Becky Hammon Supports Cheryl Reeve's Scathing WNBA Referee Criticism
The women's basketball community is still buzzing about what legendary Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve did during and after her team's September 26 game against the Phoenix Mercury.
Reeve thought her star player, Napheesa Collier, was fouled after there was contact between her and Mercury star Alyssa Thomas in a crucial fourth quarter possession of that September 26 game. Because no foul was called, Thomas stole the ball from Collier (who got injured on the play) and got a layup, thus securing Phoenix's win.
Right after the layup was made, Reeve stormed the court and crashed out against a referee. She was ejected from the game and had to be restrained by members of her coaching staff before getting escorted into the locker room, which sparked curses being hurled between her and Mercury fans.
This wasn't the end of Reeve's antics. She went on a verbal tirade during her postgame press conference, saying, "We talked about how dangerous it can be. You're hearing it from the other series. You're hearing other coaches. You're hearing Becky [Hammon] talk about, when you let the physicality happen, people get hurt, there's fights, and this is the look that our league wants for some reason."
She later added, "I want to call for a change of leadership at the league level when it comes to officiating. It's bad for the game. The officiating crew that we had tonight, for the leadership to deem those three people semifinals playoff worthy is f****** malpractice."
- “This is the look our league wants.. for some reason”
— Rachel A DeMita (@RADeMita) September 27, 2025
- Napheesa Collier “probably has a fracture”
- Calls for a change in leadership at the league level
- refs that were chosen for Semi-Finals Game 3 = “f’ing malpractice”
Cheryl Reeve 🫡pic.twitter.com/go9NUN5bFa
Becky Hammon Speaks on Cheryl Reeve Referee Comments
Reeve was suspended by the WNBA for their Game 4 showdown against the Mercury because of what she did and said during and after Friday's game.
As Reeve alluded to, Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon has also been vocal about the league's referees this postseason. And Hammon had Reeve's back when speaking with the media before her team's September 28 Semifinals contest against the Indiana Fever.
"I mean, from what I heard, [Reeve] did not tell a lie. She said the truth, " Hammon said, per a YouTube video from The Baller's Magazine. "As far as they play is concerned... Let me just give you an analogy: In the NFL, if you are a wide receiver, and you're going for a ball... and then the defender is coming, you don't get to run through that wide receiver in order to get to the ball."
"And so, even though all these people are coming out, saying 'It's a foul, it's not a foul', whatever. I thought it was a foul," Hammon added. "When you say the play was incidental, okay, maybe. But it certainly wasn't marginal. That was not marginal contact. So I agree with Cheryl there, in that it was a foul."
It will be interesting to see whether Hammon's stance will sway people to think Collier was fouled on that play, given that the majority thinks it was clean right now.
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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.
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