Mercury Coach Dismisses WNBA Officiating Criticisms After Win vs Lynx
The women's basketball world is still buzzing about everything that happened in the final 30 seconds of the September 26 WNBA Semifinals game between the Minnesota Lynx and the Phoenix Mercury, which Phoenix won to take a 2-1 lead in the series.
The controversy started when Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas stole a ball from Napheesa Collier during a pivotal fourth quarter possession, which resulted in Collier getting injured and the Mercury getting an easy layup to seal their win. Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve clearly thought Collier had been fouled, which caused her to storm the court in a rage, get ejected, and then embark on a passionate tirade about WNBA officials during her postgame press conference.
"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," Reeve said.
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."
As Reeve alluded to in referencing the Aces head coach Becky Hammon's recent criticism of WNBA referees, Reeve is not alone in condemning how this season (and past seasons) have been officiated.
However, it doesn't seem that every WNBA coach is on the same page in that regard.
Nate Tibbetts Offers Nonchalant Response to WNBA Referee Discourse
Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts also spoke with the media after his team's massive win on Friday night. At one point, Tibbetts was asked about how he feels the officiating has been in the series against Minnesota.
“We haven’t talked about the officiating all playoffs. We just play and we’re worried about us," Tibbetts responded, per an X post from Desert Wave Media.
Phoenix Mercury coach Nate Tibbetts on the officiating.
— Desert Wave Media (@DesertWaveCo) September 27, 2025
“We haven’t talked about the officiating all playoffs. We just play and we’re worried about us.”#WNBA pic.twitter.com/F3evwXM3OV
While Tibbetts' stoicism deserves respect, his dismissal seems to be rubbing some fans the wrong way, if only because coaches banding together and expressing solidarity in this regard could be the quickest path to seeing real change and progress when it comes to how WNBA games are officiated.
But if one is going to believe what Tibbetts said, this doesn't seem to be on his mind right now as his team is trying to advance to the WNBA Finals.
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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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