Napheesa Collier sat down Tuesday for her end-of-season news conference, two days removed her top-seeded Minnesota Lynx falling to the Phoenix Mercury in Game 4 of the WNBA semifinals and four days removed from suffering a left ankle injury that sidelined her for the elimination game.
The injury occurred in the final minute of a Game 3 loss on a play that caused longtime Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve to berate an official, resulting in an ejection, which Reeve followed with unfiltered postgame comments that landed her an untimely one-game suspension.
Advertisement
Collier, a five-time All-Star forward who’s also the vice president of the WNBA Players Association and the co-founder of 3-on-3 league Unrivaled, read a four-minute statement she prepared that called out WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert and could go down in league history.
“So, first of all, I’d like to congratulate the Mercury for advancing to the Finals, and I want to be clear, this conversation is not about winning or losing,” Collier began.
“It’s about something much bigger. The real threat to our league isn’t money. It isn’t ratings or even missed calls or even physical play. It’s the lack of accountability from the league office.”
Collier continued: “Since I’ve been in the league, you’ve heard the constant concerns about officiating, and it has now reached levels of inconsistency that plague our sport and undermine the integrity in which it operates. Whether the league cares about the health of the players is one thing, but to also not care about the product we put on the floor is truly self-sabotage. Year after to year, the only thing that remains consistent is the lack of accountability from our leaders.”
Advertisement
Collier then paused, noting that she was partly out of breath because she had to walk to the interview room wearing her new boot, which protects an injured left ankle she said includes a couple torn ligaments to go along with a torn shin muscle.
Notably, with 23.8 seconds remaining in Game 3, Mercury star Alyssa Thomas wasn’t called for a foul when she made contact with Collier’s knee on a steal that turned into a game-clinching breakaway layup and left Collier on the floor in pain.
“The league has a buzzword that they’ve rolled out as talking points for the CBA as to why they can’t pay the players what we’re worth,” Collier said.
“That word is sustainability. But what’s truly unsustainable is keeping a good product on the floor while allowing officials to lose control of games. Fans see it every night. Coaches, both winning and losing, point it out every night in pre-game and post-game media. Yet leadership just issues fines and looks the other way. They ignore the issues that everyone inside the game is begging to be fixed. That is negligence.”
Advertisement
Collier continued, recalling a conversation with Engelbert from this past February while Collier was at Unrivaled, the new lucrative league she and two-time WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart founded, and that Collier’s husband, Alex Bazzell is the president of.
“I sat across from Cathy and asked how she planned to address the officiating issues in our league,” Collier said. “Her response was, ‘Well, only the losers complain about the refs.’
“I also asked how she planned to fix the fact that players like Caitlin [Clark], Angel [Reese] and Paige [Bueckers], who are clearly driving massive revenue for the league, are making so little for their first four years. Her response was, ‘Caitlin should be grateful she makes $16 million off the court, because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything.’
“And in that same conversation, she told me, ‘Players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them.’ That’s the mentality driving our league from the top.”
Collier, an MVP frontrunner for most of this season on a Lynx team that posted the league’s best record, spoke passionately Tuesday about how she and players across the league go “to battle every day to protect a shield that doesn’t value us.”
“I have the privilege of watching my husband run a league where he has to balance a hundred different things at once,” Collier said. “I won’t pretend the job is easy, but even with all of that on his plate, he always takes the time to reach out to players when he sees an injury, whether it’s Unrivaled or even during the WNBA season.
“That is what leadership looks like. It’s the human element. It’s basic integrity. And it’s the bare minimum any leader should embody. This year alone, I’ve gotten calls, texts, and well wishes from so many players across the league. Those moments remind me that sometimes there are things bigger than the results than this game we play.
“Do you know who I haven’t heard from? Cathy. Not one call, not one text. Instead, the only outreach has come from her No. 2 telling my agent that she doesn’t believe physical play is contributing to injuries. That is infuriating, and it’s the perfect example of the tone deaf, dismissive approach that our leaders always seem to take.”
Collier wrapped her statement by noting that she’s grown tired of the league not taking accountability — and of her private conversations not leading to change.
“I’ve earned this platform, and I’ve paid the price to get here, and now I have a responsibility to speak on behalf of the fans and everyone in this league that deserves better,” Collier said.
Advertisement
“Our leadership’s answer to being held accountable is to suppress everyone’s voices by handing out fines. I’m not concerned about a fine. I’m concerned about the future of our sport. At some point, everyone deserves to hear the truth, from someone who I hope has earned the benefit of the doubt to fight for what is right and fair for our athletes and our fans.
“We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world. But right now we have the worst leadership in the world. If I didn’t know exactly what the job entailed, maybe I wouldn’t feel this way. But unfortunately for them, I do. We serve a league that has shown they think championship coaches and Hall of Fame players are dispensable, and that’s fine. It’s professional sports. But I will not stand quietly by and allow different standards to be applied at the league level.”
