The New York Liberty captured the 2024 WNBA title on Sunday night, but Cheryl Reeve believes it was her team who should have been celebrating a championship at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The Minnesota Lynx head coach took aim at the officials over a controversial challenge ruling in the final seconds of regulation that helped New York force overtime, saying the title was "stolen from us."
"I know the headlines will be 'Reeves cries foul.' Bring it on," Reeves told reporters postgame. "Bring it on, because this s--- was stolen from us. Bring it on."
With Minnesota leading by two with just seconds remaining in the fourth quarter, Lynx center Alanna Smith was called for a shooting foul on Liberty forward Breanna Stewart. Minnesota challenged the call, but the foul stood after the officials ruled that Smith wasn't "in a legal guarding position."
Get top local stories in San Diego delivered to you every morning. Sign up for NBC San Diego's News Headlines newsletter.
Stewart then sank both free throws to force overtime, where the Liberty closed out a 67-62 win for the original WNBA franchise's first-ever championship.
"I thought today was incredibly disappointing," Reeve said. "We have got to change our challenge rules and the officials during the game should have a third party [making the rulings] because that was not a foul. That call should have been reversed on that challenge.
"If we were to turn that clip in, they would have told us that it was marginal contact, no foul -- guaranteed. Guaranteed. So when you review, those should be the same parameters that you're reviewing with. But the three people who are on the game need a third party to let them know, because it decided the game."
The challenge ruling wasn't Reeve's only complaint in regard to the Game 5 officiating. She also brought up the free throw disparity between the two teams and once again questioned how Lynx star Napheesa Collier was officiated in comparison to Stewart.
“We know we could have done some things, right, but you shouldn’t have to overcome to that extent. This s--- ain’t that hard. Officiating is not that hard," Reeve said. "When someone is being held, be consistent. If you don't want to call holding on one end, don't call it on the other. Be consistent. Every team asks for that.
""It just doesn't feel right that you lose a series with that level of discrepancy. We don't have a team that whines and complains and all that stuff. Sometimes, it probably hurts us...But you have a star player like Phee that just -- I don't get it. I don't get how she can be held and go to the basket and get hit, and then a marginal, at best, at best, sends their best player to the free throw line. I mean, that's tough. It's tough to swallow."
There were 21 fouls called on the Lynx and 17 on the Liberty in Game 5, but New York held a 25-8 advantage in free throw attempts. Collier, who attempted 23 field goals, didn't get to the line once.
Criticism of the officiating from head coaches became a theme of the tightly contested Finals, which saw two games go to overtime and three decided by three points or fewer.
Following Minnesota's Game 3 loss where Stewart shot 10 free throws and Collier had four, Reeve said "the game is called differently" for the two star players. Then, in Minnesota's Game 4 victory, the Lynx had a 20-9 advantage in free throw attempts and won a pair of tie-breaking free throws from Bridget Carleton, leading to Liberty coach Sandy Brondello to say New York "got no calls" and calling on the refs to "be fair."
When Brondello was asked about the refs' Game 5 performance in the wake of Reeve's "stolen from us" comment, New York's head coach seemed to jokingly say, "I thought they were pretty fair."
"That's what you're gonna get, give and take," she continued. "Game 1, we should have won that game, you know. But I have so much respect for Cheryl and that Minnesota Lynx team because, man, that was ugly. But we found a way to win."
