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WNBA champs

Minnesota Lynx party like it’s 1999 — with Prince

Fred Jeter | 10/23/2015, 12:30 p.m.
What better time to party than after winning the WNBA title for a third time in five years. And who ...
Sylvia Fowles

What better time to party than after winning the WNBA title for a third time in five years.

And who better to party with than Prince.

The Minnesota Lynx and the megastar singer-songwriter partied like it was 1999 after the Lynx won the WNBA championship crown Oct. 14 over the Indiana Fever.

The entertainer and Minneapolis native was among the record crowd of 18,933 who saw the Lynx win 69-52 in the decisive fifth game at a packed Target Center.

A few hours after a blizzard of confetti swirled around the champions at the arena, Prince entertained the players and their close friends at Paisley Park, an event and music venue owned by Prince.

He started the impromptu concert celebration by singing “Purple Rain.” Lynx players were invited to step on stage and dance with the 57-year-old music icon.

“We didn’t expect this party, but it was unbelievable,” star forward Maya Moore told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Minnesota’s galaxy of stars starts with Moore, a 6-foot-tall former University of Connecticut All-American, who led the Lynx in scoring throughout the regular season and playoffs.

Moore, who was the 2014 WNBA Player of the Year, is one of four former UConn Huskies on the team. Others are teammates Renee Montgomery, Kalana Green and Asjha Jones.

The WNBA’s first overall draft pick in 2011, Moore averaged 20.6 points per game during the regular season and an average of 23.4 points in 10 playoff games.

The Lynx eliminated the Los Angeles Sparks and the Phoenix Mercury in advancing to the best-of-five finals.

Upstaging Moore in the climactic game was 6-foot-6 Sylvia Fowles, the league’s No. 2 overall pick out of Louisiana State University in 2008.

Moved from the Chicago Sky at midseason, Fowles had 20 points and 11 rebounds in the final game and was named Most Valuable Player of the finals. Twice the long-stemmed Fowles has led the WNBA in blocked shots.

Nine-year veteran Seimone Augustus, another LSU alumna, had 16 points in the clincher, while Rebekkah Brunson, from Georgetown University, corralled 14 rebounds.

In the Lynx’s previous championships, the team won while on the road, meaning the Twin Cities’ revelry was delayed.

Not this time.

Following a postgame love fest with fans, the Lynx received a congratulatory phone call from President Obama.

And then they let their hair down and kicked up their heels at the party with Prince.