Lynx Coach Rips 'The Athletic' For 'Not Covering Women’s Sports'

MINNEAPOLIS, MN — The Athletic, a national subscription-based sports website founded in 2016 — has come under fire in recent days from Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve.

Reeve, who's coached the Lynx to four WNBA championships, is a long-time advocate of women's sports. After finding called The Athletic's coverage of women athletes lacking, she called out the website on Twitter:

...why would a subscriber-based sports medium that claims “full access to all sports” limit its earnings potential by not covering women’s sports?? The Athletic does just that...and it’s bad business. #tiredofthebias

Michael Russo — a senior writer for The Athletic's Minnesota page who previously worked for the Star Tribune — resented her comments.

"I think she owes us an apology," Russo responded on Twitter. "We’re doing incredible work trying to start this up & she has the audacity to attack us THREE months before lynx season when we didn’t exist last lynx season and with obvious no knowledge of all the women’s stories we have published. It’s shameful."

"I still don't really understand where this came from," Russo later told KFAN's Paul Allen. "I just felt it was completely unfair of her to disparage us and accuse us of bias."

Jon Krawczynski, who joined The Athletic Minnesota after 16 years at The Associated Press, also chimed in to remind Reeve of how they only began the website last year:

Trust me, once we get up and running and there are enough pieces there will be a header. I just ask you give us some time. I’ve been talking to Freeman about a proper launch piece.

Reeve said that while the "excuses" get more creative, the one constant is that women are often told they need to "wait" before the sports media can provide them more coverage.

On Tuesday however, Reeve and Krawczynski enjoyed a less heated, more cordial discussion about their disagreements on Allen's morning radio show.

Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images