Cheryl Reeve has a Caitlin Clark problem, or maybe Cheryl Reeve has a problem with Caitlin Clark. Either way, the head basketball coach for Team USA needs to change her attitude before the Olympics.
The way she approached a question about the Indiana Fever’s superstar rookie over the weekend is not going to fly when she gets to the international stage later this month.
Things first got awkward during the preseason. Reeve expressed frustration with the amount of hype around Clark. She wanted everybody to remember that the WNBA is “more than one team,” even though the greatest scorer in college basketball history is the biggest singular draw in league history.
It was announced that Clark did not make the Olympic team about a month later.
There was a lot of frustration with the roster decision despite the logic involved. Clark wasn’t with the team at training camp. The first few weeks of her first professional season weren’t great. Rookie rarely make the team. So on and so forth.
And then there’s the Reeve element. To say that there wasn’t some bias involved would be ignorant.
This is where the attitude adjustment comes into play.
Reeve is also the head coach of the Minnesota Lynx. Clark completely humbled her on Sunday in a seven-point win for the Fever. The 57-year-old was forced to acknowledge the rookie’s greatness after taking a shot at her fanbase during pregame.
Cheryl Reeve needs to check her attitude toward Caitlin Clark!
Team USA’s head coach made the positive comments after shutting down any kind of conversation about the Olympic team snub prior to tipoff. It was a fair question that received a ridiculous response.
Reeve was short and rude.
I would not be surprised if Reeve’s PR team told her to back off of her vibrato during the postgame press conference. Her approach to the national team question was not a good look. Perhaps she was told to hop down off of the high horse after the loss.
Regardless of how things played out, Reeve needs to rethink her approach to Clark-related questions before she travels to France next week.
The 22-year-old’s superstardom has a massive international reach. Basketball fans all over the globe tuned in to watch her play at Iowa and the same is true on the professional level.
There are going to be reporters from other countries who ask Reeve about Caitlin Clark in Paris. To be fair, while the question on Sunday was loosely related to the upcoming matchup, it will be more appropriate to talk about the Olympics at the Olympics. She must be okay with that and cannot approach those conversations like she did over the weekend. That won’t fly.