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The Minnesota Lynx held their exit interviews Tuesday morning, an end-of-season tradition where players typically reflect on their season and discuss plans for the offseason.
However, considering the chaos that unfolded for the Lynx in their semifinal defeat against the Phoenix Mercury, which was defined by a controversial play that left Napheesa Collier injured in Game 3 and head coach Cheryl Reeves being ejected, fined, and suspended for the way she took aim at league officials and leadership, there was much for the Lynx to discuss.
Another pressing issue that hung over the interview session was the upcoming Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations between the league and players’ union, with the current CBA set to expire at the end of October. The question of player compensation lingered throughout the 2025 season, with players fighting for increased pay as the WNBA continues to grow.
Collier used her exit interview as a platform to air out her grievances with WNBA leadership, particularly commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Collier took aim at Engelbert on a number of issues, including a lack of accountability when it comes to league officiating and the question of fair player pay.
Collier said she had a conversation with Engelbert at an Unrivaled game and questioned the commissioner on these issues. Collier said she specifically asked Engelbert about why the WNBA’s young stars make so little when they’ve become huge revenue generators for the league, and the response she received was a revealing look at the mentality of the league’s governing body.
Napheesa Collier said she had a conversation with WNBA president Cathy Engelbert and she asked about young players in the WNBA making lower salaries. She said Cathy told her Caitlin Clark should be grateful for the WNBA because the league is responsible for her sponsorship deals.
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“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,” Collier said (via Lynx).
“Her response was that ‘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 that ‘players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deals that I got them.'”
Clark is obviously the biggest name attached to the women’s basketball world and is one of the reasons that the WNBA has experienced such massive growth. Across merchandise sales, ticket sales and television, Clark was responsible for over a quarter of the WNBA’s entire revenue in 2024 and was projected to earn the league up to $1 billion in 2025 by finance expert Ryan Brewer.
Yet, Clark’s four-year rookie contract with the Indiana Fever totals to just over $338,000, and she was paid just $78,000 for the 2025 season.
Glaring disparities such as this are at the heart of what the players have been fighting for. What Collier reported Engelbert’s comments to reveal an incredibly hostile response from the WNBA to the idea of increased pay for players and a sense of entitlement over not only what players earn on the court, but what they make off of it from sponsorships and endorsement deals.
At the same time, Collier says that the league puts no investment in protecting its product, the games, or its producers, the players, from shoddy refereeing that has, in several cases, led to injury.
“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,” Collier said. “The league believes it succeeds despite its players, not because of them.”
