Behind a pleasant smile and measured voice, Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier delivered a scathing takedown of WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert on Tuesday. Through a prepared statement in which she brought receipts and named names, Collier used a standard end-of-season media session to light into the league on a variety of issues.
“We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world,” said Collier, the league’s runner-up for MVP who opened her session with a statement that ran over four minutes. “But right now we have the worst leadership in the world.”
There has been a contentious atmosphere between players and the league all season as the two sides negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement. On the court, frustrations among players and coaches over officiating and the physical play have reached a boiling point, with Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve getting fined and suspended after calling the situation “dangerous” during Minnesota’s series against Phoenix.
Collier said she spoke with Engelbert during the offseason and asked the commissioner how the league would address the officiating. “‘Well, only the losers complain about the refs,’” Collier said Engelbert responded.
The officiating part boiled over in Game 3 of the semifinal between the top-seeded Lynx and Phoenix Mercury. A late collision between Alyssa Thomas and Collier led to Reeve being restrained by players and coaches, picking up her second technical foul and being ejected from the game. She had words for some fans on her way to the locker room and called for a change in leadership during her postgame news conference.
The league suspended Reeve for Sunday’s Game 4, which Collier missed with an ankle injury sustained from the contact with Thomas. The Lynx were eliminated in an 86-81 loss.
Collier, a vice president of the WNBPA executive committee, said the biggest threat to the league is a lack of accountability from the league office and accused the WNBA of trying to silence voices with fines. Reeve was fined $15,000 and Las Vegas Aces Coach Becky Hammon and Indiana Fever Coach Stephanie White were also fined for comments supporting Reeve.
Collier said the officiating “has now reached levels of inconsistency that plague our sport and undermine the integrity with which it operates.”
The five-time all-star and 2024 defensive player of the year recalled that conversation with Engelbert and asked why young stars such as Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers should make so little from their rookie contracts.
“Her response was, ‘Caitlin should be grateful she makes $16 million off the court because without the platform the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything,’” Collier said.
According to Collier, Engelbert also said players should be “on their knees thanking their lucky stars” for the $2.2 billion media rights deal that the commissioner helped negotiate.
Engelbert released a statement Tuesday afternoon following Collier’s comments, saying that she has the utmost respect for Collier and all players and adding “we have all worked tirelessly to transform this league.”
“My focus remains on ensuring a bright future for the players and the WNBA, including collaborating on how we continue to elevate the game,” Engelbert said in the statement. “I am disheartened by how Napheesa characterized our conversations and league leadership, but even when our perspectives differ, my commitment to the players and to this work will not waver.”
Several players, including Reese, three-time all-star Dearica Hamby and former two-time MVP Elena Delle Donne, took to social media to support Collier.
“When Phee speaks, people listen,” the WNBPA said in a statement. “We are confident that her words today speak to the feelings and experiences of many, if not most or all of our members. The leaders of the league and its teams would benefit from listening to her powerful statement. The players know their value even if the league does not. They are fighting for their legacy and the future of basketball.”
That Collier and the Lynx were the player and the organization to fire direct shots at the league establishment should not come as a surprise. Collier’s grandfather, Gershon, was a former United Nations diplomat and ambassador who helped negotiate Sierra Leone’s independence in 1961 after more than 150 years of British rule, and she has always felt a responsibility to uphold the standard for activism that he set for the family.
The Lynx has long had a reputation as a leader for social justice and change. A month before Colin Kaepernick sat during the national anthem in protest of police brutality and racial inequality, the team wore T-shirts that read “Change Begins With Us” in response to the police killings of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in the St. Paul suburb of Falcon Heights, in consecutive days in 2016.
Reeve, the longest-tenured coach in the WNBA, has spent much of the past decade encouraging her players to speak their minds about issues that matter to them. She’s one of the rare coaches with the clout and credentials – four championships in 15 seasons – to let her players take stances and have their backs.
“I’ve been in the league a long time, and I’ve seen a lot of spaces that were not okay to occupy, one of which was that. Seeing how much you have to lose if you rock the boat,” Reeve said in an interview last month. “I became more emboldened as a winner. Things that you were fearful of, you didn’t have the courage to do before, you suddenly have the will to do. We’re winning a championship, so I’m going, ‘What are you going to do to me?’”
Reeve said Tuesday that she wouldn’t change how she handled the situation.
“For me, being a principled person, there are things I care deeply about. And that’s my players’ health and safety. That’s the fairness to our organization,” she said. “And when those things are challenged, if I’m not going to speak up, who’s going to?”
Wearing a protective boot during her exit interview, Collier admitted the injury would have prohibited her from participating in the Finals had the Lynx been able to defeat the Mercury in her absence. She used her final media availability of the season to send out a rallying cry to prepare for a fight for current and future generations of players.
“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,” Collier said. “I will not stand quietly by.”