Cheryl Reeve Addresses Minnesota Lynx GM Leaving to Join Napheesa Collier's Unrivaled League
On Monday, the Unrivaled Basketball League announced their hiring of Clare Duwelius to be the league's Executive Vice President and General Manager.
Duwelius joins Unrivaled after 11 seasons spent with the Minnesota Lynx, where she served for two seasons as the franchise's General Manager after having been promoted in 2022 from her previous role as Assistant General Manager.
In a press release for the Hiring, Unrivaled Commissioner Micky Lawler said, "We are thrilled to welcome Clare Duwelius as a critical piece of our league. Her track record and proven excellency speak for themselves, and she brings years of unparalleled experience from a storied and successful franchise. We're grateful that she is joining Unrivaled for this next step of her career and look forward to her leadership beginning with our inaugural season in January."
Welcome Clare Duwelius 👑 Our first Executive Vice President and General Manager ✅ pic.twitter.com/xvFC7Iyi82
— Unrivaled Basketball (@Unrivaledwbb) November 11, 2024
This hiring of Duwelius is especially fascinating because one of the Unrivaled co-founders is Lynx star forward Napheesa Collier.
And while Collier likely wasn't the one responsible for the hiring, it's safe to assume she wasn't opposed to the upstart basketball league poaching her WNBA team's General Manager.
If Collier's head coach (and Minnesota president of basketball operations) Cheryl Reeve had any qualms with the move, she didn't make that apparent in the message she sent in response to Duwelius' hiring.
“We are excited for Clare’s new opportunity with Unrivaled and thank her for 11 great years inside the Lynx organization,” Reeve said, per an X post from the Lynx's social media account. “Clare was tireless in her efforts to support the Lynx players and staff in her roles as Director of Lynx Basketball Operations and subsequently General Manager. We will miss her, and we wish her well as she embarks on this new journey.”
thank you for everything, Clare. 💙 pic.twitter.com/8YZz93RJF1
— Minnesota Lynx (@minnesotalynx) November 11, 2024
Perhaps this hiring of Duwelius will finally allow Unrivaled to announce the rest of its expanded roster.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.