MINNEAPOLIS — While one of the city's basketball coaches, Rick Adelman, is dealing with the grueling pace of a compressed season, spending what must seem like the majority of his hours on airplanes or courtside, his WNBA counterpart is enjoying a different sort of existence this winter.
Cheryl Reeve, who will begin her third season coaching the Lynx this spring, is in the office phase of her year. Barely more than four months past her team's first championship, Reeve has struck a fine balance in her job between preparing and remembering. She and her players did something that's never been done before in Minnesota professional basketball when they won the WNBA Championship in October, and there's an element of pride that still lingers.
"I spoke with all of them . . . and told them to take the time to enjoy it," Reeve said of her players. "Don't let it get away without enjoying it, because what we did was really amazing. And how we did it was amazing. I wanted to make sure that they had those moments when they really reflected on how much fun it was."
But at the same time, Reeve knows that the 2012 season is fast approaching. Her players are playing overseas, focused on teams other than the Lynx, but from behind her desk in the bowels of the Target Center, Reeve has the team at the forefront of her mind. With barely a roster change from last season, the coach knows the Lynx are capable of repeating, and she's been careful to stress that to her players.
"I told them to enjoy it, but don't lose the hunger," Reeve said. "Don't get fat on your success. That's hard. Sometimes it's easier said than done. We'll certainly be there to remind them of that."
FSN: After winning a championship like you did last season, what's the offseason like in terms of celebrating and remembering the win?
REEVE: I think two things: One, they should take the time to enjoy what happened in 2011 and what a great season it was, with great people; The second part of it is that you have to have kind of a cutoff date. You enjoy up to it, and then you get back to work. There are still some lingering things from the championship, no question, in terms of appearances and that sort of thing, which goes with the territory. We welcome that. There's also the ring design, the banner, some things that we're preparing for to celebrate with our fans and the team in a very formal way.
FSN: That sounds like the most fun part of the offseason. What's the time frame on the banner and the rings next season?
REEVE: We're still working through the details of all that, but we'll raise the banner with our fans and present each player with a ring. It's exciting. I went through it twice with the Detroit Shock, and I'm excited to share it with our fans.
FSN: The ring design must be a fun process to be involved in. How much influence do you have?
REEVE: It's a lot of pressure. If you can imagine, our players, you really want to do right by them. They're the reason why, that we're in this position. They're women, so bling goes a long way. Although I have to say, I think that's across the board with men and women these days. Taj and Brunson each have rings from other teams, so they'll have a measuring stick. The others, it's their first, so it'll be their baby. I know they'll be excited. We've worked hard on it.
FSN: So getting back to basketball, what do you after the season to evaluate their performance and look ahead to next year?
REEVE: You know, believe it or not, we evaluate heavily what we did and try to make improvements and enhance what we're doing. Someone like Maya (Moore), who was a rookie, we learned a lot about her. So we're trying to find ways to incorporate her more into the offense and give her her own plays. Obviously, Seimone (Augustus) does her thing; (Lindsay) Whalen does her thing. It's the same thing with Taj (McWilliams-Franklin) and (Rebekkah) Brunson. We just really evaluate everything. Probably the biggest thing in our minds is our second team, our bench, and how we can better incorporate them into what we're doing.
FSN: So where is everyone during the offseason?
REEVE: Well, we're here, myself and Jim Pete (assistant coach Jim Petersen). Shelley Patterson (manager of player development and advance scouting) makes home in Phoenix in the offseason, so she's got it figured out. She'll pop in when the snowstorms aren't here. And our players are actually, as of Tuesday, all in Europe and Israel. They're all over. They're all hard at work earning their extra paycheck over there. They make good money. They're working on their games, and fingers crossed that they call come back healthy.
FSN: How often do you get to communicate with them when they're overseas?
REEVE: Pretty regularly. Email is a big thing. Some of them are on Twitter, so you get updates, know that they're alive. It's so much better now than it was when I first got into the league, which was in 2001, with your ability to follow what's going on. In 2001, they would leave and we wouldn't hear from them except for the occasional phone call here and there. Now, there's just so much interaction, whether it's via social networking or just your ability to follow online. You can actually click on links and watch them play. So I enjoy the offseason, being able to see them with their different teams and see how they do.
FSN: You mentioned that you're working to better integrate Maya Moore. For a casual fan of women's basketball, it seems like she might be the first player to really have the national spotlight that she did during college and her first season in the WNBA. Was the attention she got unprecedented?
REEVE: I think we expected it. I think she was very fortunate, too, and she'll tell you this, to come into a team that got the number one pick by virtue of some injuries and that sort of thing. We were not a bad team. So she came into a situation where she was able to have quality veterans that know how to win in this league. I think that helped her overall, how to quickly fit in. I think the difference is Maya's national attention. You know, how many times she was Googled, it was unprecedented in terms of a women's basketball player, and that continued when she got here. Maya, in our preseason game, I think she maybe scored four points, and the headline was that Maya scored four points. The poor kid. She couldn't just kind of come in and find her way. No flying under the radar. That was interesting to see. I think that part may be unprecedented, but we've had some rookies come into the league, whether it's Seimone Augustus, Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker out in L.A. We've had some greats come from college and make an immediate impact in our league. I think for Maya, it's the winning, to come in in your first season and continue your championship ways.
FSN: How do you integrate a player like that, who's so accustomed to winning and being a team leader, into your system?
REEVE: I think the nice thing for us is that she didn't have to come in and be a leader. Maya's a winner. So from the standpoint of how she conducts her business, that was probably the biggest thing she committed to, to do what winners do. For Maya, it's how hard she plays, how hard she works on her game. I think through those things, it's contagious. And again, we have a good group. Lindsay Whalen's a good leader. Taj McWilliams-Franklin is a great leader. Seimone Augustus and Rebekkah Brunson, those guys that Maya was playing alongside, I think really helped her. I think we tried to shelter her. We knew that externally there was going to be this pressure, but internally we wanted her to come along, just come in here and play. I threw her into the starting lineup from day one. I felt like, let's just get her in here and get her going, and she would handle it. I thought she would hit some rough patches. Again, what we've surrounded her with, in terms of the veterans, I think really helps her.
FSN: It seems that as a rule in the WNBA, players play longer. There are more of those veterans that you were talking about. How much do you think that adds to the league?
REEVE: I think it's tremendously helpful. Our league has been a veteran league. There's been an occasional winner -- the Detroit Shock in 2003, they were a young team -- but for the most part, it's a veteran league. Veterans help teach the ins and outs of how you take care of your body, how you deal with our pretty grueling travel -- we fly commercially -- and the back-to-backs. So with those little nuances of our league, I think veterans have that savvy way. The way that they play the game, angles, pace is different from the young guns who come in here and everything is just fast. The attention to detail really isn't where it is for a veteran.
FSN: Several of those veterans -- Whalen, Brunson and Augustus -- were honored by being in the final 20 players in consideration for the 2012 Olympic team, along with Moore. What's your reaction to that?
REEVE: It's pretty amazing. Candice Wiggins got slighted a little bit, I think. There was a time that she was in the fold. If you look at those names on that list, that's an awful talented list. For us to have four obviously speaks volumes about them as individual players and the success that we had as a team. There's no wonder that we were able to win the championship.
FSN: You mentioned the downsides of the league, things like flying commercial and a tough schedule. The WNBA is definitely still growing, but have things in your eyes become easier as far as logistics in recent years?
REEVE: I think right now, the league is the most solid as it's been. I think we're ready for that next step, the next 10 years. We're no different than where the NBA was when it began. Bill Laimbeer, whom I worked for in Detroit, and Rich Mahorn (Detroit Shock head coach and assistant, respectively, with Reeve) would share their stories with me. That was in the 1980s, the late '80s, early '90s. The NBA was still limited in assistant coaches, how many they could have, like we went through. Their travel was not as extravagant. So I think from where we are and if you kind of mirror it with the NBA, we're probably a little bit ahead. It took them 30 years to get to this point, and we're just 15 years into it. I think growth is always good, and I think there will be a day -- I'm just not sure when it will be -- that we become more like our NBA counterparts as far as the way the business is run.
FSN: Speaking of evolution, you obviously know that this year was the first year that there were two female coaches coaching in the WNBA finals. What does that mean to you, and what does it say about the league?
REEVE: My experience with Bill Laimbeer taught me some things, and one of the things that we always debated was women coaches coaching women. Not that I didn't enjoy being a part of what Bill did, but I certainly championed the opportunities for women. If you look at the beginning of the league in 1997, we had a number of women coaches coaching professionally. It was their first go-around in the professional ranks. It didn't go so well with the early times, and then it transitioned away from that. Then it became the NBA guys. We've had this run of NBA guys that have come and gone, and frankly there haven't been many that were that much more successful than the women. But Bill's point was that the league is young, so women's experience is young. As the league ages and people like myself age with the league, those opportunities will present themselves. I hope that it's a trend we can stick with because I'd love to see our entire league to be coached by women.
FSN: Were there any female coaches in your playing career who really inspired you?
REEVE: For me, in my career, I've actually been more surrounded with men than I was with women. In college I was coached by Speedy Morris, who was a Philadelphia legend. High school was probably the last time I had a very influential female. That's where it all started for me. She stoked my passion for basketball. Ann Donovan (Seton Hall women's coach, who was coach of Charlotte Sting in 2001) gave me my start in 2001, and so that's a person who's been pretty respected in the game. I've been fortunate, and I hope that I can be an example for younger women who come into our league, to help them aspire to keep this thing going.
FSN: Do you see a difference in approach between female coaches and male coaches? Do you think there's a difference in how female athletes respond?
REEVE: It varies by the person. It really does. Women listen. We pay attention to detail. But also, that was an adjustment because women wanted more detail in their preparation, so I think that's a difference. Dan Hughes (current coach of San Antonio Sting) was one of my best experiences. I worked with Dan in 2003 (in Charlotte). You would see that the way Dan would coach men and the way he would coach women would be the same. I think that ultimately, women want to be successful whether they're coached by a male or a female. I think that's what matters most, and how they're treated. As long as they're treated professionally and what you do on the court makes sense, that'll be what they want.
FSN: Speaking of other coaches you've interacted with, have you gotten the chance to spend much time with Rick Adelman since he arrived?
REEVE: Because of the timing of things, the lockout, they were right to it. I have not had a lot of opportunities. I did meet Rick. He was extremely soft-spoken. It's kind of interesting. I have from afar really admired him. I've seen the past two seasons and then this season (of the Timberwolves), and so it's neat to see his impact on the team. When I met him, he was aware of who the Lynx are and that we did pretty well, that the bar was high. He was very gracious when I met him.
FSN: And going back to your background before coaching, it's not a conventional one in some ways, correct?
REEVE: I have a computer science background, so (that's) something different. I was a double major in computer science and management information systems. My dad actually chose my major. We did the home visit thing, and when colleges would come in I would go in the kitchen when they were talking about the academics and the classroom size. Then we'd talk about basketball, and I'd come back in. My dad and my mom had an awareness for how popular that field was becoming. You know, your parents obviously think beyond the basketball world. So I was pointed that direction, and I actually enjoyed it.
FSN: What made you decide to coach instead of use your computer science degree?
REEVE: After my junior year I did an internship in the computer science field with the IRS. I was configuring systems, and I got exposed to the real world. I also had the opportunity to work at Cathy Rush basketball camps, so I viewed that as an internship in coaching. I really, really liked that. When it came time to graduate I was offered a graduate assistantship at LaSalle, my alma mater, to get my masters but to also begin my coaching career. I got an MBA in human resource management because I thought that might closely relate to coaching in some way. And then from there I knew I wanted to coach. I just really enjoyed it, so I just got opportunities from there, and away I went.
FSN: Going forward this season with the Lynx, you must have very high hopes for replicating, especially because there hasn't been much change with the team. So what are your hopes for the team this year?
REEVE: It's the same for the players this offseason. There's a deadline. At that point, let's begin to think about repeating. It's something that hasn't been done since the L.A. Sparks did it in 2001-02. It's something that hasn't been done in a long time, 10 years, and we'd like to be the team that is able to do that. We understand that this journey is different. 2012 is going to be very different than 2011. I want them to come back as hungry as they were when we began 2011, because we came out of 2010 not feeling very good. I was very confident in our exit interviews that 2011 would be a lot different. I don't know that I would've projected a championship. No coach does that. But I knew that 2011 was going to be more successful.
FSN: So what's that deadline going to be for them? Has it passed?
REEVE: I think for all of them, that point of working on our game, in our league January is probably that turning point. But they don't focus on the Lynx -- they might be thinking about it, but they won't actually focus -- until April. They all want to add something, though. We talked to all of them about what advances they want to make in their games.
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