Everyone loves a hometown hero.

There’s something special about rooting for an athlete whose career brings pride to your state, knowing their love for basketball is rooted in the same Minnesota teams, athletes and basketball moments as your adoration for the sport.

The Lynx welcomed home a hometown hero on Tuesday by acquiring Lakeville native Rachel Banham from the Connecticut Sun in a sign-and-trade deal that sent a 2021 second-round pick to Connecticut.

“I couldn’t be happier to be coming home and be a member of this historic franchise,” Banham said. “Growing up a Lynx fan, I’ve always admired the way Cheryl (Reeve) and her staff have made the Lynx into a model franchise in the WNBA. I can’t wait to see everyone at Target Center this summer.”

This summer will be a reunion of sorts for those who’ve watched Banham’s career unfold in Minnesota. If you consider yourself a Minnesota basketball fan, you’re already well aware of what she’s done for the sport within our borders.

The 5-foot-9 guard started for the Lakeville North High School varsity basketball team as an eighth-grader and ended her high school career averaging 17.8 points, 5.3 rebounds and four assists per game as a senior.

After high school, Banham stayed in Minnesota and played for the Gophers who ended up retiring her No. 1 jersey less than a year after her graduation. With the Gophers, Banham started all 36 games of her freshman season (2011-12) and was named Big Ten Freshman of the Year after averaging 16.1 points per game.

Her averages continued to rise during her sophomore and junior seasons, and by the start of her senior year, ESPN had named her a top-five player to watch in the 2014-15 season. The other four players to crack the top five were Tiffany Mitchell, Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis, Jewell Lloyd and, uh, Breanna Stewart.

However, Banham’s senior season took a turn for the worse when she tore her ACL mid-December of 2012. The season-ending injury was a huge blow to the senior standout and the Gophers. Would Banham play basketball again? And if she did, would she still be the same dominant player she was before?

Banham received a medical waiver and was able to return for the 2015-16 season. She didn’t quite return to the player she was once was. Instead, she took her game to a new level.

As a redshirt senior, Banham averaged a Big Ten-best 28.6 points per game, which was good for second-best in the nation. She showed her all-around prowess by also leading the Gophers in rebounds (5.9) and steals (2.0) while chipping in 3.8 assists per game, as well.
She was unanimously named the Big Ten Player of the Year and was named a John R. Wooden Award finalist and a Naismith Trophy semifinalist.

She may have earned the most nation-wide notoriety on Feb. 8, 2016, when she recorded an NCAA record-tying 60 points in the Gophers’ double-overtime win over Northwestern. Even Kobe Bryant, the Black Mamba, took notice.

Clutch @rachelbanham15 not many players can side fade, let alone for a game winner #mambablood

— Kobe Bryant (@kobebryant) February 16, 2016

The Maroon Mamba was unleashed and left the Gophers as the program’s and the Big Ten’s all-time leading scorer as well as the sixth-leading scorer in NCAA Division I women’s history.

Banham reclaimed Minnesota basketball’s spot on the map before leaving for Connecticut where she spent the first four years of her career after being selected by the Sun as the No. 4 overall pick in the 2016 draft.

In Connecticut, Banham only started in five of the 107 games she appeared in and had to fight for playing time against great players like Alex Bentley, Jasmine Thomas and Courtney Williams.

With the Sun, Banham put up career averages of 4.0 points, 1.0 rebound, 1.0 assist and 11.4 minutes per game. She’s shot 36.4% from the field and 32.8% from 3-point range so far in her young career. The Lynx believe those averages will increase as Banham’s role expands in her home state.

Combo Guard Contributions

By now, it’s well-known that the Lynx 2020 roster is short on guards.

With Danielle Robinson and Seimone Augustus leaving in free agency, the Lynx need ball-handlers who can not only create opportunities for their teammates but also serve as an offensive weapon themselves.

That’s where Banham comes in.

Banham isn’t exactly a traditional point guard, per se. Connecticut used her primarily as a shooting guard who could come in off the bench when her team needed quick scoring. She’d be found popping 3s in the corner or at the top of the break with a release that you’d miss if you blinked.

But Banham has also shown that she’s capable of utilizing a pump-fake outside the perimeter and scoring off the dribble. And though she was rarely given a chance to do so in Connecticut, her time with the Gophers showcased her basketball I.Q. and ability to serve as a floor general, even if she isn’t always bringing the ball up the court.

Banham and third-year player Lexie Brown, who were once teammates in Connecticut, will most likely share backcourt duties for the Lynx. Their familiarity with one another should give them a head start in building the chemistry needed to run the Lynx’s offense.

Ideal Role Model

When I think of professional athletes who’re worthy role models, I think of Rachel Banham.

Banham has an infectious personality that ranges from being a goofball and photobombing referee photos to being a humble, inspiration for young hoopers.

Before I started working for the Lynx, I covered five local high schools in western Wisconsin. Two of those schools, Ellsworth and Prescott, lie near the Wisconsin and Minnesota border. Because of their proximity to the Twin Cities, many Ellsworth and Prescott students (rightfully) grow up rooting for Minnesota sports teams, including the Gophers.

A few of the girls’ basketball players I used to cover grew up idolizing Banham and even got to meet her when the Gophers retired her jersey on Jan. 1, 2017. That day, according to an article from the Pierce County Herald, Banham told some of the Ellsworth players she’d come to watch one of their games — a promise most professional athletes wouldn’t make, let alone fulfill.

Sure enough, Banham was there for the Prescott vs. Ellsworth girls’ basketball game a week later. She even hung around after the game to talk to her fans about the importance of being a good teammate and person in general.

It’s not her most noteworthy title, but that night, Banham became a legend for 18 Ellsworth basketball players.

Writing Her Own Lynx Story

How could I get 1,000 words into a blog about Banham coming home to play for the Lynx without making a comparison to Lindsay Whalen?

I could have mentioned Whalen when describing what it’s like to root for a hometown hero. Whalen could have easily been brought up when I mentioned Banham’s Gopher scoring title. The similarities between Banham and Whalen both being drafted No. 4 by the Sun to only be traded to their home states could have been noted early on.

Instead, I left those comparisons out because this is Banham’s story.

Sure, being compared to one of the greatest point guards ever has to be flattering for Banham, but she also deserves to have a clean slate in writing her own Lynx story, just like Whalen did.

Minnesota basketball fans have been dreaming of watching the Lakeville native play in a Lynx uniform for the better part of the decade now. For Banham, her dream predates ours. Now it’s time to watch it unfold in the state where it all began.