Lynx’s center of controversy overcame setbacks before playing a key role for Minnesota

As a people, Australians are as tough as they come. If you’re going somewhere and expect trouble, bring an Aussie. They’ll stick with you and never back down.

And so it was Sunday night in Brooklyn, when the Lynx’s resident tough-minded Aussie — undersized center Alanna Smith — found herself in the middle of the most talked-about play of the WNBA Finals, stepping up to defend New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart in the final seconds of regulation in Game 5.

That Smith was even in the game was a minor miracle. Twice in postseason, most recently in Game 3, Smith grotesquely turned her left ankle but came back to play meaningful minutes. She sat out part of Game 4 with foul trouble and a sore back. Then early in the fourth quarter of Game 5, New York’s Jonquel Jones backed into and landed on Smith, who was in such pain she was crying when trainer Chuck Barta and Coach Cheryl Reeve reached her. Of course, Smith returned to play after that, too.

Two years after being released by the Indiana Fever and cut from Australia’s World Cup team (the latter by current Liberty coach Sandy Brondello), Smith joined the Lynx as a free agent. She proved a valuable starter, averaging 10.1 points and 1.5 blocks while making the league’s all- defensive second team.

All season, the 6-4 Smith tangled with bigger, stronger defenders; she gave away two inches in height and roughly 30 pounds to the 6-6, 215-pound Jones. And in a delightful twist, she was also Australia’s best player at the Paris Olympics, leading the Opals to a bronze medal and joining A’ja Wilson and Stewart of the U.S. on the tournament’s All-Star Five.

“It’s a great story, really,” Brondello said. “I rewarded her for the work she put in and the improvement she made. I’ve always thought the word of Lan (Smith), but there were just some areas she needed to grow in, and she did.”

Aussies. Never underestimate them.

“I feel like for the past couple of years in my career, I haven’t changed much in what I’ve been doing on the court,” Smith said. “It’s just been opportunity for me, maybe a little bit of my mindset and approach I’ve had to change over the last couple of years.”

Simply stated, Smith said she stopped making basketball the focal point of her life. After her dismissal from Australia’s World Cup roster, Smith spent the 2022-23 season with AZS AJP Gorzów Wielkopolski in Poland, winning that league’s MVP award.

“That year, on paper for me, was really hard,” Smith said. “I went to Poland after getting cut and I was like, I can let this define me, or I can move on. I think I chose to just move on and almost not care.

“Obviously. I care about the game of basketball and I want to win and stuff. But there are points in your career where you can either let moments define you, or let it go with the wind. I think my approach was just letting it go and having fun playing basketball again. Those moments can take the joy away from the game. I found that joy playing again in Poland.”

James Wade, the former Lynx assistant then coaching the Chicago Sky, liked what he saw in Smith and brought her in on a one-year contract for 2023. Wade left the Sky after 16 games for an NBA assistant’s job with Toronto, but Smith thrived in her first season as a full-time starter, finishing seventh in the league in blocked shots and 15th in steals while setting career highs in most categories. The Lynx, intrigued by her defensive metrics and urged on by team captain Napheesa Collier, signed her to a two-year contract.

“(Collier) came into Cheryl and I’s office when we were talking about free agents and said, `She’s really hard to play against. I’d really not like to go against her. She should be on our team,’“ said Lynx general manager Clare Duwelius. “It’s a huge credit that one of the best players in the world had a really hard time against (Smith), a defensive juggernaut. And obviously we like when the analytics back it up, which they do.”

Smith and Courtney Williams, also signed from the Sky, turned into the club’s best free agent pickups since Reeve brought in veteran center Taj McWilliams-Franklin in 2011, a key piece on the first WNBA championship team. Smith’s value manifested itself late in the 82-80 victory in Game 4. Her tight defense forced Jones into a miss and Stewart into a shot clock violation on the possession before Bridget Carleton’s winning free throws.

“She has a huge responsibility every single night — she’s guarding the biggest person,” Collier said. “To go head to head with them every single time and lock them up, and then execute, I have a lot of respect for her and super thankful she’s on our side. I’m so glad she’s here to do that so I don’t have to, honestly.”

Added Duwelius: “She doesn’t back down from any challenge. She’s been so pivotal to our success. That was another point that we wanted to get better at going into this year. We needed someone that could defend the rim at a high, high level.

“Lan comes into the locker room after games dog tired, but she will never, ever quit. That’s been just huge. The players feel her, and they have so much confidence and trust that they can go out and take risks, helping out on the perimeter, because they know Lan’s got their back. It gives us a lot of liberties on the perimeter too, knowing that she’s a defender.”

Back to Game 5 and the Stewart play, with the Lynx protecting a 60-58 lead. By now, you’ve probably seen the replays. Stewart, who struggled shooting in this series — moments before, she clanged two foul shots that would have tied it — appeared to travel before she and Smith met up in the lane.

Was it a foul on Smith, an offensive foul on Stewart, or incidental contact? Opinion on social media varied among fans of both teams and pros of both genders. Referee Roy Gulbeyan said on the ESPN broadcast Smith was “not in a legal guarding position,” whatever that means, and awarded two foul shots to Stewart, who made up for her earlier misses by making both. New York went on to win 67-62 in overtime, with the Lynx managing only two foul shots in the extra session, going 0-for-6 from the field with six turnovers.

Reeve, predictably, ripped the officials after the game, as she did in 2016 Finals after the Lynx lost Game 5 on a last-second basket. You remember that one. The officials missed a backcourt violation on Seimone Augustus in the final 30 seconds of Game 4, and a shot clock violation on Los Angeles with 1:14 left in Game 5. The latter was reviewable, but the review never happened, and Reeve was understandably angry about both lapses.

Look, had the Lynx made one more layup or open jumper in regulation Sunday night (they shot 4-for-28 outside the paint), we would be talking about something different — the awful Game 5 shooting by Sabrina Ionescu (a ghastly 1-for-19) and Stewart (4-for-15) that nearly cost the favored Liberty the title, and how the Lynx won an unexpected championship with one superstar (Collier) and a cohort of talented supporting players.

A few things are clear in all this. For starters, those of us who cover the WNBA, locally or nationally, don’t know the league as well as we think we do, and certainly not as well as Reeve and Duwelius. ESPN.com ranked the Lynx ninth out of 12 teams in preseason, which rankled players and coaches for months. Few outside the organization thought a championship possible until the 13-2 run after the Olympics.

It’s not Reeve’s best coaching job. To these eyes, that will always be 2011, when Reeve turned a floundering franchise that had never won a playoff series into a league champion in two years. But this is a team set up to compete for championships for a while, provided MVP runner-up Collier — whose 285 postseason points set a WNBA record — and All-Star Kayla McBride stay healthy and the core group remains intact. McBride’s defense on Ionescu in the Finals opened some eyes as well.

The Lynx can only protect six players in the Dec. 6 expansion draft for the Golden State Valkyries, presumably the five starters and one reserve from among Dorka Juhász, Diamond Miller and Alissa Pili. Natisha Hiedeman and Myisha Hines-Allen are unrestricted free agents. And Smith? Under contract for 2025, she’s studying online for her master’s degree in psychology at Monash University back in Melbourne. Before schooling took up so much of her off time, she volunteered with anti-sex trafficking and young people’s groups.

“There’s more to me than basketball, what teams I make, if I win or not, which has helped me stay grounded in moments that can be really tough and really shake the ground beneath you,” she said. “I think that’s something I’ve learned over the years as well.”

Pat Borzi

Pat Borzi is a contributing writer to MinnPost. Follow him on Twitter @BorzMN.

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