MINNEAPOLIS – The bigger, the blingier, the better.
At least, that's what Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve suspects her players think. But when the reigning WNBA champion Lynx receive their rings on May 20, a lot more than just size and sparkle will have come under consideration. The design process for the rings and planning for the ceremony have been going on for months, and what will take less than an hour on opening day will be the product of hundreds of calculated decisions.
Perhaps the most challenging thing about the process is that it's the first. No Minnesota pro basketball team had won a championship in the modern era before the Lynx defeated Atlanta in October, and there's no tradition to guide things like picking out rings and banners and planning ceremonies. Lynx executive vice president Roger Griffith said he and his colleagues have relied on knowledge from Reeve, who won championships as a Detroit Shock assistant in 2006 and 2008, and they've also gotten advice from the 2010 champion Seattle Storm.
"It's kind of learn from the people who have done it before," Griffith said. "And then when you start talking to companies who do these things, a lot of it just becomes that you let them lead you through the process."
Griffith would not reveal which company would be designing the Lynx ring or the team's budget, and he said that the Lynx received design proposals from several different companies. That strategy of consulting with several companies before making a decision is a common one; the Storm talked with six before selecting Blue Nile to design their 1.3-carat rings, which were valued at more than $5,000.
Two members of the Lynx, Taj McWilliams-Franklin and Rebekkah Brunson, already have rings from championships with the 2008 Detroit Shock and the 2005 Sacramento Monarchs, respectively. But for the rest of the team, these rings will be their first, and to add to the mystery, their design is also going to be a complete surprise. Griffith said that the team hasn't shown players or even much of the team personnel the designs yet, and they don't plan to.
"We've gotten some feedback from players on the team who have rings of what they like," Griffith said. "We're kind of trusting our own judgment combined with comments that we've heard about other rings."
Reeve said that for McWilliams-Franklin and Brunson, these rings will be a "measuring stick" compared to the ones they already have. But for everyone else, they'll be their first, their babies, the coach added. She stressed that the rings will be classy above all else, and she added that even though these are women, size is still a concern. Although Griffith pointed out that some of the bigger rings that have appeared in men's pro sports in recent years – Mark Cuban's Mavericks' rings, anyone? – would simply be unwieldy on a woman's smaller hand, Reeve said that the players' wants might not be so practical.
"I have a rather sizeable ring that's actually more comfortable than it looks," Reeve said. "Some of the players will tell you that – actually, all of them will tell you – they don't want to sacrifice size for comfort. They want the size. It's fun."
That said, the Lynx don't have Mark Cuban's $1.4 million budget, but 16 years into the WNBA's existence, ring companies know the budget they're working with in these situations. A precedent has been set, so feeling pushed beyond budget wasn't much of a concern. Instead, the most difficult thing about the design process has been keeping it on schedule, battling the constant realization that a tweak can always be made.
A ring is just like any other work of art, Griffith said. You're always wondering whether the next idea will make the design just a little bit better, and the process could spiral out of control. The Lynx tried to find a balance between efficiency and creativity, he said, and they worked mostly via email with the company designing the rings to narrow down the sketches into first a draft and then a production sample. The team didn't meet in person with the designers until late in the process, when a mockup of the ring was ready, providing the clearest hint at what the finish product might actually look like.
"From the pictures, in the end run you don't really quite know," Griffith said. "You might be able to see it better if you had seen it before, but a drawing is still different than having a 3-D, hard thing."
At this point, Griffith is pleased with the final product. He said that if it goes over the way he anticipates, it should be a great springboard for future rings, providing a design that should be easy to tweak for future championships.
Right now, though, the focus is on May 20, the Lynx's home opener against Phoenix, when the ring ceremony is scheduled. The game will be nationally televised on ABC as a prelude to an NBA playoff game, and though Griffith and the team are pleased with the exposure, the 11:30 start time isn't optimal for the ceremony. Making sure the timing works is one thing, and though the ring process is mostly finished, the Lynx still have work ahead.
One thing that hasn't yet been determined is the trophy case. Not only do the Lynx have to figure out the size – they don't want anything too ostentatious, and they'd like to leave it open to accommodate future trophies – but there are many more questions about the display that need to be answered.
"Where are we going to put it?" Griffith asked. "How are we going to do it? That's the thing we don't have all the answers to, where is going to be that permanent home. How do you build something that becomes then a showcase for the public but is still in a safe, secure position?"
Many of these questions reveal just how new all of this is to the Lynx. Before the women finished off Atlanta last October, no Minnesota professional team had won a championship for 20 years. The Target Center is a stranger to things like trophies and rings, and a process that might be routine for more established teams and leagues is a careful series of decisions for a franchise like the Lynx. Every decision sets a precedent and has the potential to build a tradition for years to come.
These may just be rings, a banner, a display case of glass and wood and who knows what else, but to Lynx fans, they're setting a bar for the future.
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