John McClellan / Flickr
Olivia Miles of the Minnesota Lynx.
The bespectacled Olivia Miles.
I started wearing glasses when I was 9, making me one of the first kids in my class to don the notorious nerd identifier. Mr. Popular, I was not. And because I broke my glasses frequently, they were often held together by tape, which didn’t help out in the business of being cool at school.
Assuming solidarity among my fellow four-eyes, I have always been drawn to the rare athlete who wears glasses while playing: quarterback Bob Griese, tennis legend Arthur Ashe, catcher Darrell Porter, Lakers tough guy Kurt Rambis.
But none of those guys played with the style, energy and audacity of Olivia Miles, the begoggled rookie point guard for the Minnesota Lynx of the WNBA. You may have seen Miles, picked second in the April draft, show up over the summer on social media videos or ESPN with a between-the-legs pass, a stop-start drive for a one-handed layup, or step-back three-pointer that buckles the ankles of her defender.
ESPN recently ranked Miles as the fourth best player in the league, noting she ranks in the top 10 in points and assists per game and has 17 20-point games this season. She’s on the top of most Rookie of the Year watch lists. And she’s perhaps the biggest reason why the Lynx are the top team in the league, despite having played the first 28 games of the season without star forward Napheesa Collier.
But last week, she achieved true folk hero status when her trademark afro and goggles showed up on several crop art pieces displayed at the Minnesota State Fair.
I attended my first ever WNBA game in early August, mainly to catch Miles and the Lynx in action against Las Vegas, at the time sitting right behind Minnesota in the league standings and led by reigning three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson. Attendance was over 14,000 despite it being a beautiful summer day outside.
Looking to avoid parking hassles, I rented a bike share and pedaled into downtown Minneapolis, linking up along the way with about 12 other cyclists, all of them women, with a handful wearing number 5 Miles jerseys. Inside the arena, I passed a young girl, about 7 years old, standing literally mouth agape at the sight of players warming up on the court and all the lighting effects that accompany a pro sporting event in 2026.
These are not extraordinary observations, but these scenes were not available 20 years ago.
Miles, who played for Notre Dame and TCU in college while earning a bachelor’s and two master’s degrees, was forced to take a break from the sport after injuring her knee in college and has talked about that as a turning point in her life. She says she stopped seeking validation from others and playing and living with more freedom.
She put it clearly in an interview on the Welcome to the Party podcast hosted by soccer stars Abby Wambach and Julie Foudy and tennis legend Billie Jean King: “I play the game with a free-flowing spirit and joy. I love trying new stuff other people don’t usually even think of. That’s what makes it fun for me. I have a unique look and I fully embrace it, and I want other Black girls to do the same.”
