Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier has been named the 1st ever MVP of the Unrivaled league, following a dominant regular season showing.
Averaging 25.7pts/10.6reb per game, Collier has been on a tear this winter, taking home the midseason 1 on 1 tournament title, and leading the league in scoring. As a result, she and her Lunar Owl teammates earned the top seed in the league heading into the playoffs, with a 13-1 record.
Not only has the team been winning, they’ve been dominating opponents all season long. The Lunar Owls scored nearly 200 more points than their next closest competitor, the Mist, and have a +170 scoring differential across 14 games. For comparison sake, the 2nd place Rose team have the league’s next best mark at +34.
Collier co-founded the 3v3 women’s league alongside New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart as a way to carry forward the momentum of women’s basketball following a record setting season in terms of attendance and viewership in the WNBA.
The 28 year old won defensive player of the year honours with the Lynx in 2024, and finished as the runner-up for WNBA MVP honours as well. Collier was named to her 2nd straight All-WNBA 1st team, and earned her 2nd career gold medal at the Paris Olympics last summer as well.
Her strong on court play helped guide the Lynx to the WNBA finals, where they would eventually lose a heartbreaking series to Unrivaled co-founder Breanna Stewart’s Liberty. When all was said and done, Collier became the first player in the league to lead a single playoff run in points (285), rebounds (107), steals (25), and blocks (23).
The Lunar Owls will take on the Vinyl in an 8:30pm ET showdown in the semi finals on Sunday night.
Photo: Lorie Shaull. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.