It has been a long two weeks for Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve. She was inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame on June 27 and notched the 379th win of her WNBA head coaching career on June 28, tying her with former Connecticut Sun and Washington Mystics head coach Mike Thibault for the most in league history. Then, her team went on a two-game losing streak for the first time all season while she sat at the precipice of a milestone. Though Reeve admitted it was a "first-world problem," as a person who has mastered the next-game-up profession, it was understandably uncomfortable for her to be forced to reflect on the past for so long.
On Wednesday, Reeve finally got her 380th win when the Lynx beat the Sun 86-80 on the road to become the winningest coach in WNBA history. The famously buttoned-up and stern-faced coach tried to downplay the historic moment afterward, but videos of her letting loose and tearing up in the post-game locker room showed her hand. "I'm glad this is over," she said postgame.
AI Cheryl strikes again 🤣💃 Credit: Minnesota Lynx, Napheesa Collier (IG)#WNBA #MinnesotaLynx pic.twitter.com/mgxF0BboXW
— Ballers News (@BallersNewz) July 9, 2026
It has also been a whirlwind couple of weeks for the WNBA. On June 24, Alyssa Thomas pressed her fist into Caitlin Clark's throat during a loose-ball scramble in a game between the Phoenix Mercury and Indiana Fever. The play -- which was retroactively upgraded to a Flagrant 2 and resulted in a one-game suspension for Thomas -- re-ignited a still-ongoing media firestorm about player safety and race and homophobia and privilege.
In some ways, it has been frustrating to see these two events play out at the same time. The controversy over Clark and Thomas has surely overshadowed the honoring of Reeve. But it also put in sharp contrast how lucky the league is to have Reeve at the helm during such an exciting but tumultuous time. Her voice matters now more than it ever has before, and hopefully, some of the new fans tuning in will hear it.
Reeve's press conferences and speeches are always worth a listen, but a couple of moments this last month stood out above the rest. After the Lynx were upset by the Mystics at home on June 21, Reeve was asked about the support from the Minneapolis crowd on Pride night. "We should have done it for the gays," she said. A few days later, after the Lynx defeated the Mystics on the road on Washington's Pride night, Reeve quipped, "We got our lick back for the gays."
But after that remark, Reeve went on to describe why Pride nights mattered so much to her -- both because she was glad the league was finally fully embracing its LGBTQ+ fans and because of how accepted she has felt in the league as a member of the community herself. She recalled that in the first 12 years of her career in the collegiate ranks, coaches had to stay in the closet because their sexuality would be used against them in recruiting if they came out. But from the moment she stepped in the WNBA, things felt different.
"In the WNBA, I felt so able to be myself, and it was so incredibly liberating. Not a day in the WNBA have I not walked in and felt comfortable in my own skin," she said. "Every single day. The league is for everybody. We embrace everybody, regardless of gender identity or political beliefs or whatever it is."
Then, at her Hall of Fame speech, Reeve recalled driving to Moody Bible College in Chicago for the 2001 WNBA combine to interview with Anne Donovan for an assistant coaching job with the Charlotte Sting. The salary was just $5,000, but Reeve was in.
"From 2001 until today. I ate, drank, and slept everything WNBA," she said. "I experienced teams folding, I collected unemployment, and heard my dad wonder aloud when was I going to get a real job."
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Reeve can speak to the soul of the WNBA because she has been accepted and embraced by it and helped shape it into what it is today. And she can speak to the past troubles of the league because she has received the rags and the riches. She has seen investment dry up and come back around. This isn't a job or a step or a phase or a fad. This is her life.
That is so important to cherish because as the league has attracted new fans and owners, it has also seen an influx of new coaches. There are only four active WNBA head coaches right now who have won more than 100 games -- Reeve (380), Sandy Brondello (280), Becky Hammon (132) and Stephanie White (129).
Of the 11 other head coaches, four are in their first year as head coaches in the league and six are in their second. Nate Tibbetts has more WNBA head coaching experience than 10 of the other head coaches in the league, and he is in only in his third year as the head coach of the Phoenix Mercury. And of those 11 new coaches, only four had even ever been on a WNBA staff as an assistant coach before being hired -- Tyler Marsh (Chicago Sky) and Natalie Nakase (Golden State Valkyries) both spent three years on the Aces bench, Sonia Raman (Seattle Storm) spent one year as an assistant with the New York Liberty and Sydney Johnson (Mystics) spent one year as an assistant with the Sky. Institutional knowledge of the WNBA is going extinct.
Reeve supported her players through Black Lives Matter protests in 2016. She navigated the COVID pandemic season in the bubble and has been around for all but one CBA fight. She speaks up for Black women, uses her game-day outfits to make statements about inclusion, throws her jacket, challenges leadership, interfaces with fans and also happens to coach the team with the best record and rookie in the league.
In this era of growing pains, when so many people with platforms and power are using the WNBA's popularity to push their own agendas and attempt to divide, Reeve has the gravitas to keep the league anchored, steadying things so the WNBA can go forward mindfully into its future and not be rocked by every wave of controversy in its wake.
During this latest news cycle, as the WNBA was warped into multiple different caricatures by bad-faith actors, her accomplishments provided a much-needed reality check about why the league matters so much. And, as she partied with her players in celebration, she served a reminder that this is supposed to be fun, too.
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