a day to ensure that that something was left in the fourth quarter in the fourth quarter. He studied progression and reads after I-SNAP to lift his IQ in football.

Unlike the forecast sorts of the first round, Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, Milroe threw a mix on Saturday, hoping that he would show the bands that he has mechanics to do that to the playmaker NFL. It turned out to be a mixed bag. Milroe showed strong arm strength and a very good location of sail routes, curls and it while throwing exercises, but fought accuracy on intermediate and on the routes.

“That’s so many things that I can learn more where I am today and where I will be when it comes to day 1, starting with NFL,” said Milroe before Saturday exercises. “Always be a game student, at all times attempt to develop, because it would be so many opportunities in which I can look back and say that it was the moment after I grew up as a playmaker.

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“That’s right now, I’m just trying to grow as much as possible, put my best foot forward and just look for development.”

Jalen Milroe warms up during seniors training at the Hancock Whitney stadium on January 29 at Mobile, Alabama.

Derick E. Hingle/Getty Images

Milroe was asked that he was one other playmaker in Alabama to succeed in the mix, following in the footsteps of the role (who moved to Oklahoma in 2019), Tavailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young. Milroe said he appreciates being in the company of others, but he added that it’s difficult to check him with others.

“We had different bands, we had different players around us, we had a different system,” he said.

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But when he specifically asked what he could study the journey of Hurts-from the first manager of the game after the super Bowl-Milroe master said he inspired him his companion Alabam.

“The most important thing I learned from J. Hurts is how he kept his head (I) always continued to work,” said Milroe. “He at all times raised his game, he has never been self -deserved, and all the pieces you see is great progress from him.

“And I have to applaud him as a person, he as a man, because he is definitely inspiring for many playmakers of my image, as well as many playmakers throughout the country. He leads to all of us. “

The couple isn’t completely similar. Hurts had about 20 kilos on Milroe when he was in college. Milroe has a stronger arm, while Hurts played more and not using a mistake of football: Milroe threw 17 interceptions and ate 67 bags for 2 seasons as a starter in comparison with 10 captures Hurts and 43 bags.

But they can each be changing the game when their teams need them. In a highly publicized match against Georgia at the starting of the last season, Milroe finished almost 82% of his passes on 374 yards and two appointments, adding 117 yards to the ground for the next two results.

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Milroe can also match the wounds in the so -called “Jalen-ISMS. “

“Climbing upstairs is not easy, but when you reach the top of this mountain, you will learn so many things when it comes to adversity when it comes to difficulties, things along the way,” said Milroe in a mix.

Martenzie Johnson is an older author for Andcape. His favorite film moment is that Django said: “You all want to see something?”

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This article was originally published on : andscape.com
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Like Tommie Smith and John Carlos from 1968. Black Power Salute inspired me to find my goal

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I’d say that I grew up within the household to be sure that that me and my siblings were aware of the black history. My parents invested in the gathering of black encyclopedias. On the duvet we had a version of the Bible with Black Jesus. Our house was stuffed with books of black novelists and thinkers, and if a black document appeared, we watched it. I watched all movies made on television about Dr. King, each “Roots” and “Alex Haley’s Queen” and I sat for all 14 hours “Eyes on the reward”-as a toddler. Bless my heart.

Having said this, there have been pockets of black history, and more likely that I had no opportunity to delve into once I was a toddler. The college was where all the will for information and understanding of the combined. I attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., One of a very powerful historically black universities within the country. It was there that I met people from around the globe whose knowledge about black history differed (often depending on the colleges and the communities by which we lived), but everyone had hunger to learn more.

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One day, through the first yr, I remember one among my friends in a T -shirt by which I had definitely seen before, but I never paid attention to. There was a black and white screen printing on the shirt (what I do know now) the enduring moment on the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968, where on the rostrum for 200-meter medals, Tommie Smith, John Carlos (races 1. And 3. Place Finaners) Everyone gathered a black fist in gloves while he played “Star Spangled Banner”. Peter Norman, the second place from Australia, wore a human rights badge, like Smith and Carlos.

Not only did they raise the fist of black power (although they each said it was for human rights), they received medals in black socks to represent poverty within the black community, and Smith wore a black scarf for black pride. Carlos showed solidarity with blue-wheeled employees, unpacking the jacket and wore a necklace from the beads for individuals who were lynched. Due to the state of Black America in 1968 and a continuing struggle for equality and civil rights, there have been calls to a boycott of the Games. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was also killed in April this yr – and all three athletes were inspired enough to find a way to do it on the rostrum, which led to one of the crucial durable images of public protest.

I remember how I learned history and realized that on the most important scene these brave men used their moment of triumph and victory to quietly protest against the conditions of underrated communities in America. I felt strengthened; We often discuss standing on the arms of giants, however the more I got into the history of black in America, the more I spotted what number of giants there have been. In college I used to be very bad and for a while ready to burn every part that represented the establishment or any obstacle to black liberation. I felt like all those individuals who even saw their space on the planet in reference to individuals who could never give you the option to speak as heroes whose lives were to be modeled later. Especially since it was also fastidiously that putting people in front of him can often bring an enormous personal loss.

When Smith and Carlos took their position, they were booed on the stadium and ordered to be sent home by the International Olympic Committee. The athletes returned home, but they weren’t welcomed by the hero, but as a substitute of rough sleds, and even in some cases the specter of death. They were also not beloved by athletes. Two men, associated eternally in history, even have a good relationship –Carlos even claims that he let Smith go within the race Because “Tommie Smith would never put his fist in the sky if I won this race,” the claim that Smith denies.

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History ultimately has a way of rights, but it surely took a few years and realizations on the front of social policy, in order that the actions of those persons are perceived as brave and needed, not only selfish and smug.

The lessons that I learned from College and continuous reading and education I gained (my head remained within the book about black history) were one among the best advantages in HBCU. The very variety of books I learned about about which I actually have never heard of – I actually have upheld me all my life.

That is why I remember sooner or later I used to be walking around Washington, the eastern Washington market and a street seller was selling different photos of moments in black history, and he had a 40 -inch photo within the Tommie Smith and John Carlos frame. I paid for it in money and spent it across the capital of the country until I returned home. I do know that it happened in 2005 (I finished Morehouse College in 2001) because I just moved to my first apartment with no roommate and it was the very first thing that I actually have ever suspended on the wall. This picture within the frame still hangs on the wall in my home in 2025 and I used it to teach my children about sacrifice and privilege and how you may have to discuss individuals who cannot.

Teenage students of Stax Music Academy Mark 25th anniversary, black history month with a concert

The query that my youngest children often ask: “How do I know who can’t speak for herself?” Which is an incredible query. For this I answered an easy fact, pointing to the photo:

“These men have made a gesture that gave people whose most of us, including them, would never see or never know them, but on which life negatively affects the alternatives of the wealthy and the federal government. Sometimes you may have to take this chance to say something because you do not know in the event you’ll ever have such a big platform.

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Son, there may be at all times someone who cannot speak for himself, and you may have to use it in a voice, because perhaps the thing you say or a stand that can help someone you understand, live a greater life. ”

I take advantage of words that may understand a little bit higher, but I can inform you that my children have a look at this photo on a regular basis, and once one among my sons said: “These guys are heroes, right?”

I say yes, they’re. They are the heroes of the Black History.

They will live eternally for speaking, and even quietly, in solidarity with those that couldn’t.

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Panama Jackson Thegrio.com

(Tagstranslate) @Ap

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Main Treasury Official Morgan State University, Sterling Steward, died

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Morgan State University, Sterling Steward


Morgan State University announced that his older associate athletics director and tax director, Sterling Steward, died.

No reason for death was disclosed, but the college has confirmed his contribution since he was employed in December 2022.

Steward died on February 26. In Morgan State he was accountable for the event of university programs, supporting partnerships and strengthening the financial and operational success of the Faculty.

“Sterling was more than a colleague-he was a respected leader, mentor and friend,” said in a written statement by Den Freeman-Patton, vice chairman and director of inter-university athletes. “His passion for athletics and commitment to raising Morgan programs were visible in everything he did. He worked tirelessly to ensure that our sports students had resources and the possibilities of distinction, and its impact will be felt for many years. We expand our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, especially his three sons and sister when we mourn this huge loss. “

While the steward worked in Morgan, strategic growth and cooperation occurred. His work with the institutional development department helped to offer more opportunities and created lasting relationships to support sports programs.

Steward earlier he worked At the University of New Orleans (UNO) as an assistant to the college athletics director for strategic income generation. He also made stays on the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Savannah State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Alabama State University, Kentucky State University, Eastern Oregon University and Xavier University in various roles, including for a senior consultant athletics director and sports director.

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He was from New Orleans, who received the title of bachelor and master’s degree on the University of Southern Mississippi. He won a bachelor’s degree in the sphere of coaching and administration/history of sport and his master’s degree in the sphere of sport management.

(Tagstransate) Morgan State Universiry

This article was originally published on : www.blackenterprise.com
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