Founded prior to the 1999 season, the team is owned by Glen Taylor, who is also the majority owner of the Lynx' NBA counterpart, the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The franchise has been home to players such as Katie Smith,[4] Seimone Augustus,[5] native Minnesotan Lindsay Whalen,[6] Maya Moore,[7] Rebekkah Brunson, and Sylvia Fowles.

The Lynx started their inaugural season in 1999 with 12,122 fans in attendance to watch the first regular-season game against the Detroit Shock at Target Center.

Leading scorer Katie Smith was dealt to Detroit in July and the team stumbled down the stretch, missing the playoffs for the first time in three years.

On December 13, 2006, the Lynx named veteran NBA assistant Don Zierden their fifth head coach.

The Lynx finished with a 16–18 record in a tough Western Conference where every team was in the playoff chase until the final week of the season.

They started with a good run (7–3), but lost many key games, including a six-game losing streak, and finished 14–20, out from the playoffs for the fifth straight season.

They added free agent Hamchétou Maïga to the lineup, and selected University of Virginia guard Monica Wright with the second pick in the 2010 Draft.

The selection of Maya Moore during the 2011 WNBA draft led many people to believe the Lynx to be championship contenders for the 2011 season.

[9] After losing to Phoenix in a 112–105 contest at Target Center on July 13, the Lynx went on a nine-game winning streak, at the time a franchise record and the longest in the league for 2011.

[12] The Lynx used both the loss in the Finals and prognosticators' pre-season focus on the Phoenix Mercury's new phenom, Brittney Griner, to motivate themselves for the 2013 season.

They completed their comeback, sweeping through the playoffs en route to their second championship in three years, once again defeating the Atlanta Dream.

[15] However, in the playoffs, the Mercury bested them 2-1 in a three-game series, and the Lynx failed to make the finals for the first time since the 2010 season.

[16] In 2015, two-time Defensive Player of the Year Sylvia Fowles of the Chicago Sky held out of her contract until her wish was granted in July to play for Minnesota.

In the semi-finals, the Lynx defeated the Washington Mystics in a three-game sweep to advance to the WNBA Finals for the sixth time in seven years.

In 2018, with back-up point guard Renee Montgomery leaving in free agency to sign with the Atlanta Dream and a now aging roster intact, the Lynx would start falling way short of championship contention.

Although Moore, Fowles, Augustus and Brunson made All-Star appearances, the Lynx finished as the number 7 seed in the league with an 18–16 record.

The Lynx started off their playoff run against the rival Los Angeles Sparks in the first round elimination game.

[22] In 2019 and 2020, however, the Lynx would produce players that won WNBA Rookie of the Year with Napheesa Collier and Crystal Dangerfield, respectively.

[27] With a score of 94-89, the Lynx won the 2024 WNBA Commissioner's Cup championship against the Liberty in their June 25, 2024, game playing in New York.

The Lynx previously used an Adidas uniform that was standard throughout the league, but the WNBA partnered with Nike, Inc. for eight years beginning in 2018.

The team was abbreviated to MINN on the front of this jersey, which was inspired by the adjacent legendary music club First Avenue.

This refers back to 2016 when the team wore warm ups with that phrase to call for social justice and protest the murders of two Black men by police.

In addition to displaying outfits, Lynx players ended the show with a dance based on the song "Background" by Lecrae and Andy Mineo.

[40] During the WNBA's 2013 Breast Health Awareness Week and in partnership with the Edith Sanford Breast Cancer Foundation, the Lynx game against the Indiana Fever on August 25 was a "Pink Out" game at Target Center and on August 29, the 5th annual "Catwalk for a Cure" event was held at the Mall of America.