Napheesa Collier Isn't Thrilled About Geno Auriemma's Breanna Stewart Favoritism

The UConn Huskies' legendary women's basketball coach Geno Auriemma has helped develop more world-class basketball players than just about anybody in history.

Many of the WNBA's past and current greats played under Auriemma at UConn; many of whom helped contribute to the 11 NCAA National Championships Auriemma has won in his 39 seasons of coaching there.

Two of these superstars are Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, who were teammates at UConn and went on to become co-founders of the new Unrivaled Women's Basketball League.

While Stewart and Collier have been past teammates and are current business partners, they're also enemies on the court right now, as Stewart's New York Liberty and Collier's Minnesota Lynx are competing in perhaps the most thrilling WNBA Finals in the league's history.

Auriemma spoke with the media before Game 4 of the WNBA Finals on Friday and embarked on a passionate tirade about the two voters who didn't vote for Breanna Stewart as a First-Team All-WNBA honoree.

"I would like to meet the person that didn't vote Stewie as one of the top five players in the WNBA," Auriemma said, per X user @womensbasketb12. "I would love to know who that person is... There are people that stupid who are actually covering our game."

He then concluded his rant about people not voting Stewart for First-Team All-WNBA by saying, "I hope she gets 50 tonight."

posting the full clip here since people are allergic to critical thinking and research but when Geno said he hopes Stewie gets 50 it was specifically in reference to him feeling that she got slighted by the media member who didn’t vote her all-wnba first team. pic.twitter.com/Wgt3lWleLO
— womensbasketballfan (@womensbasketb12) October 20, 2024

Collier was asked about this during the Lynx's postgame press conference, with a reporter saying, "It was reported that Geno said he hoped Breanna got 50 tonight. I was just wondering if, between the two of you, having his players in the series... who's he rooting for?"

"Well it sounds like he's rooting for them," Collier responded. "He didn't text that to me."

"Some Husky drama. Go Irish," Collier's teammate Kayla McBride responded.

Phee was asked about this 💀 https://t.co/EV97rPYsh6 pic.twitter.com/UT6c2AO13B
— Vanshay Murdock 🎥🎥 (@VanshayM) October 19, 2024

To reiterate, Auriemma didn't text his message to Stewart; he said it to the media when asked about Stewart not being a unanimous selection for First-Team All-WNBA this season.

But perhaps Lynx fans shouldn't tell that to Collier so she can use her former coach's words as motivation in Game 5.