The Minnesota Lynx are off to a hot start this season. Cheryl Reeve and crew currently hold the best record in the WNBA, at 7-2, and that’s without Napheesa Collier, who’s missed the Lynx’ first eight games recovering from offseason ankle surgeries.
By the time this season comes to a close, Reeve and her MN Lynx plan to once again be battling for their fifth WNBA Championship. While it’s been since 2017 that the Lynx last won a title, they are coming off back-to-back seasons with just 10 regular season losses and a WNBA Finals appearance as recent as 2024.
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That’s become commonplace for Reeve, who no matter the team she’s coaching, seems to get the best out that crop of women’s basketball talent. Which is why it’s seemingly possible that — after 17 seasons leading the Minnesota Lynx, this could be her final WNBA run.
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Why? Because she seems to believe (or hope) that the NBA might come calling.
Cheryl Reeve pondering a jump from the WNBA to NBA?
And if that were to happen, according to what she told Charley Walters (Pioneer Press), it appears the women’s basketball Hall of Famer is ready to make the jump and feels she could successfully lead men into basketball battle.
“My answer 10 years ago [on coaching in the NBA], maybe longer than that, was no way,” Reeve told the Pioneer Press the other day.
So, now, if Reeve were offered a NBA job?
“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…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.”
As a head coach in the WNBA, Cheryl Reeve currently holds a rather incredible 370-192 record (.627 win%). Under her leadership, the Lynx have won SEVEN Western Conference titles and FOUR WNBA Championships. She’s 52-31 in the postseason.
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MN Lynx coach confident she could make jump to NBA
I can’t imagine a world — despite her success at the WNBA level — that an NBA team would do something as bold as hire the first female head coach in the league’s history fresh out of the WNBA. She clearly thinks she’d be able to handle it, however.
“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.
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.”
Cheryl Reeve (via the Pioneer Press)
Related: Cheryl Reeve’s KFAN Absence Stems From Refusal to Discuss Caitlin Clark Snub
There’s no doubt Reeve would do more than consider an NBA head job if it landed on her plate, just based on the increase in pay alone. But would she be willing to work her way through the assistant coaching ranks, if that’s what she has to do, in order to eventually become a head coach?
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Becky Hammon attempted that route when she joined the San Antonio Spurs as an assistant in 2014. She ended up leaving the Spurs for the WNBA in 2021, when she accepted a head coaching job with the Las Vegas Aces.
Would Reeve put her professional future at risk to work as an assistant in the NBA, while she waits for a head coaching job that may never present itself?
Jumping from WNBA head coach to NBA head coach isn’t really plausible…
As team president of basketball operations, Cheryl Reeve controls all things player personnel with the Lynx. She hand-picks her players and decides how that talent is implemented. It’s power she’s had since 2022. That’s a lot to give up, so you can do grunt work on an NBA staff.
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If we were in a different time in Minnesota Timberwolves history, I could have seen Glen Taylor — who had an unlimited amount of belief in Reeve when he owned the team — promoting Cheryl from head coach of HIS Lynx to the head coach of HIS Timberwolves.
Related: Minnesota Lynx Draft Star PG Olivia Miles
But with Chris Finch implanted as Wolves head coach, while Marc Lore, Alex Rodriguez and Tim Connelly work tirelessly this offseason to find the missing piece to what we all believe is a championship-caliber roster, she isn’t going to get that opportunity here anytime soon (or probably ever).
Now again, would they be willing to take her on as an assistant? That’s a far different question, and one that would probably be met with very little obstruction, if she were serious about making the NBA move. Personally, however, I’m not sure Cheryl’s ego could take a back seat like that…
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