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Mystics coach Mike Thibault has no sympathy for the Minnesota Lynx’s travel woes

By Tyler Byrum

Mike Thibault has no sympathy for the Lynx's travel woes originally appeared on NBC Sports Washington

WASHINGTON – A canceled flight, mechanical issues on a second plane and nearly 12 hours of gate-hopping, layovers and eventual travel got the Minnesota Lynx into Washington, D.C. in the wee hours of Sunday morning. Less than 15 hours later, they had a basketball game scheduled against the Mystics at the Entertainment and Sports Arena.

But despite the near hour-by-hour documentation by Natalie Achonwa on Twitter and subsequent outrage of WNBA Twitter, don’t ask Mystics head coach Mike Thibault for any sympathy.

“I’m tired of hearing about it,” Thibault said pregame. “I’m tired of reading about it on Twitter. I’m tired about it. It happens to every team, and I get it. Every team would like to come in feeling fully refreshed but they got here last night. They didn’t play yesterday. They didn’t play yesterday and I know it’s a long day but everybody goes through that. We took a train six hours and then got on a bus for another hour and a half earlier in the year to play in Connecticut.”

He even went as far as making a mock crying face before speaking.

Thibault would apologize for the action after the game on Twitter. 

Transportation issues have continuously reared their ugly head in the WNBA ever since the league’s inaugural season. It’s rare to go a couple of months without one team having a flight canceled or a several-hour layover.

But as the league has progressed forward over the last few years, many are calling for the current standards to change. Making the leap from flying commercial to potentially private — like the rest of the top American sports leagues — is a constant discussion point. It reached a breaking point last season when the New York Liberty’s owners, Joe and Clara Tsai, provided their team chartered flights in the latter half of the year. It led to a reported record fine of $500,000 as the league deemed it a “competitive advantage.”

This situation, in particular, was exacerbated by how Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve thought Minnesota’s plights were being addressed by the league office. There was no communication to the team on how the WNBA could help alleviate the situation. They played a true back-to-back, playing at home in Minneapolis on Thursday, at the Indiana Fever on Friday, then turning around to play in Washington two days later.

Related: Getting Rui Machida acclimated to the WNBA

“I’ve been in the league a long time, as a leader of a team for more than a decade and if you do this long enough, you’re gonna be in these situations,” Reeve told reporters pregame.

“I think in our situation, yeah, it was challenging and disappointing that we were in that situation. Probably greater disappointment was a lack of support that we felt in terms of unresponsive messages to the league about considering [chartering a flight and pushing the game back]. And so, from our standpoint, there was no communication with the leadership of the Minnesota Lynx. And so that, to me, is an epic fail.”

With the way things were progressing on how it was getting more and more dire for the Lynx, the WNBA reached out to the Mystics. Thibault said the team simply was not in a situation to be able to reschedule or even push the game back. It was an announced sellout, which would end up being a 70-57 Washington win.

“I mean, we have close to a sellout today and it’s not like they were arriving this morning,” Thibault said. “I know it was a long travel day, we’ve all had them. So, we weren’t in a position to really accommodate them, unless there was a much more mitigating circumstance in areas right now.”

Of course, chartered flights would cause many of these transportation issues to be moot. Thibault pointed out that this has been a problem for several years in the league and recalled multiple instances where his teams were in tough spots when it came to travel problems. He’s been in the league for 20 years and has had his fair share of hiccups while relying on commercial flights.

This time it was the Lynx. Years ago, the Las Vegas Aces decided not play against the Mystics due to repeated travel delays and that game was canceled. Tomorrow, it could be Washington or any other team in the league.

“That’s just life. And I’d like to feel sorry for them but I’m sorry I don’t,” Thibault said.

5 takeaways from the 2023 Washington Mystics schedule

By Tyler Byrum
5 takeaways from the 2023 Mystics schedule originally appeared on NBC Sports WashingtonThe WNBA unveiled the longest season in league history on Wednesday with 40 games on their docket for the upcoming 2023 season. This season will tip off on Friday, May 19 and conclude on Sunday, Sept. 10.Eight of the league's 12 teams, including the Washington Mystics, will start their season on opening night. Washington will host Sabrina Ionescu and the New York Liberty to tip things off for them. As a part of the historic 40-game season, the Mystics will play four teams three times and seven teams four times. Washington enters the year after a fifth-place regular season finish in 2022. It was their best regular season result since winning the championship back in 2019. Still, a first-round playoff exit to the Seattle Storm ended the season earlier than the championship-oriented squad intended. But in many ways, then-head coach Mike Thibault saw parallels in how the 2022 season came together which could propel them to success in 2023 - exactly how the franchise performed in 2018 and then won the following year.It will be Eric Thibault's first season as the coach in charge after his father stepped away from coaching this offseason. Mike Thibault will remain the team's general manager as he has done since he joined the organization before the 2013 season.Everything is expected to translate to similar results, after all, there's not much organizational change happening.How will the opening year of the Eric Thibault era transpire? Here are five takeaways from the schedule release.The Commissioner's TestNothing like getting thrown to the wolves to start your coaching career like what Eric Thibault will have to navigate.After the first week of the year, we'll have a good idea if the Mystics could contend in the Eastern Conference Commissioner's Cup. For each of the past two seasons, Washington hasn't factored into that race. Both years have their explanations as to why the Mystics couldn't contend. From the wide-ranging injuries and integration of Tina Charles in 2021 and the build-up of Elena Delle Donne in 2022, it simply wasn't in the cards. A shame for one of the more successful WNBA franchises of late to not be in the conversation for a mid-season competition. Since its inception, the Mystics are 9-11 in those contests and placed fifth and fourth in the conference.Both times the East's winner finished 9-1 in the Commissioner's Cup to qualify.To start this year, the Mystics' first four games are all Commissioner's Cup contests. One against the Liberty, a home-and-away series against the Connecticut Sun and then a road trip to the Chicago Sky. None of those games will be straightforward against three playoff teams. Washington will need a hot start to avoid falling behind in the Commissioner's Cup conversation for the third straight year.The Commissioner's Cup is an annual mid-season competition that places the top team in each conference against the other for a standalone game that allows the players to compete for a cash bonus. The first two games of the regular season from each of their five conference opponents count in the Commissioner's Cup standings. After 10 games, the team with the best Commissioner's Cup record in the East will face off against the top team in the West. That game will not count in the regular season standings. Early season back-to-backWashington will have a back-to-back this year and it will come within the first couple of weeks. Fortunately for Washington, the back-to-back will be at home on June 2 and 3 against the Dallas Wings and Minnesota Lynx, respectively. Back-to-backs in the WNBA are not a rarity, they happen with the condensed nature of the WNBA's scheduling and sometimes venue limitations. Still, coaches are forced to draw a big red circle around them when the schedules come out because of the challenges they present.After the demands of last year - a 36-game schedule in roughly a three-and-a-half-month span - teams were assuming that things would be more spread out. For the most part, they are with this exception.Sleepless in SeattleWashington won't have to wait long to try and get revenge against the team that knocked them out of the postseason in 2022. In the second weekend of June, the Mystics will travel to the Pacific Northwest for two games in three days against their rivals. It's another scheduling quirk where the schedule-makers did not favor the Mystics. Seattle is one of four teams that Washington will play only three times this year. While it could be seen as a relief that they play them one less time than most of the others, this series happens to grant two home games for the Storm and both coming one after another. It's eerily similar to their playoff series where Washington was playing at a major disadvantage just because of the makeup of the format. Despite the expansion of the playoffs, the Mystics did not get a home game in their lone playoff series since they lost both of the first two games in Seattle.Traveling to the Storm is never easy, perhaps the two games in succession will give Washington an advantage, at least in the second leg. The good news, one of these games (if not both) will likely be on national TV.Seattle heads to D.C. on July 11 for their lone trip to the nation's capital.Three AcesJust like Seattle, the Mystics have only three games against the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces. Two of the three will also be on the road. But all three of those games will come in a three-week span at the most crucial part of the WNBA season. The first game is on Aug. 11. The last comes on Aug. 31. How this regular-season series plays out will likely have huge implications on the playoff standings. It's important because an unfortunate theme for Washington over the past three years has been its inconsistencies. A majority of that is due to injuries. Having those games so close to one another could put either team in a difficult position. Typically, this series would be spread throughout the year. Odds are that at least one of those games will have both teams at full strength.A handful of demanding games in such a short period of time could prove costly, on either side. Both franchise figure to be in the championship hunt in 2023. If one team has the other's number losing the head-to-head at that time of the year will be something to pay attention to.An 0-3 result is not something Washington could afford late in the year.Late-season West Coast road tripThere aren't too many challenging road trips for the Mystics this year. Just two three-game sets from July 26-30 and Aug. 31- Sept. 5. Other than that, the road contests are just one-off games or just two in a row.The latter of their three-game road trips will be the most important of the year. It will be their final Aces matchup and then they travel down to Los Angeles before swinging over to Phoenix.Just like the crucial series of games against Las Vegas, it's imperative to be gaining momentum at the end of the season. Long road trips often make that difficult to do. The Aces, Sparks and Mercury all figure to be in the postseason as well so it's not like there will be a break in competition during that stretch.Sometimes it's not about who you face but when you play them. If Washington is searching for wins late in the year, they may be hard to come by.Full 2023 Washington Mystics ScheduleFri. May 19 at 7 p.m. - New York Liberty at Washington MysticsSun. May 21 at 1 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Connecticut SunTues. May 23 at 7 p.m. - Connecticut Sun at Washington MysticsFri. May 26 at 8 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Chicago SkyFri. June 2 at 7 p.m. - Dallas Wings at Washington MysticsSat. June 3 at 7 p.m. - Minnesota Lynx at Washington MysticsFri. June 9 at 10 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Seattle StormSun. June 11 at 6 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Seattle StormTues. June 13 at 7 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Indiana FeverFri. June 16 at 7 p.m. - Phoenix Mercury at Washington MysticsSun. June 18 at 3 p.m. - Chicago Sky at Washington MysticsThurs. June 22 at 8 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Chicago SkySun. June 25 at 3 p.m. - Washington Mystics at New York LibertyWed. June 28 at 7 p.m. - Atlanta Dream at Washington MysticsFri. June 30 at 7:30 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Atlanta DreamSun. July 2 at 4 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Dallas WingsFri. July 7 at 7 p.m. - Indiana Fever at Washington MysticsSun. July 9 at 2 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Connecticut SunTues. July 11 at 7 p.m. - Seattle Storm at Washington MysticsWed. July 19 at 11:30 a.m. - Indiana Fever at Washington Mystics (at Capital One Arena)Fri. July 21 at 7 p.m. - New York Liberty at Washington MysticsSun. July 23 at 3 p.m. - Phoenix Mercury at Washington MysticsWed. July 26 at 8 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Minnesota LynxFri. July 28 at 8 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Dallas WingsSun. July 30 at 3 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Atlanta DreamFri. Aug. 4 at 7 p.m. - Los Angeles Sparks at Washington MysticsSun. Aug. 6 at 3 p.m. - Los Angeles Sparks at Washington MysticsTues. Aug. 8 at 10 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Phoenix MercuryFri. Aug. 11 at 10 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Las Vegas AcesSun. Aug. 13 at 1 p.m. - Chicago Sky at Washington MysticsFri. Aug. 18 at 7 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Indiana FeverSun. Aug. 20 at 3 p.m. - Dallas Wings at Washington MysticsTues. Aug. 22 at 7 p.m. - Connecticut Sun at Washington MysticsSat. Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. - Las Vegas Aces at Washington MysticsTues. Aug. 29 at 7 p.m. - Minnesota Lynx at Washington MysticsThurs. Aug. 31 at 10 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Las Vegas AcesSun. Sept. 3 at 7:30 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Los Angeles SparksTues. Sept. 5 at 10 p.m. - Washington Mystics at Phoenix MercuryFri. Sept. 8 at 7 p.m. - Atlanta Dream at Washington MysticsSun. Sept. 10 at 1 p.m. - Washington Mystics at New York Liberty
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