The Minnesota Lynx did not get the ending they wanted, but Cheryl Reeve’s body of work was impossible for her peers to ignore.

The WNBA announced Monday that Reeve, the Lynx’s head coach and president of basketball operations, has won the league’s Basketball Executive of the Year award for the third time. She previously won in 2019 and 2024, and she now matches Atlanta Dream general manager Dan Padover’s three selections, the most in the award’s history.

The voting was not close. A panel made up of one executive from each of the league’s 15 teams put Reeve on 13 of the 14 possible ballots — voters could not select themselves. Padover finished second with 11 appearances, and Golden State Valkyries general manager Ohemaa Nyanin was third with eight.

It is the second half of a historic awards sweep. Reeve already earned a record fifth Coach of the Year honor this season, which makes her the first person ever to win both awards in the same season twice — she first did it in 2024. Dallas Wings general manager Curt Miller is the only other person to pull off the double, back in 2017 with the Connecticut Sun.

The case for Reeve is straightforward. She just wrapped her 17th season as Minnesota’s head coach and fourth as president of basketball operations by steering the Lynx to a league-best 33-11 record and the No. 1 overall seed in the playoffs. Along the way, the Lynx set a league record with 18 road wins and ripped off a 10-game winning streak from July 11 to Aug. 12, the franchise’s longest since 2016.

On July 8, Reeve passed for the most coaching wins in WNBA history with her 380th victory. She finished the season with 397 regular-season wins.

Her offseason blueprint worked almost exactly as drawn up. She re-signed Defensive Player of the Year Napheesa Collier along with All-Star guards Kayla McBride and Courtney Williams, added three-time champion Natasha Howard in free agency, and then used the No. 2 overall pick in April’s draft on Olivia Miles. Miles went on to win Rookie of the Year on Sept. 28.

The one thing missing is a deep playoff run. Despite the top seed, Minnesota was swept out of the first round by the eighth-seeded New York Liberty less than two weeks ago. The Dream and Valkyries will meet in the Finals starting Saturday in San Francisco.

That stings, but the executive award is a season-long honor — and across the full season, no front office in the league did better work than Reeve’s.

Sources: Reuters/Field Level Media (Oct 12, 2026); FOX 9 Minneapolis (Oct 12, 2026).