WNBA Star Napheesa Collier On Building And Sustaining Her Brand Beyond The Court

Napheesa Collier manifested her career in the WNBA as early as high school.

The Minnesota Lynx forward discussed her love for sports and building her league, Unrivaled, with young fans who gathered at the Nike Unite store in Las Vegas for the WNBA’s All-Star Weekend. According to Boardroom, Collier expressed how life-changing the game of basketball was for her. “I love sports,” Collier said on the panel alongside several other WNBA stars. “Even if I weren’t playing, hopefully, I would still be around the game somehow.”

Collier detailed how being in the WNBA has guided her career-wise. The basketball star has expanded her passion and commitment to the sport by partnering with former college teammate and current New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart to launch Unrivaled. The two athletes are launching their new professional off-season league to give WNBA players another opportunity to play in the US. The league will span over 10 weeks, and 30 participating WNBA athletes will be compensated to compete in three-on-three and one-on-one face-offs across six franchises.

“We want to change the narrative around women’s basketball. We feel like it’s trending in the wrong direction,” Collier said. “You hear a lot of college players saying they’d rather stay in college because they’re making more money and they’re getting more exposure, and it’s true. That’s not good for our league. We want to continue to grow and change that.”

ESPN reported that Collier and Stewart are working to secure funding for the league scheduled to officially launch by 2025. The funding will ensure players are paid in proportion to what they earn during the WNBA season without having to seek overseas leagues during the off-season. The contests are slated to be held at a soundstage in Miami.

“It’s the ability for players to stay home, to be in a market like Miami where we can just be the buzz and create that with the best WNBA players,” Stewart said, explaining the players’ fight against the WNBA’s prioritization rule. “It is a rule that takes away our choices, which should never be a thing, especially as women, but it is still a rule,” she added. The rule interrupts overseas contracts because of the requirement for players to return by the start of WNBA training camps.