Lynx’s Napheesa Collier named All-Star MVP, emerges as labor leader as rise to WNBA prominence continues

INDIANAPOLIS — It’s a good time to be Napheesa Collier. It’s also demanding and exhausting. 

Collier, who was named MVP of the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday night after scoring a record-setting 36 points and grabbing nine rebounds, is the face of two leagues, one of which she co-founded. She has also emerged as a leading voice for the Women’s National Basketball Players Association in their historic labor battle with the league. 

“She has balls,” fellow All-Star and Minnesota Lynx teammate Courtney Williams said. “Seeing the things that — to play basketball and then to have constant meetings and interviews, the girl is just, man, to see it inspires me. I be like, ‘Damn, she be getting it in for real.'”

What is quickly turning into the Year of Phee began back in January when Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 league she co-founded with New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart tipped off its inaugural season. Over the course of two months, Unrivaled offered WNBA players an opportunity to train and play against elite competition during the offseason without having to go overseas.  The league also paid players an average salary of $222,000, which exceeds the WNBA’s regular max salary for the 2025 season. 

“Women’s sports is on such a rise, and it feels like everyone is benefiting from that except the women in the sport, and obviously that’s something we’re trying to change and then also create generational wealth for these women,” Collier told CBS Sports’ “We Need to Talk” last year. “From the beginning, [Stewart] and I really set out to create a league that was founded on that principle that players deserve compensation and ownership that reflect their value.”

Collier has applied those same principles in her role as a vice president of the WNBPA. As a member of the union’s executive committee, Collier has long been at the forefront of the behind-the-scenes negotiations with the league on a new collective bargaining agreement. Over All-Star Weekend, she became one of the most prominent public voices in that battle. WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike called Collier’s leadership “fantastic” after the All-Star Game. 

The players are what is building this brand and this league,” Collier said at the podium with her MVP trophy by her side. “There is no league without the players, and the past, present, the new ones coming up, they’re the ones that have put in the blood, sweat and tears for the new money that’s coming in. We feel like we are owed a piece of that pie that to create.” 

In October 2024, the WNBPA opted out of the current CBA, which will expire at the end of this season. Since then, little progress has been made on a new CBA. The league and the WNBPA met in person this weekend for the first time since December, but the talks only served to frustrate the players. 

Upon announcing their intention to opt out, the players stated that they were seeking “transformational change.” Their two biggest demands are higher salaries and an increased share of revenue, and they are “holding firm” on those issues, Collier told reporters Friday. 

Earlier this month, the WNBA announced three new expansion teams — Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia — which will bring the league to 18 teams by 2030. Those three franchises paid record-setting $250 million expansion fees. Starting next year, a new $2.2 billion media rights deal will begin. 

Collier and Co. want their cut, as they re-emphasized by wearing special warm-up shirts prior to the All-Star Game that read “Pay us what you owe us.” Thanks in large part to Collier’s leadership, the players have been a united front throughout this process. Over 40 of them attended the CBA meetings this weekend, the highest rate of participation in league history, which Collier called a “really strong message.” 

“She’s a natural leader,” Williams said. “She represents all of us in a way in which I know that I’m 100% OK with her speaking for me.” 

Collier has not let her off-court responsibilities impact her on-court production. If anything, she’s been better than ever. 

During Unrivaled, Collier was by far the best player. She put up absurd stat lines on a nightly basis and averaged 25.7 points, 10.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists, two steals and 1.4 blocks on 61.3% shooting en route to MVP honors. Her Lunar Owls went 13-1 in the regular season, but were eliminated in the semifinals despite a 36-point effort from Collier. 

Collier’s exploits in Miami, where the entire Unrivaled season was played, helped reinforce her status as an MVP favorite heading into the 2025 WNBA season. During an opening night win over the Dallas Wings, Collier went for 34 points, four rebounds and four assists, and has never looked back. At the All-Star break she’s averaging a career-high 23.2 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.6 blocks. She’s first in the league in scoring, eighth in rebounding, fourth in steals and fourth in blocks. 

With Collier leading the way, the Lynx got off to a 9-0 start and are 20-4 at the break. No other team has more than 15 wins. After losing the 2024 Finals in heartbreaking fashion, the Lynx have been the best team this season and are the current favorites to win it all. 

Collier has spent the last seven months bouncing between boardrooms and basketball courts. Along the way she’s stacked a number of wins and lifted multiple trophies. More of each should be on the way, and at least one appears to already be in the bag. The odds say so (-650, per Caesars), and so does Williams, who only had one word to say when asked if Collier would take home the 2025 WNBA MVP award: “Duh.”

A new CBA and a 2025 WNBA championship aren’t guarantees, but come October it could be an even better time to be Napheesa Collier.