Napheesa Collier’s injury was inevitable, preventable. That’s on WNBA

Maybe now the WNBA will listen.

For years, players and coaches have been warning that the physicality of the game has gotten out of hand. That the officiating has not kept pace with the size, strength and pace of the WNBA game, and it’s taking a toll on both the players and the product. If the league didn’t step in, if it continued to settle for sub-par officiating, somebody was going to get hurt.

Well, now somebody has. And not just anybody. One of the biggest names in the game. In one of the biggest games of the season.

Napheesa Collier, runner-up for MVP each of the last two seasons, “probably has a fracture” after a collision with Alyssa Thomas late in the demolition derby, err, Game 3 between the Minnesota Lynx and the Phoenix Mercury on Friday night. A series that was already chippy went off the rails, with Collier leaving the floor limping and in tears, and coach Cheryl Reeve having to be held back by her assistants and guard Natisha Hiedeman before being ejected.  

“If this is what our league wants, OK. But I want to call for a change of leadership at the league level when it comes to officiating,” Reeve said after the game, her fury palpable.

“It’s bad for the game. The officiating crew that we had tonight, for the leadership to deem those three people semifinals playoff-worthy is f—ing malpractice.”

This is not sour grapes. This is not Reeve whining because her team, the No. 1 seed, is on the verge of elimination after Friday night’s 84-76 loss in the semifinals.

This is about player safety. And the WNBA not giving a damn about it.

USA TODAY Sports sent an email requesting comment to three people in the WNBA. None of them responded.

The W is a physical league. Always has been. But as players have gotten stronger, as the game has gotten faster and more intense, the physicality has skyrocketed. It is not uncommon to see players with black eyes or bruises from a run-of-the-mill game during the regular season, and there is a reason why rookies head straight for the weight room as soon as their first season is over.

The W’s dirty little secret became a national firestorm last season, with Caitlin Clark’s arrival in the league. Her fans were horrified at how much she got bumped and shoved and jostled, howling that she was being targeted when, in reality, every other W player was experiencing the same thing.

That doesn’t make it right. But W players are as competitive as any other elite-level athletes, and they’ll take things as far as they can unless officials step in.

And therein lies the problem. The officials haven’t. Whether that’s because of incompetence or ineffectiveness, the result is the same. The W has become the Wild West, and the physicality has reached a point where it’s not safe.

“Most of my assistants come from the NBA and they’re like, `This would not fly in the NBA. This level of physicality would not fly in the NBA. There would be fights,'” Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon, previously a longtime assistant with the San Antonio Spurs, said after Game 2.

It’s a wonder there wasn’t Friday. Beyond Reeve’s ejection, Lynx and Mercury players were jawing at each other like boxers before a weigh-in.

“We talked about how dangerous it can be,” Reeve said. “You’re hearing it from the other series. You’re hearing other coaches — you’re hearing Becky talk about when you let the physicality happen, people get hurt, there’s fights. And this is the look that our league wants for some reason.”

Unlike the NBA, which has a season that is twice as long, W officials are not full-time. The W has defended its officiating, saying officials are monitored by the league office and corrections are made throughout the season.

But watch any game, and you’ll quickly see the officiating wouldn’t cut it at the college level, let alone for a professional league.

Collier is the focal point of both Minnesota’s offense and defense and, as such, is rarely left unguarded. She’s got at least one player in her face almost every second she’s on the court, grabbing her, bumping her, slapping at her arms and hands. Same for MVP A’ja Wilson.

Yet Collier and Wilson had one free throw between the two of them Friday night. That’s right. The two players who touch the ball most and draw the most attention from their opponents drew a grand total of one foul over the 75 total minutes they were on the court.

Make that make sense.

“They told me not to say anything, but you know I can’t,” Hammon said when she pointed it out.

And this doesn’t even get into the boneheaded mistakes officials routinely make, like ignoring an expired shot clock in the first round, and the excruciatingly long time it takes to review calls.

The WNBA has a long history of both short-changing its players and cutting corners with league operations. (This is a league that had only one marketing person as recently as 2019 and did not have a CMO until 2020.) As interest in the league explodes and its spotlight increases, the WNBA has to start acting like a top-tier professional league. It can start by fixing its amateur officiating.

And apologizing to Collier, whose injury was both preventable and inevitable.

Follow USA TODAY Sports columnist Nancy Armour on social media @nrarmour.