Can Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier have it all? - ESPN

MINNEAPOLIS — NAPHEESA COLLIER is deep in negotiations, and her opponent doesn't want to budge. The Minnesota Lynx forward knows the deadline is looming. She has one more bargaining chip to play.

She holds out a tendril of string cheese.

Collier's 3-year-old daughter, Mila, is on the other side of the standoff — plopped down in the middle of their apartment, unwilling to put on her sneakers. A consensus for her outfit came easily. But the shoes require a better deal.

Mila eyes the offer. After a long pause — the kind of toddler silence that means power is shifting — she takes the cheese. The shoes go on, and they file into Collier's black Range Rover.

Inside the car, the opening bars of the «Mulan» soundtrack start to play. Mila is singing before they've left the garage. Collier hums along — for a moment — before the playlist pivots to something a little more her speed. From the backseat, Mila objects loudly.

«We're working on sharing,» Collier says, smiling.

And so begins Collier's daily toggle between her many roles: mother to Mila, franchise player for the Lynx, vice president of the WNBA Players Association, and co-founder of Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 league she's building with Breanna Stewart.

This summer, as Collier attempts to lead the Lynx back to the WNBA Finals — this time as the league MVP favorite — she's also helping to lead the most important contract negotiations in the league's history. The current collective bargaining agreement, which the players opted out of in October, expires at the end of the season. The conversations are high stakes and layered. But as the two sides push toward a new deal, one thing is clear: Players have more leverage than ever before.

Part of that comes from the league Collier helped