Courtney Williams (and her dad) are ready for the WNBA Finals

minneapolis — Courtney Williams was literally impossible to miss. With each shot, her trademark smile spread across her face. Just a few feet away was her father, Don Williams, known at Target Center as her biggest fan. With each basket he makes, Don's dancing becomes more pronounced, his screams more jubilant, and the list of nearby fans he high-fives grows longer.

The scene was familiar. Don has been celebrating his daughter's buckets for 23 years, since she was only 7 years old, and it cheered up all the boys in her hometown of Folkestone, Georgia.

“He's been there since he was born,” Courtney told SB Nation before Game 5. It's not a distraction, it's just him. You don't realize it, I'm not going to lie. He's been doing that all my life. ”

In Game 5 between the Minnesota Lynx and the Connecticut Sun, Williams was definitely the X-factor, getting off to a perfect start going 6-6 from the field and finishing the night with 24 points, 7 assists, 5 rebounds, and 2 steals. Ta.

Everything went exactly as Don had envisioned. His little girl became a star thanks to her natural cheerfulness and athletic ability. The difference is, she's doing it now on one of the biggest stages in basketball, win or go home, in front of a raucous crowd at Target Center.

An hour before Game 5 — the game that marked the Lynx's first road trip. WNBA First final since 2017 — I chatted with Courtney Williams to get a feel for where her head is at.

The 5-foot-8 guard is well-known for his infectious personality, and while most players would go all out before a big game like this, Courtney couldn't be more excited. Relaxed. (I spoke with several players from both teams before the game, and Williams' energy was clearly different than the others).

She starts the conversation by asking about my travels, how I like Minnesota, and my first impressions of Target Center. I usually try to keep pregame interviews to a few minutes, but Williams seemed to have lost track of time. She is greeting her fans. she is joking. She gives me recommendations for the area. She takes away Bridget Carleton's Player of the Year award (which was announced two weeks ago). She's frustrating herself—and I'll admit, I'm frustrated too.

Despite the big moment, Kourtney is surprisingly relaxed.

That's exactly right.

“If she's too serious, she's not very good,” Don Williams told me before the game, as I watched Courtney bounce around the arena grinning as she danced to the beat of the pregame music. spoke.

Luckily for Minnesotans, serious Courtney Williams doesn't come around often. And what Lynx fans witnessed Tuesday night was the 30-year-old guard at his most jubilant.

From the moment he jumped, Don Williams knew his daughter was going to be a star.

Before Game 5, I asked Don if he could talk to me for a few minutes. Before I could finish my sentence, his eyes lit up.

“What about Courtney?” he said, holding a cold beer in his left hand. “Please come to my office.”

“How does it feel to watch your daughter compete at this level?” I asked.

We already know that Don is more outgoing and talkative than most, but he can't seem to find the words to describe that feeling.

“Outstanding, wonderful, wonderful,” he said at last. “That's what it is. Euphoria.”

This entire series between Sun and Lynx and Don and Courtney collectively embodies a kind of unyielding joy. Father and daughter are spitting out images of each other. They burst into the arena en masse, wearing matching buzz cuts and loudly joking with each other and everyone around them.

And every time Courtney ostentatiously celebrates the baskets she makes, Don somehow outweighs her enthusiasm on the sidelines.

“Where are the rest of the dads?'' Don asked me. “How could I miss such a feeling of happiness?”

Don always knew Courtney was doing it this inside her. In this small town of fewer than 5,000 people, he and his mother, Michelle, taught the 7-year-old girl a variety of sports, including tennis, dodgeball and kickball. The original plan was to play tennis – he was inspired by Serena and Venus Williams' father, Richard – but there weren't many courts available.

“We didn't always have access to a tennis court, so we played basketball,” she said, pointing to a nearby court where her daughter sank a 3-pointer before the game.

“He made me do everything,” Courtney told me, explaining that in a place like Folkestone, you have to seize every opportunity and activity you can find. “I play soccer, dodgeball, kickball, anything competitive.”

Basketball ended up being a good bet. Williams has eight consecutive seasons of double-digit scoring in the WNBA. Now she just might be the key to the championship.

As Don and I talked, Courtney waved at him from a few feet away.

“We're both famous,” Don told me proudly. “I tell her, 'This has been your dream since you were little.'”

But for Don, Courtney's athletic success was more than a pipe dream. He knew from the beginning that his daughter was destined to be a star.

“I remember the moment I put her on the court,” Don said. “She was playing with the boys…she was the only one who could dribble. My idea was to put the ball in her hands early and let her dribble instead of shoot. Just dribble. She was the only one on the court who knew how to dribble the ball. The rest of the kids would pick it up and walk or run with it, but she was the only one. “Let's see…” He pulled away from his followers, pantomiming behind-the-back and behind-the-leg dribbling. Courtney's handles are a point of pride.

Then he taught her how to shoot.

“And they started coming in,” he said. “She is true. I was done What you know. ”

The words came out. As a child, people flocked to Courtney's games, and by the time she reached high school, her play was the talk of the town.

“She conquered every level,” Williams said. “No girl her age could mess with her. By the time she got to ninth grade, she had become something of a killer.”

However, in 10th grade, Don made Courtney take the entire basketball season off. She was regularly in trouble, slipping out, lying, etc., and he didn't like how things were going.

“she adolescent'' he said, shaking his head as he remembered the pranks his daughter had pulled on him.

Still, the punishment of being removed from the sport that Courtney excelled at was immense for those around her.

“Everyone hated me,” he says with a proud grin. Courtney had to watch her team play from the sidelines, and her father tolerated the damage to his reputation as a result.

“I put the hammer down,” Don said, gesturing with the hammer. “It builds character.”

It seemed to work, and Courtney returned in 11th grade as an even better basketball player.

“She just killed everyone,” Williams said. “She couldn't wait. She had been saving it up for a year.”

Courtney exploded for 42 points that season, breaking her mother Michelle's high school scoring record of 40 points, set 22 years earlier.

Still, to her father's surprise, Courtney never received the kind of college attention that reflected her on-court excellence.

“Guess what?” Don says to me. “guess what!”

He shook his head, still in disbelief.

“She had no recruits. no one I was hired. none! ”

Eventually, Courtney received an offer from the University of South Florida. Her father wanted her to consider his offer and go on a college visit. But he succumbed to pressure from his mother, and Courtney made up her mind. The rest was history. At USF, she averaged 22.4 points per game during her senior season and established herself as a star at the varsity level. She finished her career as the second all-time leading scorer in school history.

She was drafted eighth overall by the Phoenix Mercury in 2016 and played for the Sun, Dream and Sky before signing a two-year contract with the Lynx in January.

The closest she came to winning was in 2019, when the Connecticut Sun lost to the Mystics in the WNBA Finals. Williams was a beloved member of that Sun team, and her legacy has endured. I attended the shootaround at Mohegan Sun Arena prior to Game 3 and watched as longtime season ticket holders approached Williams as he headed to his hotel room.

Courtney brightened up when she saw the woman, and I caught up afterwards.

“Courtney is just a great basketball player and human being,” a fan told me. “We miss her so much here in Connecticut.”

Courtney Williams meant everything to the Lynx

When Sheryl Reeve scouted Williams to leave Chicago for Minnesota last offseason, she knew she was getting a great WNBA guard.

But the honored coach had no idea what Conte's impact would be off the court.

“I knew about Courtney Williams, but I didn't know about Courtney Williams as a person,” Reeve said after Game 3. “I just knew that everyone liked her.”

“The way Courtney carried herself on this team was exactly what was missing from last year's team,” Reeve said.

When I spoke with Napheesa Collier before Game 5, she pointed out that Courtney has only been a point guard for a few years, but has still found success in the role.

“She's such a great personality. Honestly, it's so much fun just seeing what she says every day,” Collier told SB Nation. “And obviously the impact she has on our team offensively as a point guard. She's adapted very well. It's only her second year at point guard, but this… That’s insane.”

This season, Williams averaged 11.1 points and 5.5 assists while shooting 44.3 percent from the field (a career high). There were definitely steps along the road. In his Game 5 postgame press conference, Williams recalled his lackluster performance in the loss to the Dallas Wings, scoring just three points on 1-for-6 shooting.

“I was an ass. Well, I was terrible,” Courtney said. “Cheryl took me into the locker room and said, 'Court, I feel like you gave in to Hard.' From that moment on, I was never going to do that again, never again. I knew there was no need to worry about that. From that moment on, I was eager.

“I just didn’t want to be the guy that tried so hard and let the coaching staff and teammates down, and I think we embody that – none of us. Don’t give in to hardship.”

Before Game 5, Don Williams had all but guaranteed a great performance from his daughter. It's in her blood, he said.

“we like That stage. This stage? This is why she is alive. She's going to kill it today. ”

It was almost her turn, so Courtney passed by. Just minutes earlier, she had expressed much the same sentiment.

“You have to trust the work you put in, and I trust the work I put in, so I'm not nervous,” Don said. “This is what you play for. You play to get on that stage. I think we're all ready for that moment and excited to get it done. ”

After the win, Don Williams attended his daughter's postgame press conference. She made him promise to remain silent while she answered questions from the media.

When asked about her father's influence, Kourtney said, “He always gives me confidence.” “He always tells me I'll go get it.”

“I'm trying to put on a show for him.”

The semi-final was an important milestone for the Lynx, who will be hoping to claim another championship soon. But the journey doesn't end with Game 5. Game 1 is next Thursday night at Barclays Center.

There will be countless celebrities sitting courtside, but Don Williams may steal the show, as he has this year.

“He ran with me this playoffs,” Courtney said.