Napheesa Collier Makes Unselfish Decision With $200,000 Unrivaled 1v1 Winnings
On February 14, Minnesota Lynx star Naphessa Collier won the first ever Unrivaled one-on-one tournament after defeating Aaliyah Edwards in the championship series.
Of course, Collier is one of the co-founders of Unrivaled (along with Breanna Stewart) and therefore knows first-hand how it has truly taken a village to get this new league up and running in Miami this year.
Collier received $200,000 as a result of her winning the one-on-one tournament. And according to a February 21 report from ESPN's Kendra Andrews, she has decided to distribute half of that money in a heartwarming way.
"Unrivaled co-founder and player Napheesa Collier is giving $100,000 -- half of her prize money for winning the league's first 1-on-1 tournament -- to her training and performance staff and assistant coaches working with her team, the Lunar Owls," Andrews' report wrote.
"Collier wanted to make sure she found a way to show appreciation to the staff members pouring hard work into her startup league, a source close to Unrivaled told ESPN. Through the first half of the season, Collier has made a point to continuously mention the personnel working with the players, calling them the 'best in the world.'
"She didn't necessarily head into the 1-on-1 tournament planning to share the reward, sources said. But almost immediately after she won she thought it was the right thing to do," it continued.
Out of Unrivaled: Napheesa Collier is giving half of her $200k reward money from her 1-on-1 tournament win to her training staff and assistant coaches in Miami, sources tell ESPN https://t.co/GqoPFIUBv4
— Kendra Andrews (@kendra__andrews) February 21, 2025
This is truly an awesome gesture from Collier that will go a long way for all those who are benefitting from it.
Collier's still-undefeated Lunar Owls BC team is playing Angel Reese's Rose BC club on Friday night.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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