MINNEAPOLIS — When Sue Chook was appointed because the Managing Director for the U.S. girls’s nationwide basketball workforce earlier this month, Cheryl Reeve reached out to congratulate her.
Reeve, the 58-year-old longtime coach of the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx, coached Group USA to its tenth Olympic gold medal final summer season in Paris, France.
“I used to be thrilled for USA Basketball to nominate Sue to the place, and I assumed the timing of it was nice,” Reeve mentioned final week earlier than the Lynx performed the Dallas Wings. “The evolution — , it’s laborious to vary one thing. It’s been so profitable for therefore a few years. And so, I give management, Common (Martin) Dempsey, (CEO) Jim Tooley, simply quite a lot of credit score for that call.”
However past that, Reeve says she and Chook haven’t talked about anything, equivalent to, if Reeve will proceed to be the pinnacle coach of the senior nationwide workforce.
“I congratulated Sue, and that’s been the extent of our dialog,” Reeve mentioned when requested by SB Nation if she deliberate to teach the workforce in 2026 or 2028.
And so, with the FIBA World Cup approaching in a couple of 12 months, and the following Summer time Video games on U.S. soil looming in 2028, it’s unclear who the following coach of the extremely profitable U.S. girls’s basketball workforce shall be.
At her introductory press conference on Might 8, Chook — who received 5 Olympic gold medals whereas representing Group USA as a participant — recognized “selecting a coach” for the 2026 World Cup in Berlin as one among her high priorities.
“There’s no particular timeline on that, however clearly that’s tremendous vital,” Chook mentioned. “After which as soon as that’s finished, selecting the bigger employees.”
Primarily based on the historical past of the U.S. nationwide workforce, it wouldn’t be beautiful if Reeve doesn’t proceed on as head coach. Actually, it could solely be shocking if she is certainly standing on the sidelines in Los Angeles when the Summer time Video games start in 2028. Starting with Billy Moore within the Nineteen Seventies, solely one of many 12 coaches to guide the nationwide workforce have coached in a number of Olympics: Geno Auriemma.
Nearly each different coach that has led the nationwide workforce has usually coached for only one cycle that features a World Cup and an Olympics. That group consists of Pat Summitt, Kay Yow, Theresa Grentz, Tara VanDerveer, Nell Fortner, Van Chancellor, Anne Donovan and Daybreak Staley. In a gaggle of her personal, Sue Gunter by no means obtained to be the pinnacle coach of the nationwide workforce within the Olympics as a result of President Jimmy Carter pulled the U.S. out of the 1980 Summer time Video games in Moscow.
Ought to Reeve stay the coach, she would be part of Auriemma as the one two folks to teach the ladies’s nationwide workforce in a number of Olympics, and Auriemma and Summitt as the one coaches to guide the workforce in a number of FIBA World Cups.
Tooley advised the Related Press that Chook’s time period for managing director is for 4 years. She’ll have a serious say in what the roster appears to be like like and who the coach is for the World Cup and Olympics.
“After all I’ve began to consider it, jotting some names down right here and there,” Bird told the AP of choosing the next coach. “It’s the primary precedence unquestionably. There are such a lot of certified coaches in school and the WNBA.”
Ought to Chook not resolve to retain Reeve because the coach of the nationwide workforce, one potential and seemingly logical successor could possibly be Kara Lawson.
The pinnacle coach of the Duke Blue Devils has a protracted historical past with and deep ties to Group USA. She received a gold medal as a participant in 2008 — enjoying alongside Chook — and coached the Individuals to an Olympic gold in 3×3 basketball on the 2021 Olympics in Tokyo. Lawson was additionally an assistant coach on Reeve’s Group USA employees final summer season and was the lead scout for the gold medal recreation in opposition to France. Moreover, she has already been appointed as the pinnacle coach of Team USA for the FIBA AmeriCup this summer season in Chile.
Lawson coached the Blue Devils to an ACC Championship this season, her fifth at Duke, and guided the workforce to its first Elite Eight look since 2013. It’s additionally value noting that Duke athletic director Nina King was appointed to the USA Basketball Board of Administrators for a time period that runs by 2028.
The subsequent FIBA Girls’s World Cup begins on Sept. 4, 2026, in Berlin, Germany.
