The WNBA will not fine Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve for her officiating rant and saying the title was "stolen" from her team after Game 5 of the 2024 Finals, according to ESPN. The Lynx lost the winner-take-all contest in overtime, 67-62.
After blowing a double-digit first-half lead, the Lynx battled back in the final minute of regulation to take a two-point lead on a bucket by Napheesa Collier. Then, with just five seconds remaining, Alanna Smith was whistled for a controversial foul on Breanna Stewart, who appeared to get away with a travel just beforehand.
Reeve challenged the call, but it was upheld as a foul. Stewart made both free throws to send the game to overtime, where Collier fouled out and the Liberty outscored the Lynx, 7-2. All told, the Liberty shot 25 free throws compared to just eight for the Lynx.
Following the defeat, which prevented the Lynx from capturing a record-setting fifth championship, Reeve went off on the referees during her press conference. Here is a collection of some of her quotes.
On the free throw discrepency:
"I saw a very physical and aggressive New York team. We know this from being a part of the game for so long that sometimes you get away with stuff when you're physical and aggressive, and they certainly did. It's a shame that officiating had such a hand in a series like this. Obviously there's always gonna be a team that's a little more disappointed than the other. I thought today was incredibly disappointing."
On the late foul call on Smith and the review process:
"The challenge. We have got to change our challenge rules. The officials during the game should have a third party because that was not a foul. That call should have been reversed on that challenge... If we would have turned that clip in, they would have told us that it was marginal contact, no foul. Guaranteed. Guaranteed.
"So when you review, those should be the same parameters that you're reviewing with. But the three people that are on the game need a third party to let them know, because that decided the game. That decided the game."
On how she helps her team deal with the outcome:
"I know all the headlines will be 'Reeve Cries Foul.' Bring it on, right. Bring it on. Because this shit was stolen from us. Bring it on.
"We talked about it. We could have done these things, but you shouldn't have to overcome to that extent. This shit ain't that hard. Officiating, it's not that hard. When someone is being held, be consistent. If you don't want to call it a hold at one end, don't call it at other. Be consistent. Every team asks for that. Sandy asked for that last game. Three of the games in this series, we're talking about the same damn thing.
"So I tell these guys, for whatever reason, it didn't work out. It just doesn't feel right that you lose a series with that level of discrepancy. We don't have a team that whines and complains, and all that stuff. Sometimes it probably hurts us. Maybe being a little more, I don't know, something. But you have a star player like Phee, that just, I don't get it. I don't get how she can be held and go to the basket and get hit, and then a marginal, at best, at best, sends their best player to the free throw line. I mean, that's tough. It's tough to swallow."
Officiating was a constant source of concern for both coaches throughout the narrow series, which was the first Finals to have multiple games go to overtime and had four of the five games decided by five points or fewer.
Reeve also called out the refs after the Lynx's Game 3 loss, while Liberty coach Sandy Brondello did the same following her team's Game 4 defeat. Brondello was not subject to a fine for her public criticisms either.
