{"id":770729,"date":"2026-07-18T19:05:20","date_gmt":"2026-07-18T19:05:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/770729\/"},"modified":"2026-07-18T19:05:20","modified_gmt":"2026-07-18T19:05:20","slug":"lynx-napheesa-collier-itches-for-return-twin-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/770729\/","title":{"rendered":"Lynx: Napheesa Collier itches for return \u2013 Twin Cities"},"content":{"rendered":"

Napheesa Collier has missed significant time only twice in her WNBA career. The first came in 2022, when she took maternity leave. This season, she has been sidelined after undergoing surgery on both ankles.<\/p>\n

She says coming back from pregnancy was harder physically, but \u201cI don\u2019t have a baby at the end of this. I was \u2018injured\u2019 at least for a good reason on the other one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her daughter\u2019s name, Mila, is embroidered on the inside of Collier\u2019s new player exclusive shoe, the Jordan Heir Series 2 \u201cQueen Phee.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

She agrees the detail is the most special part. \u201cI have to wear her everywhere that I go,\u201d Collier said, while also sporting a gold necklace spelling out her daughter\u2019s name.<\/p>\n

Collier opted for surgery after the 2025 season and a lingering ankle sprain. The surgeries have kept her out of commission this year, but the team has found success thanks in large part to star rookie Olivia Miles. The Lynx are 19-6 and sit at the top of the league.<\/p>\n

Collier is a five-time all-star and a two-time Olympic gold medalist for Team USA. She led the Lynx to playoff appearances every season she has been with the team \u2014 except during her 2022 maternity leave.<\/p>\n

As Collier\u2019s return from injury approaches, she says it feels different this time. Coach Cheryl Reeve has described her as \u201cQueen FOMO\u201d (Fear Of Missing Out), and Collier says the moniker is \u201cprobably accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really hard,\u201d Collier said. \u201cOf course, I want to be out there with my teammates. You never want to be on the sideline. So I\u2019m just itching to get back out there with them.\u201d<\/p>\n

She says it\u2019s a daily fight with the team\u2019s doctors and physical therapists as she tries to get back on the court. She has returned to practice over the past few weeks. That return has helped her grow more comfortable, regaining her speed and explosiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do your rehab and you get your body strong, but there\u2019s nothing like in game to get that rust off and to get that last, like, hesitation or whatever it is out of your system,\u201d Collier said.<\/p>\n

And while Collier isn\u2019t checking into games, she\u2019s still a core part of the team. When Reeve passed the WNBA coaching wins record, Collier was in the locker room to celebrate. And she crowned Reeve with a gold chain that read, \u201cGot that dawg in me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Next weekend brings the WNBA all-star break. Miles, Natasha Howard and Courtney Williams were selected and are heading to Chicago. But for the rest of the team, the six-day break will be appreciated. The last time they had a day off, according to Eli\u0161ka Hamzov\u00e1, was when wildfire smoke reached hazardous levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think everybody is getting tired, because it\u2019s almost three months in a row without a day off,\u201d Hamzov\u00e1 said. \u201cSo we need to recharge our batteries. I think we\u2019ll enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Napheesa Collier has missed significant time only twice in her WNBA career. The first came in 2022, when…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":770730,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[1077,99,434],"class_list":["post-770729","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-minnesota-lynx","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770729","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=770729"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/770729\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/770730"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=770729"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=770729"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=770729"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}