Yes, the Lynx are the best team in the WNBA. A year after going 13-21 and receiving the first overall pick in the 2011 WNBA draft they are champions. Since 1999 when the Minnesota Lynx entered the WNBA as an expansion franchise they have epitomized Minnesota sports. The Lynx were losers.

2011 has seen the Twins lose 99 games, witnessed the Timberwolves lose 65 of 82 games and is experiencing the Vikings beginning their season 1-4. The University of Minnesota Gophers men’s hockey and football teams are arguably the worst teams the school has ever seen and the Wild even folded into a non-playoff team this past season.

1991 was the last professional title Minnesota had taken when they beat the Atlanta Braves behind Kirby Puckett, Kent Hrbek and crew. Last Friday night a new crew took over. Led by Seimone Augustus the Lynx put together a team that was committed to excellence and Augustus won the Most Valuable Player award.

Augustus has been on the Lynx since 2006 when she was the team’s first pick and the number one overall pick of the 2006 draft. Not once did the Lynx make the playoffs in Augustus’ tenure prior to 2011. 2011 was a different season: the team brought in other players who were more familiar with winning.

When they had the first overall pick in the 2011 draft the team selected Maya Moore who was a member of the best college basketball team of all time. Moore and her University of Connecticut Huskies won 90 straight games, a streak that lasted over two full seasons. Moore made an immediate impact for the Lynx this season averaging 13.2 points per game.

The real impact came from the native Minnesota girl Lindsay Whalen. Whalen, from Hutchinson, Minn., is a former University of Minnesota Gopher who led the Gophers to an unexpected Final Four in 2004.

In that Final Four was also a young Lady Tiger from LSU, Seimone Augustus. Seven years ago the two could not have possibly seen themselves as an elite duo in the WNBA. With Whalen averaging a career high 5.9 assists per game to go alongside Augustus’ dynamic scoring of 16.2 points per game, the team moved to an elite level.

Despite this performance, a glance at sports media will tell you that women’s basketball is not near the popularity level of sports played by men.

According to USATODAY, WNBA playoff viewership has dropped 51 percent, and regular season viewers have dropped 65 percent since the inaugural season. The players wear advertisements on their jerseys as if the women are NASCAR vehicles.

Thank to a championship, “the Lynx could turn their first profit in nearly a decade,” Lynx Chief Operating Officer Conrad Smith said.

While Timberwolves fans can hope the team will turn one of the worst records in the NBA into an NBA championship, in reality that is nearly impossible.

We can irrationally hope a Twins pitching staff lead by Scott Baker or a Vikings team quarterbacked by Donovan McNabb will become elite, but the players Minnesota has are not on that level. Maybe it is just the market we live in, but men’s professional sports teams have not consistently competed for championships in any of our lifetimes.

Instead we can all invest about as much as a wrap costs at the Market Place for lower level seats at Target Center and watch a WNBA champion play in the 2012 season.