{"id":523903,"date":"2026-03-09T05:08:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:08:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/523903\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T05:08:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T05:08:08","slug":"napheesa-colliers-defiant-stance-toward-wnba-is-what-leadership-looks-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/523903\/","title":{"rendered":"Napheesa Collier’s defiant stance toward WNBA is what leadership looks like"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whether you like her or not, Napheesa Collier is a leader in the WNBA<\/a> \u2014 and she’s someone that the players trust. Collier is also the co-founder of Unrivaled and one of the vice presidents of the WNBPA, so when she speaks up about an issue, people pay attention.<\/p>\n

Collier’s recent interview on “The Athletic Show”<\/a> only highlights her expecptional leadership skills. She directly addressed the ongoing CBA dicussions in the WNBA, and also explained exactly what a league like Unrivaled brings to the forefront for athletes. As Collier noted, a lot of what players are fighting for in the WNBA are already givens in Unrivaled, which is something that’s making their argument stronger. <\/p>\n

As she put it, “Players see here what professional life should look like, so it\u2019s really hard, once you\u2019ve been given that, to accept less. It gives us leverage. We don\u2019t have to just accept anything you give us, because if you don\u2019t give us what we\u2019re owed, we have other places we can go.”<\/p>\n

Collier also illustrated a crucial, but less-discussed part of the reality of life for most WNBA players. As many fans and observers are aware, their brand deals are a very important part of what makes a player successful off the court \u2014 and, up until potentially this new CBA \u2014\u00a0what financially sustains and supports players in the league.<\/p>\n

But it’s difficult to attain and maintain brand deals if you’re spending half the year playing overseas, Collier pointed out. After all, part of the bargain is that the athlete is available to for parternship events and to promote products and brands \u2014 and that’s something that’s tough to do if you’re across an ocean or many hours away, even with social media. As she put it, “If you\u2019re gone in another country for six months, they aren\u2019t going to sign you because they can\u2019t use you.”<\/p>\n

That was part of the reason Collier and Breanna Stewart wanted to start Unrivaled in the first place. The pair, who are both moms to young children, also wanted to be able to spend more time with their families, instead of missing out on holidays and important moments because they were too far away.<\/p>\n

Unrivaled’s second season has been enormously successful<\/p>\n

Though some may have had their doubts about the professional 3×3 league initially, Collier and Stewart made sure to do everything the right way. That includes making sure players are paid well and provided for, and also making sure that the coaching staff is top-notch, facilities are on point, and fans feel included. To that end, the league traveled to two cities this season \u2014 Philadelphia and New York \u2014\u00a0to great success<\/a>, and have announced plans to travel even more next year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whether you like her or not, Napheesa Collier is a leader in the WNBA \u2014 and she’s someone…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":523904,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-523903","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523903","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=523903"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523903\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/523904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=523903"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=523903"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=523903"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}