This WNBA profile may result in fines, but that doesn’t seem to concern Napheesa Collier.
“I can talk about whatever I want to talk about,” the 29-year-old Minnesota Lynx player said during our Zoom call ahead of this year’s post-season playoffs. And she did.
When convincing nonsporty friends to join me at Los Angeles Sparks games, I sell them the WNBA as the greatest reality show on television. I fill them in on the bitter rivalries and epic love stories that evolve as players are abruptly traded to and from teams, regularly facing off against sisters, partners, and so-called sworn enemies week after week. Some fans might call that a disservice to the sport, arguing that conversations around the league are far too focused on drama and not enough on the game of basketball. Indiana Fever guard Lexie Hull doesn’t necessarily agree.
“I feel like we’re performers,” the 26-year-old says. “You hear fans on both sides of the spectrum: ‘Oh, just go out and play basketball. We don’t need all of that.’ And then you have other fans saying, ‘We love the trash talk. We love the rivalries.’ You’re always going to have people disagreeing. People need to understand that that’s okay.”
No matter the reason for watching, all eyes were on the WNBA this summer. Even with the league’s most financially impactful player, Caitlin Clark, out with an injury for part of the season, the WNBA still delivered its most-watched regular season ever on ESPN after last year’s unprecedented 170% increase. Overall, it was the WNBA’s highest-viewed season on ESPN, with the postseason up 5% year over year. Teams that were purchased for low millions have reportedly surpassed $300 million valuations in four years. The Golden State Valkyries, a brand-new expansion team with no traditional star player, sold out all its regular season home games while setting the all-time WNBA record for average attendance and total fans—and two more expansion teams will be added to the roster in 2026.
On an individual level, more and more players were securing brand deals, launching podcasts, and releasing signature shoes, with Reebok’s Angel Reese 1s selling out all three colorways within hours. A number of WNBA players attended this year’s Met Gala, while rookie Paige Bueckers recently scored a spot on the Time100 list of most influential rising stars. In 2025, “Everyone Watches Women’s Sports” is starting to feel less like a rallying cry and more like a given, especially when it comes to the W.
“This is the best women’s league in the world for a reason,” says 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones, now of the New York Liberty. “The best athletes and the best competition, and people are seeing that now…It’s time that we’re paid like that.”
This level of visibility couldn’t have come at a better time for a group of players in the midst of contentious negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA). Among other things, the Women’s National Basketball Player’s Association (WNBPA) spent the season fighting for a stronger contract that would grant players a higher percentage of the league’s revenue as opposed to fixed salary increases alone.
In short, the world is paying attention but players are still making more money outside the W, whether that’s through sponsorships, playing overseas, or joining Unrivaled, the three-on-three player league cofounded by Collier and New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart, which was created to grant players an option to make more money in the States during the off-season than many of them do in the WNBA.
For the record, Hull claims she makes “double to triple” in Unrivaled what she does in the W, with 50% to 75% of her income coming from endorsements. Meanwhile, Phoenix Mercury’s Satou Sabally tells me she pays out of pocket for off-season training, which she says can eat up 20% or more of a player’s paycheck.
“We are being so grossly almost taken advantage of, and it should be illegal,” Collier tells me of the current deal, which caps a maximum base salary for a player around $250,000—a number reserved for a small group of longtime vets.
“The amount of money that Caitlin Clark has made the league is insane, and she’s getting 0% of it because we have no rev share,” Collier says. “She gets less than $80,000 a year, and she’s bringing in, like, hundreds of millions of dollars. It’s insane.”
It does sound insane, doesn’t it? “Pay Us What You Owe Us” became the players’ mantra as the most prominent figures in the league stepped onto the court for July’s All-Star Game in their matching black T-shirts emblazoned with those words.
“Pay them!” chants were directed at WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert in the arena.
But online, players continue to receive backlash for calling for a higher share in revenue or what they feel are safer working conditions, such as more rest time between games on opposite coasts. Many players were accused of complaining too much in press conferences, rehashing the same tired arguments that these women don’t deserve as much respect as their male counterparts.
“Which woman has ever spoken up for her rights and never received backlash?” asks Sabally, who went viral this summer for slamming back-to-back schedules amid the increase from 40 to 44 regular season games. “I’m okay with people criticizing me or even saying that I’m a cry baby…. I understand critics have their own opinion and they have the right to do so, but they’re simply wrong.”
But loud though they are, unqualified internet trolls aren’t the only ones critiquing the ways these women are making their case. For example, following a particularly friendly All-Star game, three-time WNBA champion Candace Parker suggested the league’s stars should’ve played harder to “maximiz[e] the moment.” Instead, she argued, their playful scrimmage was a wasted opportunity to show off their product.
Collier respectfully disagrees. “We could not go hard in that game because you’re adding another game to our already packed season where people are dropping flies,” she responds, pointing out the injuries that plagued so many players ahead of the supposed All-Star “break,” including Sabally and Clark, who had to bow out after earning their spots.
Just days ahead of the CBA deadline on October 31, a WNBA spokesperson told Glamour that the league “agrees with the players” regarding salary and revenue increases, though they did not go into specifics.
“As the WNBA has stated repeatedly, we agree with the players that they deserve to be paid more and, importantly, to participate in the success and growth of the league by sharing in revenue,” the rep said in a statement. “The comprehensive proposal we provided to the Players Association includes both significant guaranteed salary cap increases and substantial uncapped revenue sharing that enables player salaries to grow as the league’s business grows.”
Terri Carmichael Jackson, executive director of the WNBPA, tells Glamour that talks are ongoing. “Our player leadership remains focused on meaningful progress,” Jackson says. “Whether a deal is reached by the deadline remains to be seen, but we’re prepared to keep doing the work until it is right. We’ll keep pushing until this league finally reflects the value of the women who make it run.”
By the end of the season, one of the biggest conversations regarding the WNBA revolved around what many saw as inconsistent officiating, which can arguably result in mixed messages about what level of physicality is allowed on the court. And yet if a player spoke up about it—or made a joke on social media—they’d be slapped with a fine from the league.
Hull seemed perplexed by this as an alarming number of season-ending injuries continued to pile up, sidelining five of her own Indiana Fever teammates before their unexpected—and frankly remarkable—playoff run. “We’re getting fined for saying things,” Hull tells me, while still healing from two black eyes from heavy on-court contact in mid-September. “Are [the referees] getting fined for making the wrong call?”
Yes and no. WNBA refs can be fined for a misapplication of the rules, but not for a missed foul call.
Hull’s suggestions for an officiating overhaul? A new batch of refs, intensive preseason training, and leaguewide accountability protocols. Unbeknownst to either of us, Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve would later be fined $15,000 after calling for a “change of leadership at the league level when it comes to officiating,” as well as having a heated on-court confrontation with a ref.
During game three of the Lynx’s semifinals matchup, Collier would suffer an ankle injury while making contact with Phoenix Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas. No call was made, and Reeve was ejected for her response. During a tense post-game press conference, she described the game’s officiating as “fucking malpractice.”
Along with that aforementioned fine, she was handed a one-game suspension that kept her away from her team’s final game of the series. Meanwhile, Indiana Fever coach Stephanie White and Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon reportedly earned fines for their own statements on the situation.
Before the playoffs, Collier told me she understands the motive behind the fines (“you don’t want people shitting on your business all the time”) but said the league is too sensitive, joking, “You can’t wear a hat, you can’t talk about the refs, you can’t do this, you can’t do that. We’re keeping the league afloat here because we keep giving all the money back.”
She wasn’t joking during her now viral exit interview, describing the league’s response to growing concerns as negligence and claiming commissioner Engelbert once deflected responsibility by telling her “only the losers complain about the refs.”
“We have the best players in the world; we have the best fans in the world,” Collier said in her speech on September 30. “But right now we have the worst leadership in the world.”
While Engelbert said during her postseason press conference on October 3 that there was “a lot of inaccuracy about what I said or what I didn’t say,” she acknowledged the league has “not lived up to” players’ expectations regarding officiating, promising to establish a task force including “player voices and other stakeholders” to address concerns.
There’s no doubt the women of the WNBA deserve their fair share of the league’s current explosion after putting their bodies on the line and their personal lives on display for the sake of entertainment. Much of this year’s online discourse has grown particularly toxic, as many WNBA fans ruthlessly tear down players in the name of their faves, with many of these players experiencing a torrent of online and verbal abuse.
As fans and pundits fight amongst themselves, the players are able to leave any supposed beef on the court in order to lift each other up where it counts. “When we go into court, we’re trying to win by any means necessary,” Jones says. “But outside of that, we’re human beings.”
“Social media is a double-edged sword,” says Jones’s Liberty teammate Nyara Sabally, who removed X.com from her phone and blocked “everything basketball” on TikTok. “There’s also a really good side of it that shines so much light on the WNBA. One of the reasons we are able to ask for what we want [is because] there are eyes on the sport.”
At the end of the day, you can argue about the “face of the league” on X.com and Threads all you want, but it takes so much more than any one player to push the sport forward—and when it comes to the players highlighted in this year’s Women of the Year profile, each one of them represents a vital facet of the league that makes it so compelling to watch.
You’ve got Napheesa Collier, who exudes bravery, leading the charge on the fight for equal pay as a VP of the WNBPA and cofounder of the player-owned Unrivaled. Then there’s Lexie Hull, who personified grit and toughness as she battled for a playoff spot with two black eyes and a bloody lip while multiple Fever starters were out with injuries.
New York Liberty’s Jonquel Jones embodies the combination of skill, authenticity, and style that makes WNBA players so popular at this moment, while sisters Satou and Nyara Sabally serve as a regular reminder of what it means to be a part of the WNBA sisterhood, hyping each other up and sharing clothes before facing off on the court.
“This honor is a testament to the extraordinary women who make up the WNBA,” Engelbert said in a statement to Glamour. “Their talent, courage, and unwavering commitment to growing the game of women’s basketball are what makes the league so special.”
The reality is, there are roughly 156 faces of the WNBA—and the league needs every single one of them. Below, meet five remarkable players being honored as Glamour 2025 Women of the Year.
Napheesa Collier
In less than four years, Collier had a baby, won Olympic gold, and cofounded a women’s sports league worth $340 million. Now she’s the face of the WNBA’s fight for fair pay—and she’s not taking no for an answer. Read her cover story here.
Lexie Hull
The Indiana Fever guard took plenty of hits for her team in their run for the playoffs. But her loyalties extend beyond Gainbridge Fieldhouse. Read her cover story here.
Jonquel Jones
When the 2024 WNBA Finals MVP climbed the famed Met Gala steps in her custom Sergio Hudson suit, she had one goal in mind: “Move through that space like I belong, because I do.” Read her cover story here.
Satou and Nyara Sabally
After representing Germany at the 2024 Olympics, the Sabally sisters went back to wearing separate jerseys in the States—and prepared for their first “serious” face-off in the 2025 playoffs. Read their cover story here.
Stylist: Savannah White @savwhite
Hair (Jonquel Jones + Nyara Sabally): Andrita Renee @andrita
Hair (Napheesa Collier): Whitney Parker @beautybywhitneymichelle
Hair (Lexie Hull): Dee Lanee @dee.laneehair
Hair (Satou Sabally): Rain Gregory @2by2artistry
Makeup (Jonquel Jones + Nyara Sabally): Sena Murahasi @ittts_sena
Makeup (Napheesa Collier): Diamond Strowder @diamondjaymua
Makeup (Lexie Hull): Anne Marie Lausten @aml_esthetics
Makeup (Satou Sabally): Diane Aeillo @diane_aiello
Production in, NYC: Area1202 @area1202
Production, Minnesota: Carrie Thompson @carrielittlebit
Production, Indianapolis: Lizzie Bernard @nunya.lizness
Production, Phoenix: Emily Ullrich @emilyjeanullrich
Special Thanks: Sabathani Community Center @sccmpls , Jack Kahn @whoisjackkahn
Lead photo fashion credits:
On Napheesa Collier: AnOnlyChild coat; Aldo boots; Alexis Bittar necklace; Gorjana necklace; Jenny Bird ring and earrings. On Jonquel Jones: Shirt: Melitta Baumeister shirt; Helsa pants; Nike shoes, Mociun and Awe Inspired bracelets; Mociun necklaces; personal scarf. On Nyara Sabally: Michael Kors dress, jacket, and belt; Sam Edelman shoes; Catbird and personal jewelry. On Lexie Hull: Ami pants; Helmut Lang bodysuit; Jimmy Choo shoes; Jenny Bird jewelry. On Satou Sabally: Sportmax shirt and pants; Stuart Weitzman shoes; Spanx tank; Agmes ring; Jenny Bird earrings.