A while before the Lynx hosted Connecticut at Target Center on Sunday night, the WNBA announced that Lynx star Napheesa Collier would make her fifth appearance in an All-Star Game but her first as a team captain.
“It’s really cool,” Collier said before warming up for the game. “I went from never being a starter to captain.”
But seriously: Indiana’s Caitlin Clark and Collier, who finished 1-2 in the voting, will both captain teams at the July 19 game in Indianapolis. Nobody should be surprised by Clark getting a league-high 1,293,526 votes, but it says something about Collier’s rising national profile that she finished second with 1,176,020.
Collier has improved every season since being Rookie of the Year in 2019, and her profile — aided, perhaps, by the Lynx’s WNBA Finals appearance last year and the success of the Unrivaled League she helped create — has reached a new level.
“It’s not just Minnesota fandom,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve said. “It’s across the country. It’s the general, broader supporters. She’s earned her spot.”
Collier entered Sunday’s game leading the league in scoring (24.5) while shooting 51.7% overall, 40.9% on three-pointers and 93.9% on free throws.
“It’s icing on the cake,” she said of being named an All-Star captain. “I definitely could not do it without my teammates, coaches, training staff.”
But she indicated it’s not as important as the Lynx’s desire to get to the WNBA Finals again and this time emerge with a title.
