After much success with the Lynx, Cheryl Reeve would consider coaching in the NBA

NEW YORK – Years ago, when the Lynx were in the middle of winning four WNBA titles in seven seasons, coach Cheryl Reeve started getting asked if she’d ever be interested in taking her coaching talents to the NBA.

Her automatic response: No.

But Reeve, on the morning after shootaround for Sunday’s WNBA Finals Game 5 was asked the question again. Her answer was somewhat surprising:

Maybe.

Perhaps not likely, but maybe. Reeve’s thinking on the subject has evolved. Years ago, Reeve said, the idea of women coaching men was a “new space” for her mind to go.

“The answer now would be I wouldn’t rule it out,” she said. “But I do like what we’re doing. I like the space we’re in.”

The reason for the change?

“It’s understanding that more opportunities for women to be in that space is a good thing,” said Reeve, 58.

Nobody was on the court more than Napheesa Collier through the first four games of these Finals.

The Lynx All-Star forward played all 40 minutes in Games 3 and 4. Through four games she’s played all but 6½ of 165 minutes.

“I’m not surprised,” Collier joked.

But seriously, how does she do it?

“Just making sure you’re doing rehab and treatment and things like that,” Collier said. “And then just laying it out there. Giving it every night. I’m not thinking about being tired.

“I do get tired, but you have to push through it. I can be tired for six months after this. Well, until January.”

January is when the new Unrivaled League Collier founded with New York’s Breanna Stewart begins.

“I’ll be like, ‘I gotta get you out,’” Reeve said. “And she’s like, ‘No, I’m fine.’”

Collier rushed back from giving birth to her daughter, Mila, to play in the final games of the 2022 season so she could play with Sylvia Fowles. She worked hard on her conditioning before last season, but took it to a new level this year.

“It was investing in resources to train physically, not just for skills,” Reeve said. “She did that. That’s the first time she’s really gone all-in on that. Because we said you need to be the most conditioned athlete. Because the great players you’re going against are. And you have to be in that space. That’s why she committed to that.”

Through the first four tight games the physicality — and perhaps animosity — grew in the series. But Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu said the respect has, too.

“We always respect our opponents,’’ she said. “But, obviously, these are two great basketball teams, I think everyone can attest to that, to how great the product has been from game to game.

“It’s just been great for the ‘W’ and great for basketball as a whole. So there is a mutual respect and understanding of what we’ve been able to showcase to the world, playing on the biggest stage, two million viewers watching great basketball.”

Mila, 2, got to know both Stewart and Ionescu at the Paris Olympics, where USA teammates would eat breakfast together each day.

Mila took a particular liking to Ionescu. After Game 4, a video circulated of Mila gleefully hugging Ionescu and her husband. “I didn’t see that happen but I saw the video,” Collier said. “It was really cute.”

So are her loyalties divided? “Mama over everybody,” Collier said.

The Liberty built their super team before the 2023 season. They already had Ionescu, the first overall pick in the 2020 draft, and traded with Connecticut for center Jonquel Jones.

During the winter of 2022-23, it was widely known that free agents Stewart, who had won two MVP awards with Seattle, and Courtney Vandersloot, who won a title in 2021 with Chicago, wanted to join the same team.

Reeve had conversations in Europe over that winter about getting the pair to the Lynx. But ultimately they signed with New York, and are now in their second consecutive WNBA Finals.

According to spotrac.com, the highest-paid players in this series, by base salary are Collier and Kayla McBride of the Lynx (both $208,000).

Stewart’s base salary is $205,000, Ionescu is at $202,000, Vandersloot at $194,600 and Jones at $190,000.

The highest-paid NBA player this coming season will be Steph Curry at $55.76 million, or about $680,000 per game.