WNBA owners honor Lynx coach Reeve as Executive of Year

The WNBA has handed Cheryl Reeve another award. This one comes from the team owners. That fact demands we ask exactly what they are celebrating.

On Monday, the league announced that the Minnesota Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations won Basketball Executive of the Year for a third time. She tied Atlanta Dream's Dan Padover for the most selections in the award history.

This page may contain affiliate links to legal sports betting partners. If you sign up or place a wager, FOX News may receive compensation. This content was created by a team that works independently from the FOX newsroom.

The announcement arrived less than two weeks after the top-seeded Lynx were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the eighth-seeded New York Liberty. The Liberty were then swept in the semifinals by the Dream.

Reeve appeared on 13 ballots, ahead of Padover's 11 and Golden State's Ohemaa Nyanin's eight. Each of the WNBA's 15 teams had an executive on the voting panel. Voters couldn't select themselves.

That is a substantial endorsement from her peers. It also amounts to tacit approval of how one of the league's most outspoken left-wing figures represents her franchise. An executive helps establish what an organization stands for. Reeve has made her politics a major part of that job. She consistently uses her WNBA platform to attack the motives of people who believe women's sports should be reserved for females. Her colleagues have now chosen to celebrate her leadership. That deserves scrutiny beyond a list of successful transactions.

Dallas made Reeve's Olivia Miles decision awfully easy. The league's announcement highlighted Reeve's selection of Olivia Miles with the No. 2 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft. Miles went on to become the unanimous Rookie of the Year and set the league's rookie scoring record with 790 points. An excellent addition, obviously. But let us remember how Miles became available.

The Dallas Wings could have taken Miles. They should have taken her too. Instead, they elected to draft Paige Bueckers' girlfriend, Azzi Fudd, with the No. 1 pick. The Wings publicly praised Fudd's shooting. Pretending that their selection of Fudd was based entirely on her basketball skills is foolish.

Miles averaged 19.8 points, 6.0 assists and 4.7 rebounds as a rookie. Fudd averaged 13.1 points, 1.8 assists and 1.7 rebounds. Miles produced those numbers while playing slightly fewer minutes per game. She shot better from the field and finished second in MVP voting. Reeve should probably send the Wings a thank-you note.

In April 2024, the Chicago Sky moved from No. 8 to No. 7 and acquired the rights to Nikolina Milić. Minnesota received Sika Koné, a 2025 second-round pick and the right to swap first-round picks with Chicago in 2026, along with the No. 8 selection. Chicago used No. 7 on Angel Reese. At the time of the deal, Minnesota was coming off a 19-21 season and Chicago an 18-22 season.

In April 2025, Minnesota sent Chicago the No. 11 pick. The Sky used that selection on Hailey Van Lith for Chicago's 2026 first-round outright. That deal canceled the earlier swap and allowed Minnesota to keep its own 2026 first-round pick too. Reeve deserves credit for those trades. Once Dallas passed on Miles, though, the choice at No. 2 was awfully easy.

Reeve also signed Natasha Howard. She started all 44 games and earned an All-Star starting spot. Minnesota finished 33-11 and earned the No. 1 playoff seed. Dallas did Reeve an enormous favor, and the Lynx benefited.

For all those advantages, what did the Lynx do in the playoffs? Minnesota became the first No. 1 seed in WNBA history to be eliminated by a lower-seeded team.

The New York Liberty swept the eighth seed Minnesota Lynx in four straight games last season.

Minnesota lost both playoff matchups by 16 points, including a hard 91-75 defeat on home soil in Game One.

Napheesa Collier was injured for most of the regular schedule but returned to play every minute of the postseason.

She also earned unanimous Rookie of the Year honors and finished second in MVP voting that same year.

Cheryl Reeve holds four championships in her career, with the last title arriving back in 2017. Since then, Minnesota reached the Finals only once more, falling to New York again in 2024.

During those nine seasons without a ring, Reeve collected three Coach of the Year awards and all three available Executive of the Year titles.

That math adds up to six major individual honors while the franchise has won zero championships since her last title run.

If she is given credit for building that roster, she must also answer for how it performed under pressure in the playoffs.

Leadership sets the tone for an entire organization. Reeve secured her fifth Coach of the Award just two weeks before this announcement.

With Monday's news, she became the first person to win both the coaching and executive awards in the same season twice.

Evaluating an executive means looking at leadership decisions and public statements alike. When a leader uses their platform for political messaging, that behavior belongs in any discussion about how they represent the team.

A recent WNBA fight over males competing in women's sports shows clearly who answers questions nobody asked.

Reeve wore a "Trans Kids Belong" shirt on the sideline against Indiana Fever shortly after Sophie Cunningham publicly discussed protecting women's athletics.

But she did not stop there.

After Minnesota closed its regular season on September 24, Reeve called the controversy over male participation an attack on what she termed the transgender community.

"They don't want transgender people to exist," she stated at that time.

That is a harsh accusation leveled against individuals who simply argue that girls and women deserve their own athletic categories.

And it came from the person who both coaches the Lynx and manages their basketball operations. Her public words carry the weight of both roles combined.

By naming her as the year's top executive, her peers publicly hold up her entire leadership style as a model for others to follow. Her political views are part of that package.

Those entrusted with running women's basketball teams are now applauding a leader who speaks openly about allowing males into women's locker rooms and competitions.

That choice reveals exactly what the WNBA decision-makers intend to celebrate in their future leaders.