Lynx' 'Golden Girls' back home

They walked up onto the stage, little black boxes in their hands, smiles on their faces, jokes at the ready.

Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen and Maya Moore, back from the London Olympics, gold medals in those black boxes, spoke with the media today in a sort of kickoff for the second half of the WNBA season.

Well, not just the media.

There are a bunch of season ticket holders there, as well as a number of team employees. So the event became something of a pep rally as the Minnesota Lynx prepare to begin the stretch run of the regular season.

Augustus joked about the benefits of being a gold medal winner, including the ability to get through customs a little quicker than your average traveler thanks to an agent who wanted to look at the medal. "They guy said, 'Hey, come over to my line,' '' she said. "I knew what that was about. At least it got me through the line quicker.''

Greetings. Kent Youngblood here. With Roman off, I was at today's press conference.

Moore talked wryly about how great it was to work with Gino Auriemma – her coach at the University of Connecticut and the Olympic coach, and a fellow known to yell a bit. "I don't know how he sleeps at night if he can't yell at me. But he didn't yell at Lindsay," Moore said, looking at Whalen, who shrugged in mock innocence. "You got preferential treatment. You're just that good."

Emphatically, no: "You can't compare anything to the Olympics, because it's kind of a once-in-a-lifetime experience," Moore said. "But as far as leagues go, (the WNBA) is the most competitive level in the world."

The team's regular season starts back up with Friday's game with Washington at Target Center. "We're back and looking forward to having a great second half of the season."

Still, it will be an adjustment. Augustus admitted that the first practice with her Lynx teammates wasn't the easiest. "We had to get back into our plays and stuff," she said. "It was like, 'Can we go over this again?' But it was a warm welcoming from our teammates. Everybody had a smile. It was refreshing to be back here, and we look forward to everything we have going in the second half of the season."

Changing gears is nothing new for professional women basketball players, who often play up to 11 months of the season. Players are used to going from a season in Europe right into WNBA training camps.

But Olympic memories will stick with all three players. Augustus won her second gold medal, but this was the first one playing with two Lynx teammates. Moore talked with some wonder about how great it was to be the youngest player on such a talented Olympic team. Whalen joked about being stunned at how heavy the medal was and how nervous she was at the medal ceremony.