As career of Lynx legend Seimone Augustus is honored, so is her legacy in leadership

Napheesa Collier came into the WNBA as a rookie in 2019, Seimone Augustus’ final year with the Lynx.

Collier was, in her own words, like a baby bird. Everything new, knowing nothing about the league. “You need help with everything,” she said.

And she got it.

Saturday’s game against Los Angeles at Target Center is also a celebration of Augustus’ induction into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. It has brought the former Lynx great back to the Twin Cities, along with other former Lynx players and teammates, many of whom watched the team practice Friday.

It is a time to celebrate the four WNBA championships Augustus was a part of, the dynasty she helped create from the ground floor up. But maybe it should also be a time to celebrate the lasting impact she had on a current Lynx team looking to build something of their own.

The Lynx are 9-1 in their first 10 games of the 2025 season, a monthlong MVP campaign for Collier, who leads the league in scoring (25.2 points per game), is shooting better than 50% from the floor overall, 40% on threes and 90% from the free-throw line. She grabs nearly nine rebounds a game and is the reigning WNBA Defensive Player of the Year.

Perhaps as importantly, she is an inclusive leader, a team-first player. Humble, as coach Cheryl Reeve said, almost beyond belief. Any of that sound familiar? What better way to carry on the Lynx legacy?

“In your later years you get ready to leave and the new talent comes in,” Augustus said. “You have to embrace it. We knew Phee was going to be the face [of the team]. She won rookie of the year my last year here. She was going to carry the torch. So we had to show her how we led.”

Friday, Collier remembered how she never paid for anything as a rookie. It was always Augustus, or center Sylvia Fowles. They took Collier under their wings. Any time she had a question, Augustus had answers. Off they court, they hung out together.

“That’s leadership,” Collier said. “She probably didn’t want to hang out with a rookie. But as a leader she knows that chemistry built off the court is what makes you great on the court. She’s the one who taught me that. I remember how that made me feel. Our team now is great. We hang out all the time. We play for each other so much. It’s why we’re so resilient. That’s a lesson I learned.”

Augustus, meanwhile, saw greatness in Collier from the moment the UConn rookie walked into practice. She saw maturity, the ability to listen.

“She would just watch myself and Syl come and lead the team, how we would go about our business,” Augustus said. “I knew her level of play would increase. It was only a matter of time. And this is her time.”

Reeve recalls Augustus and Fowles sharing careers’ worth of knowledge with the rookie.

“They knew, like instantly,” Reeve said, snapping her fingers. “They knew she was next. And so Seimone and Syl poured their knowledge into Phee. The journey of being a great player is something Seimone lived with us. And she was able to, then, interpret those things to Phee.”

Augustus was already with the Lynx when Reeve was hired to coach for the 2010 season, hungry to learn what it took to win at the highest level. By the end of the following season, the Lynx were WNBA champs for the first time.

Augustus made her first WNBA Finals in her sixth season and was the Finals MVP. Collier and the Lynx returned to the finals last fall, also her sixth season, and Collier was the playoffs’ best player on a team that came an overtime away from a fifth league championship.

The aim for this team is to return and finish the job. That will be on Collier’s mind when she takes the floor Saturday. When great former players are being honored, you want to make them proud, Collier said.

Turns out they already are.

“She’s done a great job,” Augustus said. “I see all the same stuff. The same chants, the same cheers. The same everything. She’s done a tremendous job of keeping our tradition and legacy.”