{"id":173520,"date":"2025-09-27T17:53:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-27T17:53:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/173520\/"},"modified":"2025-09-27T17:53:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-27T17:53:11","slug":"will-the-wnba-respond-to-cheryl-reeves-officiating-rant-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/173520\/","title":{"rendered":"Will the WNBA respond to Cheryl Reeve\u2019s officiating rant? \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

NBA referees responded to Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve on Saturday, posting on X that a play in which All-Star Napheesa Collier was injured wasn\u2019t a foul.<\/p>\n

Now it\u2019s up to WNBA executives to determine if they will respond to the coach\u2019s criticism \u2014 not only of the game officials, but of the people who appointed them \u2014 with a fine or even a suspension.<\/p>\n

The veteran coach who has won four league championships went on a two-minute rant after her team lost Game 3 of its best-of-five playoff series against Phoenix on Friday night. She called for the WNBA to make changes at the league level when it comes to officiating. Monty McCutcheon is the head of WNBA officiating, and Sue Blauch is the head of referee performance and development for the league.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Minnesota
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMinnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve reacts to getting a technical foul by an official during the first half of Game 3 of a WNBA basketball playoff semifinals series game against the Phoenix Mercury Friday, Sept. 26, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo\/Ross D. Franklin)<\/p>\n

Reeve then focused her anger on the three game officials from Friday night: Isaac Barnett, Randy Richardson and Jenna Reneau.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe officiating crew that we had tonight \u2014 for the leadership to deem those three people semifinals playoff worthy \u2014 is (expletive) malpractice,\u201d Reeve said.<\/p>\n

The play that drew Reeve\u2019s ire was Alyssa Thomas stealing the ball from Collier near the 3-point line and going toward the other end of the court for the game-sealing layup.<\/p>\n

Collier injured her leg on the play and had to be helped to the locker room. Reeve said Collier \u201cprobably has a fracture,\u201d though she didn\u2019t elaborate on the injury.<\/p>\n

Though Collier crashed to the court after the players collided, the National Basketball Referees Association posted a highlight of the play with its description of why officials were correct to not blow their whistle.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is NOT a foul,\u201d the post said. \u201cThomas legally gets to the ball and knocks the ball loose prior to any contact. The leg to leg contact is incidental once the ball is clearly loose.\u201d<\/p>\n

There have been several complaints about WNBA officiating this season. Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon has voiced her issues with the physicality in the playoffs.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can bump and grab a wide receiver in the NFL for those first 5 yards, but you can do it in the W for the whole half court,\u201d she said. \u201cYou put two hands on somebody, it should be an automatic foul. The freedom of movement? There\u2019s no freedom. I\u2019m not saying we\u2019re not fouling, too. I\u2019m not saying that. I\u2019m saying it\u2019s out of control.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league typically doesn\u2019t publicize fines for players or coaches.<\/p>\n

WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert addressed the league\u2019s officiating during All-Star Weekend in July.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we go forward on the officiating, we hear the concerns. We take that employee input,\u201d Engelbert said. \u201cEvery play is reviewed. We spend hours and hours and hours. Obviously, we use that then to follow up with officials\u2019 training.<\/p>\n

\u201cConsistency is important. I think some people observe our game versus other basketball formats (and think) there aren\u2019t a ton of fouls called, but I realize consistency is the name of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NBA referees responded to Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve on Saturday, posting on X that a play in which…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173521,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-173520","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173520","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173520"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173520\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173521"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173520"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173520"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173520"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}