Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve was critical of officiating after a playoff loss to the Phoenix Mercury.
STORRS - Azzi Fudd didn't want to watch, though the UConn women's basketball team's graduate student guard knew what the replay would show.
With 28 seconds to go in Game 3 of the WNBA Playoffs semifinal between the Minnesota Lynx and Phoenix Mercury Friday, the Lynx's Napheesa Collier took a pass but had the ball tipped away from her by the Mercury's Alyssa Thomas. The two collided, with the former UConn star falling and turning her left ankle while Thomas went in for an uncontested layup that iced a Phoenix win.
Collier could only watch Sunday with a walking boot on the ankle as the top-seeded Lynx were eliminated in the best-of-five series, 3-1.
"Watching all season, the physicality, you could see that in every game and some way more than others," Fudd said Monday after UConn wrapped up practice at the Werth Champions Center. "That's grown-woman strength out there. I feel like some of the stuff is too much when you see players getting hurt and that's from someone who has had their fair share of injuries ranging from small to large. You never want to see that regardless of the team, the player.
"Watching that, I always get a pit in my stomach when I see it. You never want to see it. That hurt to see it. I felt for her."
The no-call outraged Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve so much that she was ejected from Game 3.
Her comments in her postgame press conference led to her suspension from Game 4.
"When you let the physicality happen, people get hurt, there's fights, and this is the look that our league wants for some reason," Reeve told reporters in Phoenix. "We were trying to play through it, trying not to make excuses.
"The officiating crew that we had tonight - for the (WNBA) leadership to deem those three people semifinals playoff worthy - is (expletive) malpractice. One of the best players in the league shot zero free throws. Zero. And she had five fouls. Zero free throws. She got her shoulder pulled out and finished the game with her leg being taken out. And probably has a fracture."
Reeve has won four WNBA titles with the Lynx and guided Team USA to the gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics. She was an assistant on Geno Auriemma's national team coaching staff when the Americans won gold at the 2014 FIBA World Cup and 2016 Olympics.
She received support from Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White and Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon. Those teams will play Tuesday for the right to face the Mercury in the WNBA Finals.
At UConn, Auriemma understood where Reeve was coming from.
"I've been pretty consistent in my observations of both college basketball and the WNBA, where the positives are and where the negatives are," the Hall of Fame coach said. "And I've had a lot of NBA people and former WNBA players tell me that what goes on in a WNBA game is way more physical than what happens in an NBA game. Maybe the NBA Playoffs are a different story. But on a daily basis the WNBA game is not conducive to great basketball. You can spin it any way you want. There are more viewers, that's great. That doesn't mean it's a better game because more people are watching supposedly.
"You watch last year's final game between the Liberty and the Lynx. It was a horrendous game. Anyway you want to spin it, it was a horrendous game. The two best teams in the league and it's like 20-20 at halftime. People can't get open. People can't cut. The ballhandlers are getting whacked every time they move.
"You always expect your best player to have a rough time. I've been through that and I've complained about that a lot. I don't blame the officials. Everyone says, 'These officials are bad. Those officials are good. If we had those officials it would be a better game.' I don't think it's the people who are actually officiating the games. It's what either in the rule book or what's accepted as the style of play they want. Because if they didn't want that style of play, they wouldn't have it. So you can't just say it's the officials' fault."
After Las Vegas' Game 2 win over Indiana Sept. 23, Hammon noted that most of her coaching staff came from the NBA and "they're like, 'This would not fly in the NBA. This level of physicality would not fly in the NBA. There would be fights. We just have very well-mannered women.' "
Auriemma saw Thomas' play on replay and agreed that the steal was clean but wondered if the ensuing contact that led to Collier's injury should have drawn a whistle.
He did believe Reeve's reaction was not the result of one call but how the game over 40 minutes was called.
"Is that a continuation of the play? Is it incidental contact? I don't know," Auriemma said. "I can't read her mind. But I don't think (Reeve) reacted just at that call. That reaction was based on an entire game of that when a lot of contact was not incidental.
"It's intentional, all the things that you can get away with in the WNBA. That probably added up, added up, and you lose your mind and do things you normally wouldn't do. Is that the officials' fault? It's what's allowed. Like the BS that happened at the Ryder Cup this weekend. Is that allowed to happen at Augusta (at The Masters)? Whatever happens is allowed to happen. If it wasn't acceptable it wouldn't be allowed to happen. The rules are the rules and the officials are probably officiating the games by the rules they've been handed.
"If you want the game to be different you have to legislate it to be different. This is the way they want to game, is all I can assume. Me personally? I don't think people want to watch that. It's a shame because there are a lot of really, really good players. That's my thing - there are a lot of really good players and you can't see how talented they are because they're not allowed to be."
Auriemma noted that NBA games are officiated different now than they were 30 years ago as are MLB games. He joked that the WNBA is more physical than the NFL because in the NFL you can't hit a wide receiver after he gets five yards down field while a basketball player can smack the ballhandler who receives an inbounds pass over and over without a foul call.
The WNBA Finals begin Friday and the basketball fan in Fudd will be watching. Of course, she is also projected by many to be a lottery pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft so she could be part of the action a year from now.
"It's grown-woman strength," Fudd said. "But I've been in the weight room so I hope I'll be OK."
Category: General Sports
