‘Overwhelming’ Record Further Cements Cheryl Reeve as WNBA Coaching Legend
The Minnesota Lynx had two chances to make Cheryl Reeve the winningest head coach in WNBA history after an 85-77 victory against the Dallas Wings. Instead, they strung together two losses for the first time this season. First, they lost 99-86 to the New York Liberty with Olivia Miles out for the first time and Napheesa Collier still sidelined. Then, Brittney Griner’s 29-point double-double was too much to overcome for the short-handed Lynx against the Connecticut Sun.
With Miles and Collier still out but Griner also sidelined, the Lynx finally took care of business in a rematch with the Sun. Kayla McBride led the way to an 86-80 win with 23 points. The Lynx didn’t play great—far from the high standards Reeve has, actually—but a win is a win, and this one was huge.
Reeve now has 380 regular-season wins as a WNBA head coach, breaking Mike Thibault’s record and further proving why she is the W’s coaching GOAT. Fittingly, she was also just inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame on June 27. It’s been a busy few weeks for Reeve.
In the postgame media availability, Reeve expressed her gratitude to her players and colleagues, but also admitted that the whole thing was a lot to process.
“This is overwhelming,” she said, per a video on the Lynx’s YouTube channel.
Cheryl Reeve is the standard for coaching excellence
Being the winningest head coach in league history isn’t the only distinction that makes Reeve one of the greatest in her field. She is also tied with Van Chancellor for the most WNBA championships among head coaches. Chancellor led the Houston Comets to four consecutive titles in the WNBA’s first four seasons. Reeve won championships with the Lynx in 2011, 2013, 2015, and 2017 to tie his record. Bill Laimbeer and Becky Hammon are close behind with three, and the latter has a chance to climb to the top alongside Reeve this season.
Reeve also holds the record for most Coach of the Year awards with four. The only other coaches to have more than one are Chancellor and Thibault, with three each, and Dan Hughes, Curt Miller, and Laimbeer, with two each.
What makes Reeve so special as a coach, aside from winning, is her longevity. Reeve is in her sixteenth season as a WNBA head coach—with the same franchise. The only current coaches who can even come close to the time she has spent leading teams in the W are Sandy Brondello, who got her first head coaching job in 2014, and Stephanie White, who became a head coach in 2015, but her WNBA coaching career was interrupted by a few years at Vanderbilt. Becky Hammon is the only other active coach who has been with their franchise for more than three consecutive seasons.
This season has been a testament to Reeve’s greatness
The Lynx have only missed the playoffs twice under Reeve: in her first season and in 2022, when Napheesa Collier was on maternity leave. With Collier back and hitting her prime, the Lynx quickly grew into a championship contender. They narrowly lost out on the 2024 championship and were a title favorite in 2025 until Collier suffered an injury in the semifinals.
That window seemed to have closed quickly. The Lynx had a rough offseason this year, losing seven of their top nine rotational players. Collier is still out after undergoing ankle surgery in the offseason. Bridget Carleton and Maria Kliundikova were selected in the expansion draft. Alanna Smith, Jessica Shepard, Natisha Hiedeman, and DiJonai Carrington all left in free agency. As if that wasn’t enough yet, Dorka Juhasz, the reigning EuroLeague MVP, was out with an ankle injury until recently, and Emma Cechova tore her ACL just three games into the season.
Landing Olivia Miles in the draft was a huge win for the Lynx, and they were expected to be solid, but not great. Reeve and her squad have defied those expectations. They are the number-one team with a 16-6 record. Miles and Natasha Howard are All-Star starters, Courtney Williams is an All-Star reserve, McBride is doing her thing, and Nia Coffey is in the middle of a career season and an All-Defensive-level two-way campaign.
If they can get Collier and Miles back from injury soon, the Lynx are set up well for a strong second half of the season and even a deep playoff run.
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Elaine Blum covers women’s basketball for On SI from Europe. She has been writing about women's hoops since 2023 and holds a Bachelor’s degree in English and Journalism and a master’s degree in American Studies with a focus on women’s and gender studies. She started playing basketball when she was 10 years old and won several league and state championships at the youth and senior level.