Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve Shades Liberty After WNBA Finals Loss
Sunday was not a good day to be a member of the Minnesota Lynx.
The Lynx lost Game 5 of the WNBA Finals to the New York Liberty in devastating, controversial fashion, and now have to sit with the feeling that they had a WNBA championship taken away from them for at least this entire offseason, and likely even longer.
Nobody has more of a right to be upset about this than Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve. And she stole a lot of headlines after last night's game with her passionate tirade about the WNBA royally screwing up the officiating in the game's waning moments, even going so far as to say, "This s*** was stolen from us."
Reeve also threw some not-so-subtle shade at the Liberty's franchise within her rant. At one point in her postgame presser, she said, "[We] do things the right way. Built a team within the rules. Those sorts of things that maybe aren't happening right now in our league. And did it the hard way.
"We gave hope to those teams that aren't willing to circumvent the cap, or fly illegally, or all the stuff that's happened the last 5 years," Reeve continued. "It gives hope for those other teams that you can build a team just like ours. You don't have to have a superteam."
"Built a team within the rules…We gave hope to those teams that aren't willing to circumvent the cap, fly illegally or all the stuff that's happened the last 5 years…You can build a team just like ours––you don't have to have a superteam"
— New York Basketball (@NBA_NewYork) October 21, 2024
– Lynx coach & president Cheryl Reeve pic.twitter.com/lQhhzhux3F
The Liberty violated the WNBA's Collective Bargaining Agreement after team owners Joe and Clara Wu Tsai paid for charter flights to California during the second half of the 2021 WNBA season.
New York was fined $500,000 as a result.
Reeve wasn't done there. She went on to "congratulate" the Liberty by saying, "Congrats to the Liberty on their first championship. How long has the league been around, 28 years? It took them 28 years, congrats to them. We were that close to our fifth [championship], it just didn't happen.”
Cheryl Reeve: "I know all the headlines will be 'Reeve cries foul.' Bring it on. Because this s**t was stolen from us... Congrats to the Liberty on their 1st championship. It took them 28 years, congrats to them. We were that close to our 5th.”pic.twitter.com/GwetkTl4We
— Ballislife.com (@Ballislife) October 21, 2024
Reeve is in her rights to be upset about last night.
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.