Courtney Williams childhood story perfectly sums up Minnesota Lynx star

The WNBA will crown a new champion this season, as the Minnesota Lynx take on the New York Liberty in a potential five-game series, while also having superstar guard Courtney Williams at their disposal.

The game will pit the Eastern Conference champions, Liberty, who beat the reigning WNBA champions, the Las Vegas Aces , against the Western Conference champions, Lynx. One of the stars of the upcoming series, Williams, played a key role in Minnesota making the finals, after putting up a huge 24 points against the Connecticut Sun .

Sat courtside, as Williams helped fire the Lynx to the Finals, was her dad, Don Williams, a well-known regular at Target Center. After every one of his daughter's buckets, Don would dance and celebrate, and his role in her journey to professional sports was inspiring.

Ever since Williams was a little girl, Don and her mother would have her playing a variety of sports, including tennis, dodgeball, and kickball. Tennis was Williams' ideal sport to end up pro in after dad Don was inspired by Serena and Venus Williams' father Richard.

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However, less access to tennis courts saw the father-daughter duo focus on basketball, where she is now a WNBA superstar aged 30. "We couldn’t access tennis courts all the time, so we did basketball," Don said, according to SB Nation . Williams wasn't shy to get involved with the boys growing up either.

"I remember the moment I put her on the court. She played with the boys… she was the only one that could dribble," Don added. "My thing was: put a ball in her hand early, make her dribble, not shoot – just dribble. She was the only one on the court that knew how to dribble the ball. The rest of the kids would get it, and they’d be walking, running with it but she’d be the only one….”

"He had me doing it all," his daughter said. "Football, dodgeball, kickball, anything that’s competitive, we doing.”

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Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve knew what she was getting when she managed to get Williams to leave the Chicago Sky for Minnesota last offseason. Williams has been just as influential off the court as she has been on it.

"I knew Courtney Williams the player — I didn’t know Courtney Williams the person. I just knew everybody liked her," Reeve said. “Courtney’s way with this team was exactly what was missing from our team last year,” Reeve added.

The first game of the WNBA Finals is scheduled for Thursday night inside the Barclays Center, in Brooklyn, New York. The Liberty will host the first two games of the series, followed by two in Minnesota. A potential Game 5 would be held back in New York.