Minnesota Lynx’s Cheryl Reeve has been named WNBA Coach of the Year, Basketball Executive of the Year

Cheryl Reeve’s rookie season in 2010 as head coach in Minnesota was rocky, but it earned the franchise a No. 1 overall pick in selecting Maya Moore, kicking off a decade of excellence.

That faltered the previous two seasons as the Lynx fell below .500 in consecutive years for the first time in Reeve’s tenure. They were overlooked in the preseason without the star-studded free agency signings of other franchises, but that didn’t matter.

The Lynx are back on top with the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, a 2024 Commissioner’s Cup trophy and a record fourth Coach of the Year award for Reeve, as well as Executive of the Year. The league announced the voting results Sunday ahead of Game 1 of the semifinals. The Lynx host No. 3 on Sunday at 8:30 PM ET.

Reeve received 62 of 67 votes for Coach of the Year from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. New York head coach Sandy Brondello received four votes and Indiana head coach Christie Sides received one.

Reeve also won Executive of the Year, which involves a three-person vote, voted on by each team’s top executives. Managers cannot vote for themselves. Reeve, who is also the Lynx’s President of Basketball Operations, received 10 points. Talisa Rhea of ​​Seattle received eight and Darius Taylor of Connecticut received seven.

Reeve won Coach of the Year in 2011, one of seven coaches to win the award in the same year as a WNBA championship. She also won in 2016 and 2020. Van Chancellor and Mike Thibault, the league’s winningest coach, each won the award three times. Reeve joins Curt Miller (2017, Sunday) as the only coaches to win Coach and Basketball Executive of the Year in the same season. Most organizations have separated the jobs.

The Lynx went 19-21 last year, but earned the No. 6 seed in the playoffs and forced a Game 3 against the Connecticut Sun in the first round. Napheesa Collier, Kayla McBride, Diamond Miller and reserve Bridget Carleton returned while the front office signed point guard Courtney Williams and forward Alanna Smith.

Reeve put all the pieces together for a title contender she describes as a “collective,” rather than a superteam like New York or Seattle. The Lynx finished second in defensive rating and fourth in offensive rating, up from 10th and eighth, respectively. They won the Commissioner’s Cup over favored Liberty and won the season series against both the Liberty and the Aces. Both franchises have returned their full starting fives from the 2023 finals.

Collier, who was named Defensive Player of the Year, earned all but one MVP vote in second place behind runaway leader A’ja Wilson and is the anchor of the Lynx defense. Reeve said she told Collier during her 2023 exit interview that she needed to be at that level before the team could take the next step. McBride is having one of the best three-point shooting seasons of her career, as are most of the Lynx. Carleton is more confident and gets into the clutch late. Williams averaged 5.5 assists per game.