As head coach of the Minnesota Lynx, Cheryl Reeve has been synonymous with the concept of success. Reeve has led her team to three WNBA championships in the last five seasons, and the Lynx are more than likely to compete for another title in 2017.
Success, though is not something that comes easy. As she mentioned when speaking recently at Minnesota State University, that transition from losing to winning is something that comes with culture change.
Reeve said that instead of accepting mediocrity as normality, she set out to build a winning culture with the Lynx.
In what we wanted to do and who we wanted to be, we had some non-negotiables that we learned about ourselves and the number one thing is we want to be the hardest working team in the league.
–Cheryl Reeve
The second part of it was we wanted to have the most unselfish team in the league, when we literally put the goals of the team every single day ahead of anything individual.
She also acknowledged that turning around a franchise from worst to first is something that not only takes work, but a little bit of luck as well, citing when Maya Moore was set to enter the league, the Lynx had won the draft lottery, allowing Minnesota to draft her out of UConn.
Reeve cites that a championship culture involves what she calls the four “Ps”—Preparation, Passion, Perseverance, and Principles.
Also included in her remarks was her reaction to Candice Wiggins’ controversial comments from last week—in which she felt how the media covers the league had a lot to do with the reactions.
Media can do more for the women’s league, and should and have a responsibility to do so because the participation numbers show the interest is there and that should be the focus, it’s up to the decision makers who are often times men, so stepping outside of what’s always been would be the best thing we can do for women’s sports.
–Cheryl Reeve
(Original Story: MSU Reporter)
By: Akiem Bailum (@AkiemBailum on Twitter, Instagram)
