News of shooting mars Minnesota Lynx planned celebration, saddens coach Cheryl Reeve

Saturday afternoon at Target Center was supposed to be a celebration of Seimone Augustus’ Hall of Fame career, the legacy of four WNBA titles, the joy of success past and a bright future.

But Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve sat down 90 minutes before her team’s nationally televised game with the Los Angeles Sparks, in a quiet room, trying to express her feelings, stopping briefly to compose herself as tears welled in her eyes.

“It seems pretty meaningless, certainly, hitting this close to home,” Reeve said of the game, set to start against the backdrop of the shootings of state lawmakers.

News broke Saturday morning that Minnesota House Democratic leader Melissa Hortman and her husband, Mark, were fatally shot in their Brooklyn Park home, and state Sen. John Hoffman and his wife, Yvette, survived an assassin’s attack at their home in Champlin. Gov. Tim Walz said the shootings appeared to be a targeted act of political violence.

“Obviously we know this is a really difficult time,” Reeve said, choosing her words carefully. “Not just in our country, in the world. The radicalization that’s occurred.

“It’s very clear the timing of when our country really started to turn. Today’s a tough day, all around. ... Basketball is what we do. We’ll go out there and do what we do. But God knows what, when our game is over, God knows what we’re going to come off the court and learn [about] what’s happening. It’s sickening.”

Reeve was echoing the reaction all over the Twin Cities, the state, the country.

There was no talk, she said, of cancelling the game. But Reeve wondered aloud where the nation was going.

“Who’d have thought,” she started. Then: “I was thinking about the era, the political era, when the term ‘politically correct’ actually [meant] kindness and thinking of others, when that became weaponized. When inclusion is weaponized.

“It’s a time now, more than ever, that we need to stand in that. And inclusion is the path. It’s obviously been met with a lot of resistance and I guess that’s the way of the world.”

The coaches and players didn’t talk about it before the game. They waited until it was over. Reeve described the players as being in shock. “I asked them to be careful, but to use their voices,’’ Reeve said. “Now is the time, more than ever. It’s not the time to be afraid.’’

The players listened.

Her coach couldn’t agree more.

“Something I heard about a lot when I was growing up was democracy,’’ said Reeve, the daughter of an Air Force man, whose career included a stint in Vietnam. “And what democracy meant and what we are fighting for. And what my family would have stood for.