Cheryl Reeve's WNBA Coach of the Year win shouldn't distract from her dangerous accusations

Cheryl Reeve added another WNBA Coach of the Year award to her collection Monday. Unfortunately, winning basketball games hasn't stopped her from treating disagreement with her politics as evidence of hatred.

The Minnesota Lynx coach received 40 of 74 votes from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters, earning the honor for a record fifth time. Her team finished with the WNBA's best record at 33-11, so there is an obvious basketball argument for the selection.

But it's worth remembering who votes on this award. I've written repeatedly about the largely left-wing women's basketball media and its tendency to , while treating dissent as something that needs to be shut down. I doubt Reeve's politics hurt her standing with that crowd.

Before anyone explains that Reeve deserved to win simply because Minnesota finished with the best record in the WNBA, let's check that theory against, well, last season.

The Lynx went 34-10 in 2025, four games ahead of second-seeded Las Vegas, and Reeve received just two Coach of the Year votes. This season, Minnesota won one fewer game and finished one game ahead of Golden State.

Reeve's previous award came in 2024, when Minnesota finished second. In fact, she is the first coach of the No. 1 seed to win since Becky Hammon in 2022, when Las Vegas tied Chicago for the best record and held the tiebreaker.

Reeve had a legitimate case this season, including guiding Minnesota through Napheesa Collier's extended absence. But her team lucking into Rookie of the Year Olivia Miles in the 2026 WNBA Draft definitely didn't hurt. The Dallas Wings could have (and should have) taken Miles, but elected to Azzi Fudd, with the No. 1 pick instead.

And Reeve's politics certainly don't make her an outsider among the largely left-wing women's basketball media, a culture I've written about .

Neither do Natalie Nakase's – the Golden State coach, who won the award last year, finished second with 20 votes.

"Im all about women, little girls deserving to play, and that includes trans women. So Im all about inclusivity," Nakase .

"Deserving to play" is a convenient way to dodge the actual disagreement. The argument for protecting the female category is that male athletes should compete in the male category, regardless of "gender identity."

Nakase presents the choice as including people or excluding them from sports altogether.

After Thursday's regular-season finale, Reeve discussed her advocacy for "transgender people" and the response to the "Trans Kids Belong" shirt she wore earlier this season. As , she portrayed the controversy as something much larger than sports.

"They don't want transgender people to exist," Reeve said.

That's a strong and sweeping accusation.

The dispute that brought this issue to the WNBA involved whether males should compete in girls' and women's sports and have access to female locker rooms.

But Reeve turned that into a claim that opponents want "transgender people" erased from existence.

Those are wildly different arguments.

IF GENDER DYSPHORIA IS A SOCIAL CONTAGION, WHAT'S THE REMEDY?

I believe women's sports should be reserved for females and that girls deserve privacy in their locker rooms. Neither position requires me to hate anyone, much less wish that person would stop existing.

That's a classic straw man. Reeve should be able to defend her position without pretending she doesn't understand mine.

The irony is that Reeve