Minnesota Lynx fans hope Game 4 ends in a win — and a traditional team ‘Electric Slide’ dance
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When Naema Farah watches a Minnesota Lynx game, she tunes in until the very end. The stands are clearing, but she doesn’t change the channel – she wants to see her favorite tradition.
After every Lynx home game win, two players run at each other from opposite ends of the court and do a center court jump. Then the team lines up and dances the Electric Slide.
Depending on who you ask, you get a different answer on the history of the tradition. The song has changed, as well as the dance moves and the players, but Farah says for her, a long-distance fan, any version of the tradition helps her feel like part of the Lynx community.
Farah is from California and went to her first Lynx home game this summer. Somehow, she says, it exceeded her already sky-high expectations.
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“The way the Minnesota Lynx fans … welcomed me to Minnesota was so special, I was so touched,” she said. “What I’ve always noticed in women’s sports, in the WNBA in particular, is it’s such a welcoming space for fans.”
Farah believes ending home wins with dancing and a special song started in 2008 with Lynx players Charde Houston and Seimone Augustus, but she admits she did not notice it until 2011 with player Maya Moore.
“Once Maya got drafted, she would jump at center court and I was like, ‘What's going on here?’ … On ESPN they don’t really show it, but on [WNBA] League Pass, they would show the entire dance thing,” Farah said. “It’s really freaking cool, I really love it.”
Back then, kids would come down to the court and dance to “Apache” by the Sugarhill Gang. Then it was changed to “When Doves Cry” by Prince after a review of the lyrics of “Apache,” also known as “Jump On It,” left the team wanting a change. Now the team dances to ‘80s R&B hit “Candy” by Cameo.
When it comes to the Electric Slide, Farah says she believes it was Lynx player Sylvia Fowles, who joined the team in 2015, who suggested a more coordinated dance.
In an interview with On Her Turf by NBC Sports published earlier this week, both Naphessa Collier and coach Cheryl Reeve said the tradition started before they got to the Lynx but they didn’t know the origin.
“What they’re doing now is whatever they put their stamp on, but that’s a tradition that’s long been a Minnesota Lynx thing before we all got here,” Reeve said.
Official Lynx DJ Mad Mardigan told Fox 9 this week that he also doesn’t know the origin of the tradition, but that “we had it when I came on 17 seasons ago.”
While the exact history remains unclear, that part doesn’t really matter to fans. Anna Knutson, co-host of “The Boy Lynx” podcast, said the dance is evidence of how the connection the team has is unmatched.
“It provides this way more human connection to the team,” she said.
She also said it helps celebrate a pivotal moment in women’s sports overall.
“For me, just being a woman and being a Black woman and knowing that basketball, in general, is led my Black women, it’s just huge,” she said. “It’s just so cool to see people who look like me, who look like so many people in my family … I mean, that’s power right there.”
The Minnesota Lynx will play the New York Liberty in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals on Friday at Target Center. The Liberty lead the best-of five-series 2-1.
