Four years later, Lindsay Whalen gets her due

When I saw that USA Basketball named the first 11 members to this year's women's Olympic basketball team, there was just one name I was looking for.

I knew Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi (still my favorite) were going to be there. There weren't a lot of surprises among the others, although I was happy to see Swin Cash back on the team. Tamika Catchings and Candace Parker were among the other obvious choices, and Maya Moore might be better than all of them someday.

But the name I was looking for was Lindsay Whalen.

I fell hard for Whalen in 2004, when her University of Minnesota team beat Duke in the Mideast Regional final. Beyond being a terrific player, she was just ... fun to watch.



So I was very excited when the Connecticut Sun swung a trade that ultimately ended up with the team drafting Whalen that year, as I went to a few games each year at the Mohegan Sun. I always enjoyed the anticipation of what would happen next as Whalen headed up the court with the ball and the play unfolded ... would she pass, pull up for a shot or head to the basket?

She and Katie Douglas made a great backcourt, and if Whalen hadn't been hurt, they would have won the 2005 WNBA championship.

And then the Sun traded Whalen, not for basketball reasons, but because she wanted to go back home to Minnesota (although at least the trade wasn't an epic hosing that the Douglas trade to her home in Indiana was).

I've maybe watched two Sun games since. I was that mad, and still am..

To my mind, the only point guard in the WNBA who's better than Whalen is Sue Bird, but there's no shame being the second-best point guard in world. Yet when it came time to name to 2008 Olympic team, she wasn't on it.

Kara Lawson was. Lawson is a pretty good player, but she's no Lindsay Whalen. She just isn't. For the past four years, whenever I've seen Lawson on ESPN, I've always thought of her as being the player who's carrying around Lindsay Whalen's Olympic gold medal.

So when I scanned the list and found Whalen's name on it, I was happy. Now she'll get a chance for that gold medal she should have had four years ago.