Cheryl Reeve calls for wnba, who will be hosting after Napheesa Collier’s injury
Cheryl Reeve didn’t hold back when he spoke about the officials at a post-match press conference after Napesa Collier left the match with injuries.
Sports Pulse
Maybe the WNBA will hear it now.
For years, players and coaches have warned that the physicality of the game is out of hand. The host is not responding to the size, strength and pace of the WNBA game, and is hitting both the players and the product. If the league doesn’t step in, if it keeps calm for the host of sub-pars, someone will get injured.
Well, someone has it now. And not everyone. One of the biggest names in the game. One of the biggest games of the season.
Naphesa Collier, runner-up for each of the MVPs of the last two seasons, said “probably has a fracture” after a dismantling derby between the Minnesota Lynx and Phoenix Mercury on Friday night, an error, and a clash with Alyssa Thomas late in Game 3. The already-chippy series was off the rails, Collier letting the floor drop and shed tears, and director Cheryl Reeve was held back by his assistant and had to guard Nazisha Hedemann before he left.
“If this is what our league wants, then OK, but when it comes to hosting, I want to see a change in leadership at the league level,” Reeve said after the match that her rage was obvious.
“It’s bad for the game. The host crew we had tonight is cheating to deem leadership worthy of these three people’s playoffs.”
This is not a sour grape. This isn’t Reeve’s whine as her team, No. 1 seed, is on the brink of elimination after an 84-76 defeat in the semi-finals on Friday night.
This is about player safety. And the WNBA doesn’t care about it.
USA Today Sports has sent an email to three members of the WNBA requesting comment. None of them responded.
W is a physical league. That’s always the case. However, as players became stronger, the game became faster and more intense, so the physicality surged. It’s not uncommon to see players with black eyes or bruises from Run of Mill the Mill games during the regular season. There’s also a reason why the rookie heads straight into the weight room as soon as his first season is over.
W’s dirty Little Secret was a national fire prevention last season as Kate Linklark arrived in the league. Her fans were horrified how much she bumped, pushed and shaking she was, and in fact, she was targeted when all the other W players were experiencing the same thing.
It doesn’t make it right. But W players are just as competitive as other elite-level athletes, taking things as much as possible, as long as staff doesn’t intervene.
And there’s the problem there. Officials haven’t done that. Whether it’s incompetent or ineffective, the outcome is the same. W has now become the west of the wild, reaching a point where physicality is not safe.
“Most of my assistants come from the NBA. “This doesn’t fly in the NBA. This level of physicality doesn’t fly in the NBA. There’s no fight.
It’s strange that there wasn’t a Friday. Beyond the reeve drain, the Lynx and Mercury players were swinging towards each other like boxers before the measurement.
“We talked about how dangerous it is,” Reeve said. “You’re hearing it from other series. You’re hearing other coaches – you’re hearing Becky about how physically he’s getting people injured and there’s a fight. And this is the look our league wants for some reason.”
Unlike the NBA, which has a double-length season, W officials are not full-time. W defended the host, saying officials are being monitored by the league office and amendments are being made throughout the season.
But when you look at every game, you will soon see that the host doesn’t cut it at the college level.
Colliers are the focus of both Minnesota’s offensive and defense, and as such, they rarely remain vulnerable. She has at least one player in her face almost every second, where she is on the court. The same goes for MVP A’ja Wilson.
However, Collier and Wilson had one free throw between the two on Friday night. That’s right. The two players who touch the ball the most and get the most attention from their opponents drew one foul in a total of 75 minutes they were on the court.
That makes sense.
“They told me not to say anything, but you know I can’t,” Hamon said as he pointed it out.
And this doesn’t even make a routine headed mistake in bones, such as ignoring an expired shot clock in the first round or ignoring the unbearable long time it takes to review your phone.
The WNBA has a long history of changing players and cutting corners in league operations. (This is a league that had only one marketer recently in 2019 and had no CMO until 2020.) As interest in the league explodes and its spotlight increases, the WNBA must start acting like a top-notch professional league. You can start by hosting an amateur.
I apologize to Collier. Collier’s injuries were preventable and inevitable.
Follow USA Today sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrammour.
