Lindsay Whalen to retire from WNBA at season’s end

After juggling two jobs for a bit, Lindsay Whalen will retire as a WNBA player after this season.

For the second time in 15 WNBA seasons, and the first time since her debut, Lindsay Whalen came off the bench on Sunday night. While that’s noteworthy, it’s probably not a huge factor in the career decision she made on Monday.

At the conclusion of the 2018 season, Whalen has announced she will retire from the WNBA.

“I would like to announce that after 15 seasons in the WNBA I am going to retire after the 2018 season,” “I would like to thank the WNBA, the Connecticut Sun, and the Minnesota Lynx for believing in me all of these years. I look forward to the next chapter in my basketball career and wish my Lynx coaches and teammates all of the best in the future.”

Whalen has spent the last nine seasons with the Minnesota Lynx, and she is the franchise leader in assists while also being second in games played and fourth in scoring. She has been an instrumental part of all four WNBA championship teams for Minnesota, and she is the winningest player in league history.

Whalen was drafted fourth overall by the Connecticut Sun in the 2004 WNBA Draft, after a successful and decorated career at the University of Minnesota. In April of this year, Whalen was named the new head coach of her alma mater after Marlene Stollings left for the job at Texas Tech.

In 29 games this season, Whalen is averaging 5.5 points, 3.0 assists and 2.6 rebounds per game over 19.4 minutes per contest. The first two and the last of those categories are career-lows for the 36-year old, after an injury-shortened 2017 campaign.

Whalen was not going to be juggling two jobs for very long anyway, as her playing career winded down. Now looks seems like the perfect time to announce the decision to call it quits as a player, and thus eliminate any background drama as the Lynx get ready for another playoff run.