Napheesa Collier admits criticism of WNBA, leadership under Cathy Engelbert was 'a little dramatic'

The 2026 WNBA season will begin on May 8, a welcome sight after concerns over a possible delay during extended negotiations about a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) in the offseason.

While she was not alone in her critique, Minnesota Lynx star and WNBA Players Association vice president Napheesa Collier was among the more vocal players about what her peers deserved and the changes that needed to come to the league. She had a viral exit interview after the 2025 season ended, in which she made very public criticisms of the league and its leadership under commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

Collier didn’t hold back, reading a prepared statement, saying that the league was “tone-deaf,” “dismissive,” and concerned more with “control and power” than the players in the league. Collier opened her press conference with a four-minute statement of the state of the league, adding, “Right now, we have the worst leadership in the world.”

On May 6, NPR released a sit-down interview with Collier. Overall, she discussed her new contract, the upcoming season and her future in basketball, but she also took a second to reflect on the negotiations and her comments from last fall.

When NPR reminded her that she had accused the WNBA of having “the worst leadership in the world,” Collier reframed her opinion, saying, “Thinking about the state of the world right now, I think that’s a little dramatic.”

The Lynx center went on to add, “I think it was something that needed to happen, and it was something that furthered our CBA [collective bargaining agreement] negotiations.”