Mitchell Hansen
Web Editorial Associate
Twitter
Entering the 2017 season, no player had ever won more than four WNBA championships in league history.
After Wednesday night, that changed.
Minnesota Lynx forward Rebekkah Brunson made history on Wednesday at Williams Arena in Minneapolis, helping her team to yet another WNBA championship.
With the title, Brunson has recorded her fifth WNBA championship, becoming the first player in league history to win five rings.
She just needed to add one for the thumb.
“It feels good. I think it feels better because I get to share it with this amazing team,” Brunson said Wednesday night. “These amazing players, this amazing coaching staff, this amazing organization. Everybody here deserves everything that we get.”
Brunson, who broke into the WNBA in 2004, won her first title in 2005 with the Sacramento Monarchs. Since arriving in Minnesota in 2010, she has helped the Lynx to four titles in seven years.
“I always have said that I’ve been blessed to be on two very, very special teams with how we care about each other and how we care about each other,” Brunson said. “Just to win the title here in front of the fans is amazing, not matter what it is. The fifth for me, one for some. This group and these fans, they are always here for us along the way. The ups and the downs, they always support us.
“I’ve been blessed throughout my career. I’ve been on some hard-working teams that know what it takes to compete and be successful. Being able to play with Cheryl (Reeve), one the best basketball minds there is, it’s just been a blessing.”
If you talk to anyone on the Lynx, one player that is the glue to keeping the team together and helping them play at a high level night-in and night-out is Brunson. When she is playing well, there really isn’t any team in the WNBA that can stop Minnesota.
“This is a player that has literally worked for everything that she has earned in her career. Nothing was given to her,” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said of Brunson. “She has just evolved. . . She turned 35 this year and she still wants to learn new things, she wants to add to her game. She just works, works, works. . . I’m thrilled that she is now the greatest champion in the history of our league.
“I told her we’re going to start working on the other hand.”
Of the many all-time WNBA lists that Brunson is climbing and will continue to climb in her career, there is one list that she can say she began all on her own.
“We’re successful because it’s just not all about basketball,” Brunson said. “Of course, we are great players and we put some great work on the court, but I think we are successful because we want to win for each other. It’s not a selfish effort. We want to win for the person that is next to us and they are winning for the person next to them.”