By Jim Shimabukuro (assisted by Grok)
Editor
Introduction: Napheesa Collier delivered her prepared statement during the Minnesota Lynx’s end-of-season exit interviews on September 30, 2025, at Target Center in Minneapolis. The remarks, which lasted approximately 4 minutes and 23 seconds, were made in response to questions about officiating and player safety but expanded into a broader critique of WNBA leadership, including Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. While no single source provides a 100% verbatim line-by-line transcript (as the event was primarily captured in video form across media outlets), the following is a complete reconstruction based on direct quotes compiled from contemporaneous reporting. It represents the entirety of her opening statement before transitioning to Q&A. -Grok
The Compiled Transcript
This conversation is not about winning or losing. It’s about something much bigger. The real threat to our league isn’t money. It isn’t ratings or even missed calls or even physical play. It’s a lack of accountability from the league office.
Since I’ve been in the league, you’ve heard the constant concerns about officiating, and it has now reached levels of inconsistency that plague our sport and undermine the integrity in which it operates. Whether the league cares about the health of the players is one thing, but to also not care about the product we put on the floor is truly self-sabotage. Year after year [or year to year], the only thing that remains consistent is a lack of accountability from our leaders. The league has a buzzword that they’ve rolled out as talking points for the CBA as to why they can’t pay the players what we’re worth, and that word is sustainability. But what’s truly unsustainable is keeping a good product on the floor while allowing officials to lose control of games.
Fans see it every night. Coaches, both winning and losing, point it out every night in pregame and postgame media, yet leadership just issues fines and looks the other way. They ignore the issues that everyone inside the game is begging to be fixed. That is negligence.
Our leadership’s answer to being held accountable is to suppress everyone’s voices by handing out fines. I’m not concerned about the fine. I’m concerned about the future of our sport. We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world, but right now, we have the worst leadership in the world. We serve a league that has shown they think championship coaches and Hall of Fame players are dispensable, and that’s fine. It’s professional sports. But I will not stand quietly by and allow different standards to be applied at the league level.
I’m sure that they will fine me. I mean, it seems like anything with free speech is fined now.
[Regarding a private conversation with Commissioner Engelbert:] Her response was, ‘Well, only the losers complain about the refs.’ I also asked how she planned to fix the fact that players like Caitlin [Clark], Angel [Reese] and Paige [Bueckers], who are clearly driving massive revenue for the league, are making so little for their first four years. Her response was, ‘Caitlin should be grateful. She makes 16 million off the court because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything.’ In that same conversation, she told me, ‘Players should be on their knees, thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them.’ That’s the mentality driving our league from the top.
We go to battle every day to protect a shield that doesn’t value us. The league believes it succeeds despite its players, not because of them.
I have the privilege of watching my husband run a league where he has to balance 100 different things at once. I won’t pretend the job is easy, but even with all of that on his plate, he always takes the time to reach out to players when he sees an injury, whether it’s Unrivaled or even during the WNBA season. That is what leadership looks like. It’s the human element. It’s basic integrity, and it’s the bare minimum any leader should embody. But do you know who I haven’t heard from? Cathy. Not one call, not one text.
Instead, the only outreach has come from her number two, telling my agent that she doesn’t believe physical play is contributing to injuries. That is infuriating, and it’s the perfect example of the tone deaf, dismissive approach that our leaders always seem to take.
Just hearing over and over and over again, ‘We use the best refs in the world. We don’t have a problem. You know, none of the injuries are due to physicality in the way that we’re reffing.’ It’s an insult to my intelligence, honestly. I’ve played this game for my entire life, and you think that I don’t know what it looks like when it’s played, the way it’s supposed to be played? And whether the league believes it has a problem or not, just even acknowledging it to the players would be a step in the right direction. There is clearly a problem.
I think it’s time that people know what’s happening, the way that the league is not valuing us the way that we need to be valued. You know, a lot of us in leadership have seen that as we’re in these (CBA) negotiations. But you know, as time goes on and these things keep happening, I think it just is time for some of these things to come to light.
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