With four years under her belt as the coach of the Las Vegas Aces, Becky Hammon has been with her team the second-longest of all active WNBA coaches. Third is Fever coach Stephanie White with three years, followed by Nate Tibbets with two. 14 of the 15 active WNBA coaches have spent, on average, just over one year with their current team or a combined streak of 15 years with their team. Cheryl Reeve has been with the Lynx for 16 years.
In those 16 years, the Lynx have won 65.7% of their games. In the playoffs, make it 62.7%, so it’s no wonder she’s led them to four championships. The Lynx only had a losing record in two of the 16 years, and one was her first year inheriting a team already on a four-year streak of losing records. With these kinds of numbers, it’s no surprise that Reeve is now the sole record holder for the most regular-season wins (380) of any coach in WNBA history.
She sets this record amid a relative skid in an otherwise dominate start to the season for her Minnesota Lynx. A close victory to the Connecticut Sun broke a two game losing streak including a surprising loss to the Sun who have the worst record in the WNBA. The two Sun games are the first games of the season to not feature star rookie Olivia Miles who left the previous New York game with a calf injury.
This represents only a slight blemish on the season the Lynx are having so far. Despite missing Napheesa Collier, Minnesota is a league best 16-6 under Reeve's guidance. Olivia Miles is a geniune MVP candidate in her rookie year and she joins the list of star players Reeve has coached and developed that already includes Collier and Maya Moore among others.
As she leads the Lynx to yet another outstanding season in her 17th year, it is only becoming clearer that she is the greatest coach in WNBA history (and one of the best coaches in all of professional sports). Her resume and stats speak for themself:
- Longest tenured coach in the WNBA - 16 years. (Cheryl Reeve is also the second-longest-tenured coach of any active coach in all major sports behind Miami Heat’s Erik Spoelstra, hired one year before Reeve)
- Most Coach of the Year awards - 4x
- Most regular season wins - 380
- Most playoff wins - 52
- Most championships - 6 (Four as head coach and two as assistant coach)
She is also a Hall of Famer with two Executive of the Year selections, an Olympic gold medal as a head coach, and two as an assistant. Beyond all of this, she is widely respected by players as a coach who is caring while still holding players to high standards. Guard Maya Caldwell, in her first year with Minnesota, describes her saying, “She can get on you, but it’s out of love. She’s one of those coaches where you can tell she wants the best out of you.”
There’s still more to do
At 59, Cheryl Reeve is nowhere near retirement. She’s a winner, and there’s always more winning to do. While she has four WNBA championships to her name as a head coach, the last one was almost a decade ago.
While her GOAT argument is pretty clear, the last dissenters may point to her lack of rings without Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus, Lindsay Whalen, and Rebekkah Brunson. The WNBA has had no shortage of incredible coaches, and to some, she will need to win with a new squad to elevate her above the likes of Mike Thibault, Van Chancellor, Bill Laimbeer, and even some of her peers like Becky Hammon or Sandy Brondello. After two consecutive heartbreaking close calls, a championship with this Olivia Miles and Napheesa Collier-led team would solidify her legacy beyond the last shred of doubt.
Add us as a preferred source on Google