Cheryl Reeve won her third WNBA Executive of the Year award in 2026, adding to honors she received in 2019 and 2024. The Minnesota Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations appeared on 13 of 14 ballots in voting announced this month, putting her ahead of a field that included Atlanta Dream general manager Dan Padover and Golden State Valkyries general manager Ohemaa Nyanin.
The award recognizes the roster Reeve built after a significant offseason turnover, one that still produced the best record in the WNBA during the 2026 regular season.
What The Third Executive Of The Year Award Recognizes
The voting panel, made up of one executive from each of the league’s 15 teams, rewarded Reeve for assembling a No. 1 seed roster despite losing six of her top nine rotation players from a 2025 team that went 34-10 and reached the Finals. Padover tied Reeve’s career total of three Executive of the Year awards by finishing second with 11 ballot appearances, while Nyanin placed third with eight, according to the Miami Herald.
Reeve’s win also made her the first person in WNBA history to capture both Coach of the Year and Executive of the Year in the same season twice, having done it in 2024 and again in 2026. Only Curt Miller, who swept both honors with the Connecticut Sun in 2017, has matched the feat even once, according to the Star Tribune.
The Lynx’s Organizational Accomplishments Behind The Award
Minnesota finished the 2026 regular season 33-11 to claim the No. 1 seed, a result built largely on offseason additions Reeve engineered. She used the No. 2 overall pick, acquired in a 2024 trade with the Chicago Sky, to draft Olivia Miles, who was named the unanimous WNBA Rookie of the Year on Sept. 28, 2026. Miles also became the first rookie since Candace Parker in 2008 to finish in the top two of MVP voting.
Reeve filled out the roster with veteran forward Natasha Howard on a $700,000 contract, described as the cheapest All-Star deal in the league not on a rookie scale. She also signed veteran forward Nia Brodie for $350,000, and Brodie started 28 games in place of injured star Napheesa Collier. A trade for reserve guard Maya Caldwell, acquired from Portland for a third-round pick, rounded out Minnesota’s bench depth.
Despite the No. 1 seed, the Lynx were swept in the first round of the playoffs by the New York Liberty. Reeve addressed her role in the team’s postseason shortcomings directly, saying, “That’s on me. And so both as an executive and as the coach, I’ll find a way to do that.”
Reeve’s Place Among The League’s Top Executives
Reeve remains the only person in the WNBA currently serving as both head coach and the executive responsible for building the roster. That dual role has now produced a record five Coach of the Year honors and three Executive of the Year awards for Reeve, a level of individual recognition across both front-office and sideline duties that no other current team leader holds.
The 2026 awards season also featured a third straight MVP for Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson, her fifth overall. Jessica Shepard of the Lynx was recognized separately this season for her own breakout campaign, detailed in a Most Improved Player feature highlighting her six triple-doubles.
What’s Next
The Atlanta Dream and Golden State Valkyries, whose executives Padover and Nyanin finished second and third in the Executive of the Year vote, were set to open the 2026 WNBA Finals on Saturday in San Francisco.
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