Gopher, Lynx great Lindsay Whalen elected to Basketball Hall of Fame

(KDLM) – Minnesota Golden Gophers and Minnesota Lynx legend Lindsay Whalen was elected to the National Basketball Hall of Fame on Saturday, joining the 13-member Class of 2022.

After starring for the Hutchinson High School Tigers, Whalen attended the University of Minnesota. She led the program to an unprecedented run of success including a run to the 2004 NCAA Women’s Final Four. She finished her Gopher career as the school’s all-time leader in points with 2,285 (a record that was broken by Rachel Banham in 2015)  second in career assists (578) and sixth in steals (235).

Congratulations to 4x @WNBA Champion, 5x WNBA All-Star and 2x Olympic Gold Medalist, #22HoopClass honoree @Lindsay_13. pic.twitter.com/Jd4I40KW8Q

— Basketball HOF (@Hoophall) April 2, 2022

Whalen was selected fourth overall by the Connecticut Sun in the 2004 WNBA Draft. After six seasons in Connecticut, Whalen was traded to Minnesota prior to the 2010 season. Whalen would lead the Lynx to the playoffs eight times in four seasons and won four WNBA Championships. When she retired after the 2018 season, she ranked third all-time in assists with 2,348 while averaging 11 points, four rebounds, five assists, and one steal per game for her career.

After retiring, she returned to the Gophers to become their head coach, replacing Marlene Stallings. Whalen’s Gophers are 60-57 record after four seasons at Minnesota.

Whalen will be joined in this year’s class by Manu Ginobli, Tim Hardaway, Swin Cash,  Larry Costello, Hugh Evans, Del Harris, Lou Hudson, Bob Huggins, George Karl, Radivoj Korac, Theresa Shank-Gretz, and Marianne Stanley.

This year’s class will be inducted on Sunday, September 10th in Springfield, Massachusetts.