ATLANTA - It's 1 a.m. outside the visiting locker room in Philips Arena. Her teammates have boarded the bus. Lindsay Whalen lags behind, savoring the moment, sipping a beverage and teasing everyone who walks by, including security guards and her husband, Ben Greve, who is helping lug equipment.

"Ben, start carrying some bags, man," Whalen says. "Start earning your keep."

She's giddy and exhausted, and has passed on her customary three or four ice packs in favor of an icy drink. Circular bruises stand out on her arms, where she's taken elbows, but she is feeling no pain.

"I'll holla at ya later!" she says to a coach, giggling as she sings the words.

When Whalen helped the Gophers women's basketball team sell out Williams Arena, it was hard to imagine a greater career highlight for a girl from Hutchinson. Friday night in Atlanta, Whalen topped herself, winning a WNBA championship with the Lynx.

"Yeah ... yeah," she said, nodding as she thought about it. "This is definitely my career highlight. For five months, to be a part of the whole process and fight through the WNBA season and win it, yeah, this is the highlight."

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Lindsay Whalen signed autographs and talked with fans she moved through the crowd.

It's not an easy choice for her. Besides becoming the most popular women's athlete in state history, she starred for the Connecticut Sun in the WNBA, still plays in Prague, and last summer played on the gold medal U.S. team at the FIBA world championships.

This season felt like a culmination for Whalen. In her second year with the Lynx, she earned MVP votes, made the All-WNBA first team and won a title. The Lynx won seven of their eight playoff games after building the best record in the league.

Elite women's players compete year-round. They play a full season overseas, compete for the national team when needed and then report to their WNBA teams.

Whalen spends hundreds of days away from Minnesota every year. Greve, a former golfer at the University of Minnesota who competes on mini-tours, joined her last winter in Prague, but Whalen's lifestyle remains challenging and draining.

"I'm loving it tonight," she said. "It's a grind, but nights like tonight make it all worth everything. Working out, going overseas, getting better, trying to stay healthy, coming in in shape.

"Some players are probably going to have to be over there within a week or two. I'm going to take a little more time. I have to. I'm going to try to take three weeks or a month and just decompress and let my body heal. And enjoy this."

On Jan. 13, 2010, the Lynx traded Renee Montgomery and the first pick in the draft for Whalen and the second pick. The Sun chose Tina Charles, who also made the all-WNBA first team, but the trade has turned into an ideal move for a franchise in need of both visibility and credibility.

Whalen didn't just win a championship for Minnesota. She won a championship for Minnesotans just like herself.

Friday night, Lynx star Seimone Augustus said she didn't know about Minnesota's dearth of championships until a reporter told her. Whalen, a devout Minnesota sports fan who agonizes in particular over the Vikings, didn't need any reminders.

"I remember a lot of Game 6," Whalen said of the 1991 World Series. "Kirby hit the home run and made that catch and took over the game. And I remember some of Game 7. I was at my best friend's house. I wanted to go to the big celebration, but my mom was like, 'No, you have school.'

"I remember quite a bit of it. I was 9."

Whalen, last of the players to leave the locker room, finally headed toward the team bus. She couldn't wait to get home, couldn't wait to be honored at the Vikings game on Sunday. "How cool is that -- to be in the Metrodome?" she said. "I mean, Mall of America Field."

That's called local knowledge. Leave it to Whalen to know Minnesota sports, and to elevate them, too.

Jim Souhan can be heard Sundays from 10 a.m. to noon and weekdays at 2 p.m. on 1500ESPN. His Twitter name is SouhanStrib. • jsouhan@startribune.com