MINNEAPOLIS — Ten miles southwest of where Dallas Wings rookie Paige Bueckers received a roaring ovation Wednesday night at the Target Center, she first learned how to shoot a basketball. She was just another anonymous ponytailed kid who spent her winters in the gymnasium. It’s a part of the culture here, she says now with the gift of hindsight, and a credit to biting Minnesota snowstorms — basketball blessings in the form of subzero temps and bone-chilling winds.
Bueckers grew up playing in gyms across the state, then the region, then the country, her name slowly gaining more recognition and acclaim with every passing season. She did so in the shadows of a basketball dynasty being born with the Minnesota Lynx on the shoulders (and passes) of another Minnesota kid — Lindsay Whalen, a point guard who grew up in an era without the WNBA. Whalen, who hailed from Hutchinson, stayed home and led the Gophers to their first Final Four appearance in 2004 before being drafted by the Connecticut Sun as the No. 4 pick. When Whalen came back to Minnesota in 2010, Bueckers was 10 years old, an avid basketball fan eager for the success Whalen and the Lynx were about to achieve.
From 2011 to 2017, the Minnesota Lynx won four WNBA titles. The core players from that run — Whalen, Maya Moore, Rebekkah Brunson, Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles — now have their numbers retired, hanging from the Target Center rafters. Bueckers vividly remembers those days of regularly attending games. She can recount the rivalry with the Los Angeles Sparks, the 2017 WNBA Finals series played at the Barn (Minnesota’s home gym) while the Target Center underwent renovations, and the way Cheryl Reeve coached.
“The dynasty Cheryl created is something to admire and aspire to be,” she said.
Wednesday night, five years after leaving for UConn — where Bueckers became an international basketball star; name, image and likeness darling; and finally, last month, a national champion — she was back in her home state. But this time, she was there as a visitor. Over the last few years, she’s rarely made it back, typically only in August to see family and friends, soak up the last parts of summer and visit the Minnesota State Fair.
In her first appearance in Target Center as a WNBA player, she notched her first professional double-double — 12 points and 10 assists. Even with the small heroics from the No. 1 draft pick, it wasn’t enough to tip the scales for the Wings, who dropped to 0-3 on the season with the 85-81 loss.
Before this homecoming, Bueckers was peppered with questions about her return. What would it be like? How would she feel? What local haunts would she visit?
She had prepared for it like any other game, she said — a veteran-like answer to an expected question. When Wednesday came, she really tried to approach it as she would if it were in any other venue. But this one, she acknowledges, hit differently. When she took the floor, it wasn’t just any other opponent; it was the Lynx. It wasn’t just any other coach; it was Reeve (with Whalen and Brunson as assistants beside her). And it wasn’t just any other gym; it was the Target Center.
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For years, she has talked about inspiring the next generation of players. But here, those words about seeing herself in the stands were different. They weren’t theoretical.
“To see all the little girls and people in the stands and realize that was you just about 10, 15 years ago,” Bueckers said. “You never take it for granted how blessed we are to be able to play in this league and to play at this level.”
In high school, Bueckers played in the Target Center for the 2018 state title with her Hopkins team. She scored 37 points, but the rest of her team scored just 26 as it lost to Eastview. After the game, Eastview coach Molly Kasper said: “She is going to probably be in the WNBA one day.”
There is nothing like friends and family 🧡
Paige Bueckers is just a kid from Minnesota getting showered with love after playing in the place she grew up for the first time in her WNBA career pic.twitter.com/qKx0t5aKGY
The breadcrumbs Bueckers left in the Target Center along the way provided even more proof.
Four years later, Bueckers was back at the Target Center with UConn as a sophomore point guard in her second consecutive Final Four appearance. She led the Huskies in scoring (14) and rebounds (six), but it wasn’t enough to overcome South Carolina.
Now, three years later, she was back as a WNBA rookie. So, no, Wednesday night was not just like any other night. It couldn’t have been.
She understands there are players not much older than she who grew up without a professional league to which they could aspire. She knows there are plenty of women who put in the time she did without knowing whether the WNBA would exist in which to play.
Bueckers had a dynastic franchise in her backyard, growing up at a time in Minnesota when professional athletic excellence was synonymous only with women’s professional sports. From 2011 to 2018, the Twins and Timberwolves each made the postseason only once, the Vikings made the playoffs three times and once out of the wild-card game. The Wild — the most successful major professional franchise at the time not named Lynx — got to the NHL conference quarterfinals once.
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Meanwhile, the Lynx were on a historic run that set a standard for WNBA teams for years to come. And Bueckers was there to witness it all.
“They were everything I aspired to be,” Bueckers said of that dynasty. “It gave me something to work for and admire. To be able to see what you want to be is very important. Growing up, that was a huge part of the reason why I wanted to be in this league.”
Today, Bueckers is here certainly because of her own making, but also because of the people and players — many of whom wore Lynx uniforms — who showed her how it could be done. In the stands Wednesday night, hundreds could tell their own Bueckers story about how they know her or how she inspired them. In her own way, Bueckers could turn that back to them. She couldn’t point out all of her family members, Hopkins and AAU teammates and friends in the arena, but she was grateful to have them there for a night that, she acknowledged, was different from all the others.
“To have them here, it means everything to me,” she said. “Because they were a huge part of my story in getting here.”
Among that group, she includes her Wednesday night opponent: the Minnesota Lynx.
The Minnesota Department of Human Services says it is resuming payments to most of the thousands of care providers that it had cut off from Medicaid funding in May in a rush to meet a federal deadline. The state agency notified Medicaid providers Wednesday that it would reinstate payments to providers that had appealed their […]
A new research report says Minnesota’s major political parties and their endorsed candidates do not closely match most voters.
Several local polls, including 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS/SurveyUSA data, were compiled by distinguished Hamline University political science and legal studies professor David Schultz.
Schultz found that the average Minnesota voter sits closest to 60 on a scale where 0 is the most Republican possible and 100 is the most Democratic possible. Both the Republican Party of Minnesota and the Minnesota Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party rank farther from that middle, at 23 and 80, respectively.
“These numbers kind of show that the two parties are picking candidates that are not close to where the average Minnesotan is,” Schultz said. “Therefore, for the average voter showing up to vote, they may be looking at it saying, ‘Gosh, these candidates just don’t line up where I am, and either have to sort of say, ‘I’m going to vote for the lesser of two evils,’ or maybe decide not to vote.”
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Figure 1. from Schultz’s research report entitled “The Convention Hall and The Kitchen Table,” showing the position of the median voter, the DFL, and the MNGOP on each issue (0 = conservative, 100 = progressive).
Voters in the north and south metro weigh in
“I’m not so sure that the parties are really listening to, I think, they have a lot of their own, you know, internal workings and a lot of their own agenda that they’re really kind of working through,” said Jack Alexander.
“Instead of loyal to the people, most of the time they’re loyal to the party, and we see that in all phases of government,” said Kendrick Robertson.
“I feel like our tax money is going toward places it shouldn’t be. I feel like it’s not really a democracy as much as it used to be,” said Megan Roller.
Schultz said most Minnesotans are more moderate or “a little left of center” at 60.
“What I mean by that, they’re pro-choice, but not unrestricted pro-choice,” Schultz said.
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“They are supportive, let’s say, of a social welfare program in the state, but are very concerned about spending, fraud, about taxes. And so again, they don’t line up in the way that either of the two parties line up at this point, and the two parties appear to be driven by the activists again, pulling them at the extremes.”
Schultz said he was “startled” by how the party platforms ranked, adding that the gap matters because it means voters are “losing out in a couple ways.”
“One, when it goes to the general election, they’re not having the choice of the candidates that most represent them,” he noted.
Further, he said once either party is in office, the result can be public policy that is more polarized than most Minnesotans support, or policies that don’t pass due to partisan gridlock.
Asked if he believed either party is doing anything to get closer to meeting the majority of Minnesota voters where they stand, Schultz replied, “Actually, no, at this point.”
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Party response
Neither party’s leadership accepted interview requests over the last three days. 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS followed up with both parties in an email again on Wednesday to ask if there’s anything they’re doing to bring their party more in line with voters, among other questions.
In an email response, Minnesota DFL Party Chair Richard Carlbom said the party “has directly engaged over 187,000 people in the last year,” and that nearly 60 percent of attendees at the recent DFL state convention were first-time participants, including some Republicans and independents.
The Republican Party of Minnesota had not responded.
See complete questions and response from the Minnesota DFL Party attributed to Chair Richard Carlbom below:
Is there anything the Minnesota DFL Party is doing/considering in an effort to bring the party more in line with Minnesota voters?
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“The Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party has directly engaged over 187,000 people in the last year. More than 37,000 people showed up to DFL precinct caucuses. More than 50,000 Minnesotans trained to be constitutional observers, including 10,000 who trained with our party. By the end of just this month, we’ll have reached out to 100,000 people at the doors — that’s 100,000 more Minnesotans than we had at this point in 2024. The DFL represents Minnesotan voters because working people are the engine moving our party forward.
Nearly 60% of our DFL state convention attendees were participating in the process for the first time. Of those first-timers, over 20% were Republicans and independents. This is what happens when we listen and grow our coalition of Minnesota voters — they show up.”
Schultz points to some pattern of non-endorsed candidates winning primaries. He also points to the U.S. Senate race as an example for reporting on this topic, arguing that the DFL candidate most in line with Minnesota voters is Angie Craig, but Angie Craig opted not to seek the party’s endorsement. What does that pattern and Craig’s decision not to seek endorsement tell the Minnesota DFL Party, if anything?
“The DFL endorsement is a grassroots process open to anyone driven by our shared values. Minnesotans want protections for our fundamental American rights and freedoms. They want relief for expensive gas, groceries, and housing. They want action on public safety and gun violence prevention. They want ICE out of our communities and our leaders to stand up to Donald Trump. Our candidates are fighting for just that.
This year’s U.S. Senate Race is not a good comparison to previous contested endorsements — those races featured closely divided conventions that took multiple rounds of balloting to endorse a candidate.
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DFL delegates overwhelmingly endorsed Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan as our candidate for U.S. Senate by acclamation, reflecting broad support across every region of Minnesota and the DFL Party base. We are laser focused on electing her and our incredible slate of endorsed candidates from governor all the way to state representatives in November.“
Schultz argues that, like the move away from caucuses to Presidential primaries, it may be time for the same with statewide elections in Minnesota.What does the Minnesota DFL Party think about that?
“At its core, caucuses and conventions are a meeting of neighbors discussing what they need from their leaders. That’s why we have DFLers running in every legislative district in Minnesota and Republicans have the lowest number of candidates since the Nixon resignation. Minnesota has a long history of successful endorsements and competitive primaries. Our convention concluded with a slate of candidates focused on the needs of working people, and that’s the energy we’re bringing to the midterm election.”
Does the Minnesota DFL Party have any other comment in response to the findings in this research report?
“Ultimately, the candidates running for office will make their case to the voters. That’s who decides — not a single report. Take a look at the candidates the DFL has endorsed. They fit the bill of what voters are asking for.“
Minneapolis (AP) — US prosecutors said Wednesday they will not seek the death penalty as part of a plea agreement with the man charged in the political assassinations of the top Democrat in the Minnesota House along with her husband, as well as the attempted murders of a state senator and his wife.
The defendant, Vance Boelter, was scheduled for a change-of-plea hearing Thursday morning in federal court in Minneapolis.
“The Attorney General has authorized and directed the government not to seek the death penalty against Defendant Vance Luther Boelter in accordance with the terms delineated in a proposed plea agreement,” assistant US attorneys Bradley M. Endicott and Matthew D. Forbes wrote in a letter to the court Wednesday.
Boelter’s attorneys did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
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Former Minnesota House Speaker Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette Hoffman, were shot by a man who came to their doors in the early hours of June 14, 2025, disguised as a police officer and driving a fake squad car.
Boelter, 58, was captured near his home in rural Green Isle late the next day after what prosecutors have called the largest search for a suspect in Minnesota history. He faces federal and state murder, attempted murder and other charges.
