MEDLEY, Fla. — Napheesa Collier sat down for her final Unrivaled press conference, disappointed but not dejected.
After all, look at all she’s accomplished.
Collier co-founded the fast-paced, 3-on-3 women’s basketball league with fellow UConn great Breanna Stewart.
She won the Unrivaled 1-on-1 tournament and the grand prize of $200,000 last month. She even split $100,000 of the winnings with the training and performance staff and coaches on her team, while her four Lunar Owls teammates won $10,000 each after her big win.
She accepted the Unrivaled Most Valuable Player award before Sunday’s semifinal round of playoff games, after leading the league in several statistical categories and fueling the Lunar Owls to a league-best 13-1 record.
However, Unrivaled’s inaugural season won’t end with Collier capping the perfect season by hoisting the championship trophy.
Collier scored 36 points with eight rebounds, three assists and two blocks despite being questionable with a left ankle injury, but the No. 1 seed Lunar Owls fell 73-70 to the No. 4 seed Vinyl in the second of two semifinal games on Sunday.
The Vinyl will meet the No. 2 Rose in the Unrivaled championship game on Monday night at 8:30 p.m. ET, after Chelsea Gray scored a league-record 39 points to help the Rose advance past the No. 3 Laces 63-57 in the other semifinal.
“Just being with this team was a high. Our chemistry was great from the beginning. The way that we approached every day, so professional, how locked in we were. It was just a pleasure to be with this team,” Collier said after her Unrivaled season came to an end.
“Obviously, we want to take that into next year, but kind of just thinking about this for tonight.”
After winning gold with the U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team in Paris last summer, the 28-year-old Minnesota Lynx star won WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, before falling to Stewart and the New York Liberty in the WNBA Finals last October.
It would be too easy to add the Unrivaled playoff loss as another coming-up-short moment for Collier’s career recently.
The Lunar Owls led 62-52 after the third quarter of Sunday’s semifinal, needing to reach 73 points first to secure a rematch against the Rose – the only team to beat them at Unrivaled before Sunday’s loss to the Vinyl.
Lunar Owls standout Skylar Diggins-Smith, second behind Gray with five game-winning shots at Unrivaled, forced a three-point shot while trailing 71-70 on the club’s final offensive possession of the game.
Collier, Diggins-Smith and backup Courtney Williams were deadlocked behind the three-point line, trying to go for the win, while starter Allisha Gray left the game after suffering an injury.
Dearica Hamby scored the game-winning layup past Collier to end the game, Rhyne Howard finished with 23 points, and Jordin Canada scored 10 of her 21 points as the Vinyl outscored the Lunar Owls 21-8 in the final quarter.
“We should have never been in that position,” Unrivaled Coach of the Year DJ Sackmann said. “It’s really the whole quarter, not just that one opportunity.”
Added Collier: “Yeah, it’s a tough ending for us.”
Still, it’s not difficult to see what Collier has truly accomplished for the sport and what will set her apart from her peers when her career eventually ends.
Unrivaled has become an offseason alternative for women’s basketball players during the WNBA offseason. The Unrivaled players are partners and not employees, sharing ownership equity in the league. There’s no need for players to go overseas anymore to supplement their incomes.
Unrivaled also has pushed the envelope when it comes to improving the player experience, providing players with adequate facilities like a fully equipped weight room and training rooms – some of which they are not privy to in the WNBA.
Unrivaled is bullish on being sustainable operation, already shifting some focus to Year 2 from its centralized location at Mediapro Miami, a production studio about seven miles away from Miami International Airport.
“What we’ve provided the players, and we want to do even more in Year 2. We want to raise salaries, offer even more services, things like that,” Collier told USA TODAY Sports before the postseason.
Unrivaled commissioner Micky Lawler, the former president of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), praised Collier for her work co-founding the league while presenting her with the MVP trophy before Sunday’s semifinal games.
“Phee, you are the queen of the highest court in the land. That’s not only because for your remarkable achievements as a world-class top athlete, but also what you’ve co-created with Breanna Stewart,” Lawler said.
“What you’ve co-created has changed the trajectory for your fellow players, for every stakeholder in basketball, and every lover in basketball. Unrivaled is going to be a very important chapter in sports history. Congrats on being our amazing first MVP of Unrivaled.”
Collier, who was also named to the All-Unrivaled First Team earlier this week, believes she’s in the prime of her career. And her Unrivaled numbers prove she’s right.
Collier led Unrivaled with 25.7 points per game, a 61.3 shooting percent from the floor, 2.0 steals per game and shared the league-lead with Brittney Griner with 1.4 blocks per game. She was one of four players to average a double-double – joined by Stewart, Alyssa Thomas and Angel Reese – as her 10.6 rebounds ranked fourth in the league.
“I just have to say I wouldn’t be here without my team and my coaches,” Collier said as she accepted her MVP trophy.
“They pushed me every day to be my best … This is not a solo award. This is a team award, and I want to say, ‘Thank you’ to them.”
Instead of boasting about herself, Collier was quick to thank her teammates for their role in helping her win MVP.
Thinking about her peers is what fueled Collier to start Unrivaled.
And furthering the game of women’s basketball will be Collier’s everlasting mark – more than any win or loss – during her standout career.
“She’d be the first person to tell you she’s more focused for her team, but her team is also the league. She wants all the players to come out of here with a level of success. She wants all the players to get their shine and get their glory,” Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell, and Collier’s husband, told USA TODAY Sports.
“There’s nothing she’s going to do moving forward that’s going to make me more proud of what she’s already accomplished. She’s put her name on the line to build something that’s never been done before in the name of giving more resources and more compensation to her peers.”