Armed with extra WNBA historical past, Cheryl Reeve and the Minnesota Lynx are right here to remain for the previous, current, and future.
Those that do not imagine in Reeve and the Minnesota Lynx achieve this at their very own threat.
Cheryl Reeve’s pack was very happy to supply a reminder on Wednesday evening: with an 86-80 choice over the Connecticut Solar, Reeve set the WNBA report for many common season wins on the helm. The slender but emphatic victory was the 380th of her W profession, adequate to cross former Connecticut/Washington boss Mike Thibault. Her predecessor’s son Eric serves as her prime lieutenant on the Lynx bench.
„I appreciated how a lot it meant to the gamers to have fun the second,“ Reeve, maintaining her nonchalant persona about particular person accomplishments, stated after the win, per Terry Horstman of The IX Sports activities. „It’s not misplaced on me how essential, so many gamers in that locker room, the employees, simply speaking with [head athletic trainer Chuck Barta], our trainers, so many individuals which were on this journey with me for thus lengthy. I informed them, I imply, simply to share with them was extremely significant.
“It’s a second in time. It’s a type of issues, however to do it with individuals that you just actually, actually care about, who will do something for the workforce to achieve success, nice appreciation for them.”
Setting the all-time wins report is not even the latest accomplishment Reeve has on her resume: lower than 24 hours after the triumph was secured, Reeve was named one of many two coaches for the 2026 WNBA All-Star Recreation. Her workforce will go up towards one led by both Becky Hammon (Las Vegas) or Natalie Nakase (Golden State), with each squads curated by legends of the sport Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon.
Lynx Degree Up
Some of the futile traditions on the fashionable WNBA circuit must be prophesizing the autumn of the Lynx. Reeve has basically shielded Lynx followers from studying the definition of „rebuild,“ lacking the playoffs simply twice in 16 full excursions regardless of a wholesome mixture of quantity retirements and „thanks“ posts on social media.
Minnesota has seamlessly blended the eras of Seimone Augustus, Maya Moore, and Sylvia Fowles with that of Napheesa Collier, Kayla McBride, and Courtney Williams. Whereas a fifth title has confirmed elusive so far, the Lynx stays well-positioned to compete for extra thanks partially to Reeve’s maneuvering amidst success-sinking happenings.
However the first half of the 2026 season has one of many finer showcases of Reeve’s work each on the ground and on the negotiation desk: whereas Collier continues to get well from decrease physique accidents sustained final season, Minnesota nonetheless continues to tempo the league because the All-Star break looms. The record-breaking victory got here with out the companies of Rookie of the 12 months favourite Olivia Miles as she offers with a lingering calf pressure endured in final week’s go to to New York.
The Lynx celebrated Cheryl Reeve after her record-breaking 380th profession win 🎊
(📸 napheesa24/IG) pic.twitter.com/py0UVWDySq
— Yahoo Sports activities (@YahooSports) July 9, 2026
„The usual of excellence [she has set], it is like a misplaced artwork virtually in our league,“ stated McBride, the main scorer for the victors with 23 factors, per Alexa Philippou of ESPN. „To be one of many coaches that has been round for thus lengthy in a single franchise says quite a bit. I am simply tremendous excited and pleased and pleased with her.“
Headlining the trigger are the resourceful finds of Reeve, who is understood for doubling because the Lynx’s president of basketball operations. Her latest finds embrace the No. 2 draft decide and Rookie of the 12 months favourite Miles, Nia Coffey working by way of a career-best season, and ex-Minnesotan Natasha Howard, who will be a part of Miles on the upcoming All-Star festivities in Chicago.
Consider in Reeve
Amidst all of it, Reeve remains to be beautiful within the division of creating first impressions in 12 months 17 on the helm.
„The way in which she’s in a position to steadiness accountability with help, a number of coaches cannot get that proper. [They show] an excessive amount of of each other, and so they cannot do it constantly throughout the board,“ the rookie sensation Miles stated previous to final Friday’s sport in New York. „That is not attacking anybody. Quite a lot of coaches wrestle with that steadiness, and she or he simply has a knack for it. She’s been in right here for thus lengthy. I hold telling individuals I do not know what I am gonna do with myself when she retires, as a result of she’s actually top-of-the-line coaches, if not the perfect, coach that I’ve ever had, and it is solely been what, 20 video games. I can not wait to continue learning from her, and her brilliance is so particular, and one thing I wish to be a sponge amongst.
„Cheryl, I’ll be actual, she is simply good in what she does, and she or he understands the right way to use gamers and to their strengths,“ Miles continued. „You see Tash enjoying out of her thoughts. Everybody thought she was performed, and she or he’s enjoying her greatest basketball, among the greatest basketball of her profession. It is issues like that, that Cheryl sees by way of in gamers and permits individuals to boost their full potential. That is form of how we have actually performed it collectively.“
The truth that Reeve remains to be doing the abnormal issues terribly must be a harmful prospect for anybody going after the league’s thirtieth title. Ought to her Lynx prevail, a sixth of the WNBA’s championship rings will reside on her fingers.
Reeve will get an opportunity to go for win No. 381 on Saturday when the Lynx lace up towards the aforementioned Liberty (1 p.m. ET, ABC).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
