From the very first moment she stepped onto the WNBA court, Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier has never taken no for an answer.
She's a pro at tuning out the doubters. Six years into her WNBA career, the UConn product still believes she was the top prospect in the 2019 WNBA Draft. In fact, she went on to win that season's Rookie of the Year award despite the Lynx selecting her No. 6 overall. Secondly, after giving birth to her daughter Mila in May 2022, Collier showcased her ability to be both a mother and an elite professional athlete. She returned the following year, picking up her third WNBA All-Star nod while carrying the Lynx all season long.
And most recently, she reformed the business of women's basketball as the co-founder of Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball. The offseason league debuted to great success this past January.
So when a controversial foul call at the end of Game 5 of the 2024 Finals proved to be the final barrier between Collier and her first WNBA championship, she swore it would never happen to her again.
"To have it end that way, it feels super unjust," Collier told reporters last October, shortly after the Lynx lost to the New York Liberty. "I don't think that is something to get over."
Now, as a new season tips off, Collier is laser-focused on rewriting the narrative for the Lynx. But she's also making moves off the court, announcing today that she's joined the athlete roster at Jordan Brand. The Nike offshoot is building up its women's basketball footprint, currently supporting 12 WNBA players including Atlanta's Rhyne Howard and Las Vegas's Dana Evans.
For the 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, Jordan Brand represents an iconography of excellence. And it's one Michael Jordan himself explained to her this past winter.
"I'm really excited about everything that I saw from the outside," she told Just Women's Sports late last month. "But going through the pitch, learning what Jordan's about, just the way they exemplify greatness. It's something that I've always wanted be a part of."
"[Michael] Jordan, if you're a basketball player, just watching those games — the iconic red and black and white shoes that he wore — he was everywhere," she said of the brand's namesake NBA icon. "He's definitely still my idol."
Joining a basketball legacy at Jordan Brand
It might be too early to draw parallels between one of the greatest players of all time and a 28-year-old still growing into her full potential. But Collier's commitment to greatness does mirror His Airness.
Collier is aiming to win everything this year, from her first WNBA MVP award to her first championship with the Lynx. And it appears that the league is on board.
In this week's anonymous WNBA general manager survey, Minnesota was named most likely to win a title this season. And 67% of respondents tapped Collier for 2025 MVP — towering over three-time MVP A'ja Wilson's 25%.
Of course, it's no surprise. Collier is a wiry power forward with an unstoppable motor on both ends of the court. She has the ability to beat defenders off the dribble and a lethal fadeaway that gives opponents fits in the paint. And her balance only improves with every passing season.
Yet while experts key into Collier's rising form, they're also recognizing the fire that's been lit under Minnesota. After all, they're still convinced they were one foul call away from last year's WNBA title.
The Lynx clearly have a chip on their shoulder. And their job now is to make sure they use that as an asset, and not a liability.
"It's just the worst feeling — you don't want to feel like that again," Collier said of falling just short of the 2024 championship. "So use it to push you every day, where you're getting in the gym more than you were."
"It's just that little voice you hear when you're like, 'Okay, I'm tired,' or 'I don't have to lift today.' Or, you know, 'I shot yesterday. I don't have to shoot today,'" she continued. "It's that voice that's like, 'Well, do you want the same outcome or not?'"
Collier is making the change she wants to see
Growing up in Jefferson City, Missouri — also the hometown of retired Lynx legend and fellow Jordan Brand signee Maya Moore — Collier credits her parents for fostering her drive to create a future for herself that she hasn't always seen around her, both on and off the court.
It's a mentality that dates back to her earliest days in a pair of basketball sneakers. That's when her local youth team said they didn't have room on their roster for a young Collier discovering her love for the game.
"My parents were like, 'We'll make our own team," she recalled. "And that's what they did. They got girls from surrounding cities, and we created our own basketball team. And we ended up playing really well."
Decades later, Collier brought that same ingenuity to founding Unrivaled alongside old friend and fellow WNBA standout Breanna Stewart. And when it debuted in early 2025, the league's resounding impact sent shockwaves across the entire women's sports landscape.
"If you want to see a difference or make a change, why not just do it yourself?" Collier said. She and Stewart were done waiting for the higher-ups to capitalize on the potential they were seeing every day.
Unrivaled's timing couldn't have been better, with the 3×3 upstart riding women's basketball's "Caitlin Clark effect" wave in perfect harmony. But Unrivaled's success wasn't all the Indiana rookie's doing.
"We saw a need for something," she added. "It's something that we've been pushing for and fighting for for so long," she added, urging that women's sports's appeal, when given a platform, is undeniable. "People enjoy what we're doing, and now you see how excited people are over women's sports."
Minnesota's 2025 mantra: If it ain't broke, don't fix it
Today, Collier is leaving Unrivaled's day-to-day operations to her capable staff while she attends to unfinished business in the WNBA. The Lynx had a quieter offseason than many franchises this year, avoiding the many roster shakeups embraced across the league. In other words, if it ain't broke, don't fix it.
Collier is subsequently all in, noting that having an established core can give Minnesota an advantage. And that rings especially true as other teams scramble to put new puzzle pieces together.
"It's one of my favorite teams I've ever played on. Just the chemistry that we had from day one, the way that we were so there for each other," she said of the Lynx's personality-rich lineup. "It felt like college, honestly, where you create those bonds. You don't see that a lot in professional sports anymore."
The Lynx's training camp performances reflected that assertion. They've moved like a well-oiled machine with the ability to hit the ground running.
"We're doing things in day four of training camp that we were doing halfway through the season last year, just because everyone knows what's going on," Collier said.
That edge could be on full display in tonight's season-opener, as Minnesota takes on a revamped Dallas Wings before facing fresh rebuilds in LA and Connecticut.
Jordan Brand is striking while the WNBA iron is hot
Collier isn't giving herself much time to slow down. After playing with Unrivaled, she's jumping into this year's WNBA slate while also flexing her muscles with Jordan Brand. But she's also making time to appreciate the massive moment women's basketball is currently enjoying.
"I just feel really lucky to be able to say that I am living in this time. And get to play during this time," she said. "To see that change and to be a part of it, usually things like this happen so slowly over time. But when you see it happening in the blink of an eye, you can track the change."
No matter what this season holds, Collier will strive to embody everything that Jordan Brand hopes for in an athlete. That means a shrewd business sense, an understanding of what makes a team great, a competitive prowess, and that unwillingness to accept no for an answer as she pushes for even more progress.
"This partnership feels especially meaningful because it connects my performance on the court with impact that extends far beyond the game itself," Collier stated in Friday's press release, issued just hours before she's scheduled to hit the court in Heir Series sneakers.
"When young girls see that iconic silhouette, I want it to inspire them to aim higher than they thought possible."
