Lynx Star Napheesa Collier Gives Candid Opinion on Fever WNBA Broadcast Supremacy
The national TV broadcast schedule for the 2025 WNBA regular season was announced on March 20, and it conveyed that 41 of the Indiana Fever's 44 2025 regular season games would be broadcast on national TV.
According to the Fever's March 20 press release, "With all but three games airing nationally, the total marks a franchise high for most national TV games in Fever history as well as the most for a single team in WNBA history."
Fever fans are feeling great about this historic announcement. However, other fans around the league have expressed contempt about the Fever getting more nationally televised games than other teams, particularly the defending champion New York Liberty (who have 32 nationally broadcast games) and the Las Vegas Aces (who have 33).
Napheesa Collier, star forward for the Minnesota Lynx (who have 21 nationally televised games in 2025), made a March 24 appearance on ESPN's First Take. And at one point, she got honest about the Fever's broadcast supremacy.
"Um... I think it's two things," Collier said when Molly Qerim asked if it's fair that the Fever have more nationally televised games than the Liberty. "I mean, obviously, people want to watch Caitlin [Clark] play, and so you have to put people on TV that people want to see. But at the same time... to not have the defending champs on TV more, I think it's kind of crazy.
"It doesn't have to be where you're taking games away from Indiana, but I think you can raise the level of TV games for the other teams as well," Collier added.
When Stephen A. Smith asked why this was an issue, Collier said, "I don't think it's an issue. I do think Caitlin is a star, and like I said, people want to see her... you need to put on TV the players that people want to see.
"But kind of what I said before, I don't think raising the level of the other teams has to mean bringing down Caitlin or the Indiana Fever. They should have those amount of games on TV, on primetime, but I think other teams should also have more than what they have," Collier continued.
Napheesa Collier weighs in on whether the Indiana Fever should have 41 games Nationally Televised. pic.twitter.com/fb6DpDJ1FI
— Ken Swift (@kenswift) March 25, 2025
There's surely more discussions to be had about the Fever leading the WNBA in this way.
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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.