Minnesota Lynx activate scoring leader Odyssey Sims



4:39 PM ET

Mechelle VoepelESPN.com

CloseMechelle Voepel covers the WNBA, women’s college basketball, and other college sports for espnW. Voepel began covering women’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.

Guard Odyssey Sims, the Minnesota Lynx’s leader in scoring and assists last season, is in the WNBA bubble in Bradenton, Florida, and was activated Thursday. However, the earliest Sims will be able to play is Aug. 13. The Lynx, four-time WNBA champions, are tied with Seattle and Chicago for first place at 4-1.

Sims gave birth to a son in April and at first was uncertain about whether she would play this season, which will be her seventh in the WNBA. The pandemic delaying the season’s start by two months until late July worked in Sims’ favor.

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Sims is now quarantining at IMG Academy and that will continue through Friday’s Lynx game against Indiana. Then she is scheduled to sit out Sunday’s game vs. Los Angeles and Tuesday vs. Washington; that’s because of a two-game suspension from pleading guilty to a DWI charge in 2019. If all goes well, she’ll make her 2020 debut Aug. 13 vs. Las Vegas (ESPN2, 9 p.m. ET).

Sims was sentenced by a Hennepin County (Minnesota) judge last October to 10 days of house arrest. One of the two gross misdemeanor DWI charges filed against Sims in June 2019 was dismissed after she pleaded guilty to the other. Sims was tested for alcohol after she was pulled over on the interstate near downtown Minneapolis and registered 0.20, more than twice the legal limit for driving in Minnesota.

Sims told the Minneapolis Star Tribune in May that her son’s birth had a huge impact on her.

“I have a new addition. He’s counting on me,” she said. “He’ll be my inspiration, inspiring me to be better. I think it will change me. I will appreciate the game more, knowing I have a little person that’s mine, that I’m responsible for, every day, all day. I’m going to do it for my son.”

Sims, who turned 28 in July, was the No. 2 draft pick by Tulsa in 2014 out of Baylor. She has played for Tulsa/Dallas, Los Angeles and Minnesota. Last year, her first with the Lynx, she averaged 14.5 points, 5.4 assists and 3.4 rebounds.

The Lynx waived forward Megan Huff to make room for Sims on the 12-player roster. Previously, the Lynx lost wing player Karima Christmas-Kelly to an Achilles injury in their second game on July 28; forward Erica McCall replaced her on the roster.



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