When Cheryl Reeve mentioned that she would heed the words of Notre Dame coach Muffet McGraw and make a staunch commitment to hiring women as assistants, she meant what she said.
Following the departures of James Wade to the Chicago Sky plus Walt Hopkins and Shelley Patterson to the New York Liberty, Reeve has since hired former Lynx player and Liberty coach, Katie Smith as an assistant in addition to already having Plenette Pierson, who won one of her three championships in Minnesota, on staff.
Now, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Reeve’s latest hire is another Lynx great in Rebekkah Brunson. The news was confirmed by the team on Thursday.
In addition, her No. 32 will be hung to the rafters of Target Center alongside the No. 13 of Lindsay Whalen
Brunson won four championships with the Lynx in the 2010s as part of a core that also included Whalen, Maya Moore, Sylvia Fowles and Seimone Augustus. Fowles and Augustus are still with Minnesota while Moore has taken an absence from the WNBA to fight for the release of a Missouri man she claims was unfairly jailed as a teenager following a shooting in a burglary in Jefferson City, which is Moore’s hometown.
Whalen is now the head coach of her alma mater Minnesota Golden Gophers.
The move could be another signifying of the Lynx’s transition out of its dynasty years of the 2010s and to its new era with Napheesa Collier leading the way while still being guided by seasoned vets like Augustus and Fowles.
