Napheesa Collier is more than just a WNBA star who is critical of her league and its leadership.
The Minnesota Lynx player is a vice president of the players union, which means she will be sitting across from WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert at the negotiating table ahead of an Oct. 31 deadline to reach a new collective bargaining agreement.
If that doesn’t cause enough tension, Collier is also a co-founder of Unrivaled, a three-on-three women’s basketball league that plays in the winter and features WNBA stars. That could give her additional leverage to try to press the WNBA as talks unfold.
Here’s a look at some of the implications of Collier’s headline-grabbing comments.
Player negotiations with the WNBA are already tense. Could they get worse?
As an executive on the negotiating team, Collier will have a loud voice in the room when in-person negotiations between the two sides continue. She was at the face-to-face meeting at All-Star weekend in July that included dozens of players. There have been meetings since, but players haven’t really been able to attend because they’ve still been in season.
“We’re working hard to make sure that we are putting ourselves in the best position to negotiate for what we think is fair,” said Collier, who has torn ligaments in her left ankle. “We have a lot of meetings internally to make sure we’re on the same page and we’re all lockstep for this. Just making sure we’re super aligned.”
There also is the trust factor. During her comments at an end-of-season media session this week, Collier revealed conversations that were to remain private that she had had with the commissioner in February. That could undermine trust that is often needed to carry out negotiations.
For all the faults that Collier cited in her prepared comments, Engelbert has delivered on many of her promises since coming into the league in 2019.
She will have added six expansion teams by 2030 and secured a major new media rights deal for the next decade that will bring in more than $2.2 billion. Engelbert also had the league pay for a full charter flight program this season that the players hope will be added to the new CBA to address concerns about issues ranging from safety to travel time.
The commissioner has said all along that the league is hoping for a transformational agreement that includes significantly increased player salaries and benefits. There’s little reason for Collier’s remarks to detract from that goal.
How are other players responding to Collier’s comments?
Players across the league backed Collier either on social media or at Game 5 of the WNBA semifinals series between Las Vegas and Indiana that the Aces won in overtime.
WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson said she was appreciative of Collier and the union for standing up for the players.
“I’m grateful to have those type of people to be able to continue to speak up for us,” Wilson said after the Aces advanced to the WNBA Finals. “I’m going to ride with Phee always. Obviously, she’s a business girlie and she has her own stuff going on, but moving forward, we’ve gotta continue to stand on business as we talk about this CBA negotiation.”
Other players, including Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers, backed Collier on social media, calling her “Queen Phee” in an Instagram Story while the song “Pink Pony Club” plays in the background.
What do the negotiations mean for free agency?
Nearly every player not on a rookie contract will be a free agent this offseason, hoping to cash in on a potential giant leap in the league’s salary structure. Free agency usually has taken place in January, with players meeting with teams and able to sign in February.
Players have been able to work out and get treatment for injuries at their former team’s facility in the offseason before becoming free agents. In a worst-case scenario where owners decided to lock out the players or the players decided to go on strike, those courtesies would go away.
Could Collier’s Unrivaled league give players more leverage?
The 3-on-3 league will start its second season in January and already has expanded to 54 players and added two new teams. The domestic league, made up entirely of WNBA players, now gives players another option to earn money, which would lessen the impact of a lockout or strike.
Last season, players in the league had an average salary of more than $220,000, which was close to the maximum base salary in the WNBA.
Unrivaled will add Bueckers to an already loaded roster that includes Collier, Breanna Stewart, and Angel Reese. It also has set itself up for the future by offering NIL deals to many of the top college players.
—Doug Feinberg, AP basketball writer