Order \u2018Rare Gems\u2019 and save 30% If you enjoy his coverage of women\u2019s basketball every Wednesday at The IX, you will love \u201cRare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.\u201d Click the link below to order<\/a> and enter MEGDAL30<\/strong> at checkout.<\/p>\n Collier, who is averaging a career-best 23.2 points per game at the All-Star break, and also flirted with the exclusive 50\/40\/90 line (for 50% shooting from the field, 40% shooting from 3-point range and 90% shooting from the foul line) earlier in the season. Her 3-point shooting has since fallen to the more human level of 34.2%, but her free throw shooting at 94.6% (105-of-111) is better than anyone in the league besides her Lynx and Team Collier All-Star teammate Kayla McBride<\/a> at 94.7% (54-of-57). Collier set a franchise record earlier in the season with 54 consecutive makes at the line, 6th best in league history and 10 shy of Elena Delle Donne<\/a>\u2019s all-time record Per Lynx PR.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cMan, I think it means everything. Honestly, I mean she\u2019s been putting the work in,\u201d Courtney Williams<\/a> said after a Lynx win against Connecticut on June 29, the day the All-Star captains were announced. \u201cShe\u2019s having an amazing season. Obviously, our team is not this good if not for Napheesa Collier<\/a>, man. I love seeing her being rewarded. This is exactly where she\u2019s supposed to be.\u201d<\/p>\n It\u2019s not just Collier\u2019s current teammates who are totally unsurprised to see her receive a prestigious appointment reserved for only two players in the WNBA. Occasions of this season have brought franchise stalwarts Seimone Augustus<\/a>, and Sylvia Fowles<\/a> back to Minnesota, both of whom did not hesitate to speak on the promise of greatness that Collier made apparent when she was a rookie with the Lynx in 2019.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt was always a no-brainer,\u201d Fowles said in an interview with The Next in June. \u201cAnd the no-brainer came from just how she didn\u2019t complain. You can always tell a good player from an elite player with how they approach things and, you know, practices can sometimes get intense and Phee never budged. That\u2019s how I knew she was going to be special. She\u2019s coachable, but also, she\u2019s a freaking beast. There\u2019s nothing she really can\u2019t do, and if she can\u2019t do it, she\u2019s going to figure it out. That\u2019s something I learned about her early on as a rookie \u2026 I\u2019m not surprised, but I am happy to see it come full circle for her.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Augustus, who only got to be teammates with Collier during her rookie season in 2019, confirmed the Lynx had a player on their hands whose wisdom far exceeded her age.<\/p>\n \u201cHer maturity as a leader, when I was there, obviously she was still looking and kind of watching us \u2014 me and Sylvia \u2014 to see how we were leading the girls, and I think she just kind of took an observative approach to that,\u201d Augustus told The Next. \u201cNow I can see she really was paying attention because she is a vocal leader, but she also really leads by example more than she does vocally.\u201d<\/p>\n The Next, a 24\/7\/365 women\u2019s basketball newsroom A fifth career All-Star Game selection and a first All-Star captain appointment is a milestone moment for a star player who rose to stardom in a quieter fashion than most. Though Collier, while appreciative of the added notoriety in the public space, maintains it\u2019s more of a luxury and not a necessity for her biggest ambitions.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like icing on the cake,\u201d Collier said on June 29. \u201cIt\u2019s a cool thing to add on, but I\u2019ve always tried to be the best for my teammates and to win games. So the fact that\u2019s paying off way more in that way is more fulfilling \u2026 we made it to the Finals last year and we have another chance this year, so that part is way more rewarding. The other stuff is cool but it really means nothing in the scheme of what my ultimate goals are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n There may not have been much public surprise for Collier to finish second in the league\u2019s fan voting process, but the element of surprise was at play when the time came for one of Collier\u2019s teammates and most outspoken advocates, Courtney Williams, to receive their call to be an All-Star.<\/p>\n \u201cYeah, man, Cathy called me. I actually declined the phone call at first because I [didn\u2019t have] her number,\u201d Williams recalled of receiving the All-Star news from WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert during a postgame TV spot after the Lynx beat the Sky on July 6. \u201cBut she called right back, she said, \u2018This is Cathy.\u2019 I said, \u2018Cathy, who?\u2019 And she said, \u2018I have good news for you, you an All-Star,\u2019 man. Yeah, she turned me up, I was super hype. I was so excited to call Cheryl. I called Cheryl and we both went on the phone yelling, \u2018Let\u2019s go!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n The selection marks the first for Williams as a Lynx and her second overall. She was last selected to the game as a member of the Atlanta Dream in 2021.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re excited, we felt like we had more All-Stars than just two,\u201d Lynx head coach and president of basketball operations Cheryl Reeve said on the day the All-Star reserves were announced. \u201cCourtney, it was a goal of hers this season, and so knowing that she put the work in as she\u2019s talked about, and seeing the reward, as a coach knowing that somebody wanted something so bad and they accomplish it, to see that joy that they have, that\u2019s why we coach.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd now I can use that, you know, she\u2019s got to play like an All-Star,\u201d Reeve added with a smile. \u201cSo I love having that tool too.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Reeve not only gets to continue coaching Williams to an All-Star level with the Lynx, but will be able to do so in the All-Star Game itself. Reeve and New York Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello<\/a> were announced as the games coaches on July 3, as their teams were in first and second place in the league standings respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI had this discussion recently that these are first-world problems.,\u201d Reeve said when asked about coaching in the game instead of having some rare time off during the season. \u201cHow dare I for a second think that this isn\u2019t a tremendous honor [for] our team doing this, and that\u2019s the space I\u2019m in. I\u2019m excited to join Phee and hopefully other Lynx players. No question about it, you cannot ever take these things for granted, so it\u2019s a great honor.\u201d<\/p>\n Reeve\u2019s status as head coach of the team with the league\u2019s best record slotted her in to coach Team Clark, as Clark was the only player to earn more votes than Collier. When asked about the possibility of coaching against Collier, Reeve didn\u2019t hesitate to place her faith in the future GM abilities of her star player.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s transacting that can happen,\u201d Reeve said. \u201cThat\u2019s happened before.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Tune in to Locked On Women\u2019s Basketball<\/strong><\/p>\n Here at The Next, in addition to the 24\/7\/365 written content our staff provides, we also host the daily Locked On Women\u2019s Basketball<\/a> podcast. Join us Monday through Saturday each week as we discuss all things WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball history and much more. Listen wherever you find podcasts or watch on YouTube.<\/p>\n Collier made an All-Star Draft day deal with Clark to swap head coaches in the game, and used her first overall pick in the pool of reserves on Williams. When the first injury replacement for this year\u2019s game was needed for Atlanta\u2019s Rhyne Howard<\/a>, Engelbert appointed Kayla McBride<\/a> to take her place on Team Collier. The selection marked McBride\u2019s second-consecutive All-Star appearance as a Lynx, the fifth of her career and first time she gets to be All-Star teammates with Collier (they squared off against each other in last year\u2019s USA vs All-Star format with Collier on the Olympic team).\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an honor, I\u2019m very fortunate for this group and this organization,\u201d McBride said after Minnesota\u2019s final game before All-Star weekend on July 16. \u201cIt hits different here, just the camaraderie and the chemistry and the love that I have for the people in our locker room, my teammates, the coaching staff, and so that we get to all do this together, Cheryl as the coach, Phee and Court, T (Natisha Hiedeman<\/a>) our fellow StudBud, it\u2019s really cool to do this together because that\u2019s what the season\u2019s about.\u201d<\/p>\n McBride, currently in the middle of her 12th season, echoed Reeve\u2019s stance to never take these opportunities for granted.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really special, and like I said, as you get older, they get a little bit more special because you never know how many you\u2019re going to get,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you\u2019re 23 you don\u2019t think, \u2018oh this might be my last one,\u2019 but when you\u2019re 33, you do. I\u2019m really fortunate and I just have a lot of love for this organization for believing in me, for Cheryl, and so to be able to do it alongside them it\u2019s really, really special. So I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite making it to 100% of the All-Star games that have been available to her, there\u2019s one honor…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":73467,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[51374,233,23136,2207,5616,5614,1519,2336,27272,1521,51375,62,23135,67,132,68,232,2335,51169],"class_list":{"0":"post-73466","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-2025-wnba-all-star-game","9":"tag-caitlin-clark","10":"tag-cathy-engelbert","11":"tag-cheryl-reeve","12":"tag-courtney-williams","13":"tag-kayla-mcbride","14":"tag-minnesota-lynx","15":"tag-napheesa-collier","16":"tag-natisha-hiedeman","17":"tag-rhyne-howard","18":"tag-seimone-augustus","19":"tag-sports","20":"tag-sylvia-fowles","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-unitedstates","23":"tag-us","24":"tag-wnba","25":"tag-wnba-all-star","26":"tag-wnba-all-star-weekend"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114875950966858296","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73466"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73466\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73467"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The Next and The IX, released his latest book on May 7, 2024. This deeply reported story follows four connected generations of women\u2019s basketball pioneers, from Elvera \u201cPeps\u201d Neuman to Cheryl Reeve and from Lindsay Whalen to Sylvia Fowles and Paige Bueckers.<\/p>\n
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The Next<\/a>: A basketball newsroom brought to you by The IX<\/a>. 24\/7\/365 women\u2019s basketball coverage, written, edited and photographed by our young, diverse staff and dedicated to breaking news, analysis, historical deep dives and projections about the game we love.<\/p>\n![\"Locked](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/1752867792_611_locked-on-wbb-ad.png\")
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