Sun's bottom line comes at the cost of a friendship

Mohegan

Insanity, it has been suggested, is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.

Then I am insane.

Because, unfailingly, I choose to ignore what sports really are: a compassionless, bottom-line-driven business. I'd rather focus on the sentiment and romance of it all, seeing what I want to see.

And today, once again, I realize that I am a damn fool.

The Connecticut Sun, a team I cover closely, became a better team on Tuesday.

And at the same time, became a poorer franchise.

That's the "damn fool" part. Because the only thing that counts in sports is Part A: The Sun became a better team. The whole sentimental part of losing Lindsay Whalen in the process is irrelevant.

And that's the part I detest.

Because I really hate this. And why for me, sports - a business at the beginning, middle and end of the day - get less and less fun.

Let's just get this part over with: Nobody who follows women's basketball in Connecticut can quibble with the basketball part of this trade. The addition of Tina Charles, whom the Sun will take as the first pick in the draft, gives the team the most versatile, if not talented, frontline in the WNBA. Sun coach Mike Thibault can play Asjha Jones and Sandrine Gruda at small forward at times, too, thereby alleviating one of the team's gaping holes from last season.

And while Renee Montgomery isn't quite as good as Whalen, she'll have every chance to get there. Thibault isn't done with free agent signings either, perhaps landing a surprise package in the coming weeks.

Hence, the Sun will have a team with more versatility, athleticism and shooting ability in 2010. Now that Tulsa (formerly Detroit) is gone from the Eastern Conference, the Sun have as good a chance as anybody else to return to the finals.

There's your bottom line. I guess that's all that matters.

I suppose there is some risk involved with continuing to write this. Because I am probably violating some tenets of journalism by admitting that Lindsay Whalen and her husband, Ben Greve, haven't been mere subjects to cover for the last six years. They have become friends.

And now they are moving away.

OK. I realize this is why they make Facebook, texting and airplanes. Not like we'll never see each other again. But this is a day when I'd like sports to get run over by a train.

It wasn't supposed to be like this. Six years ago, Lindsay was some college kid in Minnesota. But in her second year here, I decided to make her the subject of a preseason feature because she led the Sun to the finals in her rookie season. We met for lunch.

And laughed for almost three hours. A friendship was born. It wasn't what she said, but the way she did it - with a dry, sarcastic wit and the ability to deliver the punchline in classic deadpan. In my pantheon of qualities in a person, sense of humor, sarcasm and deadpan are Nos. 1, 1A and 1B.

Soon, Ben came along. There is not a better guy anywhere.

Just so you know: I am not alone here in my melancholy.

• Sun general manager Chris Sienko: "This is hard. Lindsay is a unique personality. She's the girl next door. A good, sincere, honest, hard-working kid."

• Media relations manager Bill Tavares: "She's like a kid sister. Probably as good a human being as you could possibly get to know who is completely and totally unimpressed with her fame."

• Nanci Thibault, the coach's wife, held back tears describing Whalen's "sweaty postgame hugs" after big wins. Nanci said, "Lindsay is like one of my own kids."

• Sun president Mitchell Etess: "She was the guts of our franchise. She represented what the Connecticut Sun has been to people."

• John Altavilla of the Hartford Courant, who has covered the NHL and NFL in his many years doing this, wrote recently, "Listen, everyone associated with the Sun - the coaches, management, fans and media — love Lindsay Whalen to death because she's a great player, a wonderful ambassador for the league and a tremendous, fun-loving person. On a personal level, I have never enjoyed writing about a player as much in my career as Lindsay, as accommodating a pro athlete as can be."

This trade would not have happened if Lindsay weren't on board. She goes home now and spends time with her family in her home state, all while helping the Lynx increase attendance. The Sun upgrade their overall talent, which is far more significant than the mere idea of two UConn players coming here. It's a fair, and perhaps sensible, trade for both sides.

But for everyone else in the middle, those of us ruled by sentiment and not sense, feel a terrible loss today.

It has been suggested that friendship isn't a big thing, but a million little things. I guess I'll miss a million little things.

This is the opinion of Day sports columnist Mike DiMauro.