After Offseason Overseas, Maya Moore Back With Lynx

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- After another off-season playing overseas, Maya Moore is now back with the Minnesota Lynx.

She's joining the team with less than a week to go until the regular season starts. Despite playing in Saturday's preseason game, her first practice was on Monday.

WCCO's David McCoy tells us how she's assimilating.

Maya Moore's first day back with the Lynx was a game day, jumping right into the starting lineup Saturday without a day of practice.

"There's nothing like just being here. Being around my teammates and being around the coaches and just appreciating, again, how special of a group we have. And ready to get to work," Moore said.

Moore's return to Minnesota was delayed because her overseas team kept winning. Moore led her Russian team to the EuroLeague title.

"Thankfully we're not adding a whole new playbook. It's just tweaks here and there," Moore said.

Though it sure feels like one season rolling into another, and in many ways it certainly is, Moore did take a week off to go home and rest and recuperate before heading to Minnesota. Time she says she's very glad she took.

"It was awesome. Just to get that time at home to kind of unwind and unpack, see my family and friends, and just enjoy my house for a solid week. And then I felt ready to go when I got here," Moore said.

Because it was anything but calm once she did, with the energy and drive she brings to practice.

"It definitely went up a notch. Maya's a great communicator, a great connector with her teammates. Her role, in terms of her voice, to be somebody that makes the practice a little louder," Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said.

And her team, certainly, a lot better. Just in time to try to win another title.

The Lynx open the regular season and defense of their WNBA championship next Sunday at 4 p.m. at Target Center against the team they defeated for the title, the Los Angeles Sparks.