Cheryl Reeve, the head coach for the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx and the coach for the U.S. women’s Olympics basketball team, bristled and told the media to stop asking her about Caitlin Clark after the Lynx lost to the Indiana Fever on Sunday.
After the 81-74 game, reporters began peppering Reeve with questions about why Caitlin Clark wasn’t chosen for the U.S. Olympic team. Still, Reeve was uninterested in entertaining such questions and warned the media to stop asking.
“Why the hell would I answer a national team question?” Reeve said after Sunday’s game, according to the New York Post. “I’m wearing Lynx. And I’m the head coach of the national team but I’m not the chair of the committee. Anybody want to venture into anything else?”
Reeve has no part in choosing who is on the U.S. Olympics team, but when the committee snubbed Clark, it made national headlines, so it would seem odd if Reeve thought no one would ever ask about the snub.
In another segment of the presser, Reeve was also asked if she was annoyed that fans in Target Center seemed more excited to see Clark than to cheer for the home team. Still, she was also dismissive of that line of questioning, saying she didn’t give “two shits” about fans cheering for Clark.
When the reporter then asked if she gave one shit, she replied that she didn’t even “give one shit” about Clark.
The Lynx-Fever game sold 18,978 tickets, a sold-out crowd for Target Center.
For her part, Clark said she was thrilled to see the fans turn out in Minnesota and remembered the enthusiastic fans when she played in that same arena in March, leading the Hawkeyes to the Big Ten Tournament title.
“There were a lot of Fever fans,” Clark said of Sunday’s game. “They were cheering, going crazy. A lot of people that probably supported me when I was here playing with Iowa, but it’s a great venue, the Target Center is awesome.”
She added, “I remember when I was here in college, and people were lined up like overnight to try to get in the door, and they just love women’s basketball. The city supports women’s basketball, obviously the history here and what the Lynx have been able to do. But yeah, I mean, I guess there’s a little magic in here. Who knows? Knock on wood, because we do come back.”
Still, even though Reeve is not interested in talking much about Clark, the coach did admit that the fans are turning out in droves because of her.
“Everybody knows that the reason why our teams around the league are having sell-outs are because Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever are coming to town,” Reeve said, adding that the WNBA needs to capitalize on Clark and other rookies such as Angel Reese.
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