Cheryl Reeve’s KFAN Absence Stems From Refusal to Discuss Caitlin Clark Snub

At 24-5, the Minnesota Lynx are one of the best teams in the WNBA this season, under 15-year head coach Cheryl Reeve. But the long tenured and highly decorated Reeve is much more than just a head coach for the Lynx.

The 58-year-old has also been Minnesota’s president of basketball operations since 2024 and head coach of the USA National Women’s Basketball Team since 2021.

MN Lynx PoBO no fan of new-era female basketball stars

Her accomplishments, both at the WNBA and international levels (more on those below), haven’t shielded her from recent criticisms, however, specifically surrounding her unwillingness to accept and help prop up the younger generation of female basketball stars, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, in order to help grow the game.

In 2024, Reeve intentionally (and obviously) avoided drafting Angel Reese with the No. 7 overall pick in the WNBA Draft. Reese has since made two-straight All-Star game appearances and currently leads the WNBA in rebounds. The “big” Minnesota chose over Reese, Alissa Pili, was recently cut from the Lynx’ roster.

Reeve’s more egregious decision last summer, though, came when she helped conspire with the most influential voices in women’s basketball to keep young phenom Caitlin Clark off the 2024 Team USA Olympic roster.

Both before and after the Olympics, Reeve has made it painfully obvious how much she dislikes fielding questions surrounding Clark’s absence last summer… or really, talking about Caitlin at all.

Of course, if you snubbed the most popular female basketball player of all-time for no good reason, undoubtedly stunting the growth of a sport ready to blow up at levels unimaginable prior to Clark’s arrival, I doubt you’d enjoy talking publicly about it either.

Cheryl Reeve’s absence from KFAN due to her refusal to talk about Caitlin Clark

But this week, radio host Dan Barreiro (KFAN) confirmed that Caitlin Clark is indeed the reason Minnesota’s PoBO has been absent from hands down the most popular drivetime sports radio show in Minnesota.

According to what Barreiro told listeners Monday, that Reeve’s year-long break from KFAN stems back to her refusal to talk about Clark’s Team USA snub, prior to the Paris Games. From the sounds of it, Dan and Cheryl — who chatted semi-regularly leading up to that point — haven’t communicated since.

“605 Guy writes, [are you too hard on Cheryl] Reeve that she’ll no longer come on your show?’

Well, it’s a little more complicated than that, but it is true that the, I’d say ‘battle’ but that’s the wrong word. The challenge goes back to the last time we were trying to get Reeve on.

[It] was before the Olympics and I said, “Look, um, this doesn’t have to be the the the the meat of our conversation, but I’m going to have to ask you about that whole [Caitlin Clark] deal.’

This was via DMing or texting, whatever. And she said, ‘I can’t talk about that.’ So then, I don’t even know if I answered her, but at that point I can’t in my right mind [do the interview].

I think I even said ‘you’re pretty good at deflecting, I’m not going to like spend 20 minutes on it, but you’ve got to understand I can’t ignore it. It’s too big a story at this point.’ And so this whole thing gets kind of silly.”

Dan Barreiro – KFAN Radio

After serving as the Minnesota Lynx’ general manager from 2018-2022, she was named president of basketball operations last offseason, giving her full control of the four-time champion organization that she helped build from the ground up, starting in 2010.

Cheryl Reeve has been running from Caitlin Clark discussions since beginning

In 2021, Cheryl’s success in Minnesota landed her the head coaching job with Team USA, which has continued its complete and utter domination of international women’s basketball during her Team USA head coaching tenure (23-0), which includes a Gold Medal during the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

Related: Minnesota Lynx Roster Changes Amidst Title Run

When Clark was first snubbed by Team USA, some (including Reeve) tried to defend the decision as “basketball-related”. But even if you submit to the idea that Caitlin wasn’t one of the best 15 female basketball players in the world when rosters were finalized, it’s impossible to argue against the fact that having her on the team would have done wonders for fan interest during the games.

But instead of being one of the summer’s most popular and followed events, which it undoubtedly would have had Caitlin Clark been invited to Paris, women’s basketball was left on the 2024 Olympic backburner, Gold Medal and all… just like it always has been.