*Editor’s note: This originally appeared in Charley Walters’ Sunday column in the May 31 paper edition of the Pioneer Press*
Cheryl Reeve has coached more WNBA victories with the Lynx than anyone else in the league while winning four championships. She’s working her magic again this season, guiding a re-tooled roster to a WNBA-best 7-2 record and 13.8 net rating that sits far above the rest of the association.
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A member of the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame, does she ever think about coaching a NBA team?
“My answer 10 years ago, maybe longer than that, was no way,” Reeve told the Pioneer Press the other day.
That was then. A woman coaching an NBA team then wasn’t a thought, Reeve said.
“Women weren’t in men’s sports in any position,” she said. “And then women starting getting positions. And then I started thinking about it — how do I feel about this? Because I want women to be coaching women. And then I thought, if there’s more opportunities for us, for jobs … the only space that women aren’t leading in is men’s sports.
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“We can be generals in the military, we can be candidates for President, we can be CEOs. The only place that we’re not leading is in men’s sports. And so, to that end that the opportunities that were being given, there’s going to be a day it’s going to happen. I don’t know how old I’ll be.”
Reeve is 59 but jokes that she’s 39. Her energy is boundless. She has the Lynx in first place in the Western Conference. There is little doubt that Reeve, who also has coached the United States to Olympic gold medals, is qualified not only to coach in the NBA, but to win in the NBA. She is in her 17th season with the Lynx.
University of South Carolina women’s coach Dawn Staley interviewed for the New York Knicks job that went to Mike Brown when Tom Thibodeau was fired.
So, now, if Reeve were offered a NBA job?
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“I would absolutely consider it, now, because it’s my obligation to do that,” she said.
Is she confident she could coach — and win — in the NBA?
“Absolutely! I believe I understand what it takes to win,” Reeve said. “Yeah, I think coaching is coaching. I think every coach needs the right personnel. Not to say you have to give me all the Hall of Famers, but you have to have people that fit what you like to do, what your identity is.
“I think the general concept of women in leadership roles in men’s sports, there’s a lot of us that could be very successful.”
