Cheryl Reeve Addresses Notion Napheesa Collier is Below A'ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart
The Minnesota Lynx will be tipping off against the New York Liberty for Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Thursday.
There's no doubt that Minnesota and New York have been the league's two best teams throughout this season. Not only were these two squads the top two seeds in the WNBA standings after the regular season concluded, but they also faced off in the 2024 WNBA Commissioner's Cup final (which the Lynx won).
While New York boasts what may be the league's most star-studded roster, the Lynx have reached this point with a deep, well-rounded core of players that have been coached to near-perfection by Cheryl Reeve.
However, that's not to say that Minnesota doesn't have its own superstar. It certainly does with Napheesa Collier.
Despite finishing second in the 2024 WNBA MVP voting, Collier might be the league's most underrated player. And given her extraordinary performance throughout these playoffs, many fans now believe she deserved some first-place votes for the MVP award, which would have negated A'ja Wilson winning the award unanimously.
Regardless of how the mainstream media or WNBA fans regard her, Collier's coach Cheryl Reeve made it clear in an October 10 article from SB Nation's Noa Dalzell that the former UConn Husky deserves to be deemed among the league's most elite.
“People always kind of go, ‘she’s good, but she’s not quite A’ja Wilson or Brianna Stewart.’ That’s what everybody thinks, right?” Reeve said in the article. “But she’s coming. She’s working hard to change that narrative. She doesn’t really care what people think — I do.”
NEW: Cheryl Reeve believes Napheesa Collier is one of the most marketable athletes in all of sports.
— Noa Dalzell 🏀 (@NoaDalzell) October 10, 2024
"People always kind of go, ‘she’s good, but she’s not quite A’ja Wilson or Brianna Stewart.’ That’s what everybody thinks, right? But she’s coming."https://t.co/HRvSqCBklK
If she isn't already, Collier will become undeniable in this conversation if she can defeat Stewart and the New York Liberty in the 2024 WNBA Finals.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.