Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier lambasted WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert and the league office on Tuesday, saying that the WNBA had the “worst leadership in the world.”
Less than 48 hours after Minnesota’s season-ending Game 4 semifinals loss to the Phoenix Mercury, Collier read a two-page prepared statement at a news conference in Minneapolis that criticized the league’s officiating, Engelbert and the WNBA’s approach to the ongoing Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations.
Collier, who is the Women’s National Basketball Players Association vice president, said the league lacks accountability on key issues, and she said she was speaking candidly on Tuesday because “for too long I have tried to have these conversations in private.”
“But it’s clear there’s no intention of accepting there’s a problem,” Collier said of the league’s officiating, in particular. “The league has made it clear, it isn’t about innovation. It isn’t about collaboration. It’s about control and power.
“Our leadership’s ability 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.”
Collier, the 2025 WNBA MVP runner-up, did not play in Minnesota’s Game 4 loss after suffering an ankle injury in the final 30 seconds of Game 3. The injury occurred as part of a chaotic sequence in which she fell to the court as the Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas stole the ball from her.
Irate about the lack of a foul, Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve charged onto the court, was held back from confronting officials and was ejected from the eventual defeat with 21.8 seconds remaining. At a new conference following the game, Reeve called for a change in officiating at the league level in a two-minute profanity-laced diatribe. She was subsequently fined $15,000 and suspended for Sunday’s Game 4, when the Lynx were eliminated from the playoffs.
Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon and Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White were later fined for publicly criticizing officials in comments defending Reeve.
Reeve expressed support for Collier on Tuesday, but she said she wasn’t fully aware of her statement.
“(Collier’s) voice is obviously an important one,” Reeve said.
The WNBA did not provide a comment to The Athletic at the time of publication.
Collier said Tuesday that the injury she suffered in the waning seconds was “almost the exact same injury” she dealt with in August, when she missed more than three weeks with a right ankle injury. She said she has “a couple of torn ligaments, torn shin muscles, but no broken bones.”
Collier also said she talked to Engelbert last winter at Unrivaled, the 3×3 professional winter basketball league that Collier co-founded and launched last year. Collier said she asked Engelbert why high-profile players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers were such significant revenue drivers, but were paid so little by comparison. (Clark’s WNBA salary this season was $78,066.)
Collier said that Engelbert responded: “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.”
As part of the same conversation, Collier said that Engelbert told her that players should be “on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them.” (A new 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights agreement is set to go into effect next season.)
Clark declined to comment, per the Fever.
The WNBA and WNBPA are currently negotiating a new CBA as the current agreement expires on Oct. 31. Players are seeking salary increases — the maximum is about $250,000 — and they’re asking the league to implement a revenue-sharing system that does not have a fixed component. Engelbert has said she hopes the deal is “transformational,” and that she wants to “significantly increase” player salary and benefits, “while balancing with our owners their ability to have a path to profitability.”
Collier said on Tuesday: “I think it’s time that people know what is happening, the way that the league is not valuing us the way that we need to be valued.
Collier said that the result of Sunday’s game did not impact her perspective on WNBA officiating, but she said it “has now reached levels of inconsistency that plague our sport and undermine the integrity in which it operates.”
“Year-after-year the only thing that remains consistent is the lack of accountability from our leaders,” she said.
On Sunday, ESPN reported that WNBA data does not show a correlation between the rash of recent playoff injuries and missed calls by officials. Collier called that claim “an insult to my intelligence, honestly.”
She added: “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 pregame and postgame 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.”
Collier said she asked Engelbert about how the league planned to address officiating. Engelbert said, according to Collier, “Only the losers complain about the refs.”
(Photo of Napheesa Collier: Matt Krohn / Getty Images)
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