for starters, we just played a back-to-back…
👉🏽7p game Thurs night in MN
👉🏽left our apts at 5:15A Friday morning for a commercial flight to IN
👉🏽played a 7p game THAT NIGHT— Natalie Achonwa (@NatAchon) July 16, 2022
Reeve said she called the WNBA to alert it to potential issues early in the day Saturday and never received a response. The eventual response, Reeve explained Sunday, was to help with arranging flights instead of possibly pushing the game time back.
“The greater disappointment was a lack of support that we felt in terms of unresponsive messages to the league,” Reeve said. “From our standpoint, there was no communication with the leadership of the Minnesota Lynx. And so, to me, that’s an epic fail. So was there consideration given? I have no idea. It was leaked to me later on that there was communication to Washington. There wasn’t communication with Minnesota, and I’m not sure how that would happen.”
Thibault said the league contacted the Mystics about moving the time of the game, but because of a near sellout as the team staged Japanese Heritage Day, they decided against a change. Thibault, Washington’s coach and general manager, said every team in the league has to deal with travel issues. WNBA teams do not charter flights and must fly commercial, which is a sore spot for players.
“I’m tired of hearing about it,” Thibault said. “Tired of reading about it on Twitter. It happens to every team, and I get it. Every team would like to come in fully refreshed, but they got here last night. They didn’t play yesterday. And I know it’s a long day, but everybody goes through them. That’s just life. I’d like to feel sorry for them, but I’m sorry — I don’t.”
For those who didn’t see it, here’s the crying motion Mike Thibault made when asked about the Minnesota Lynx’s travel issues in pregame. pic.twitter.com/q7NPrvAM3G
— Tyler Byrum (@theTylerByrum) July 17, 2022
The WNBA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Lynx were particularly frustrated with a brutal stretch of schedule: Sunday was their fourth game in six days.
“I thought we deserve more respect, and I thought I deserve more respect than that,” Reeve said. “We’re not happy. We’re not happy that there was no consideration given to us.”
The Mystics have had plenty of travel problems this season, including having to take a train and a bus to Connecticut after flight issues.
“It’s not like they were arriving this morning,” Thibault said. “I know it was a long day traveling, but we’ve all had them. We really weren’t in a position to really accommodate them unless there was a much more mitigating circumstance than there is right now.”
