Napheesa Collier doesn’t have an issue with Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever having 41 nationally televised games for the 2025 WNBA season. She just thinks the defending champion New York Liberty should have more.
On Tuesday, the 4-time WNBA All-Star joined ESPN’s First Take to discuss a variety of topics, including the league’s labor negotiations, Unrivaled’s debut season and JuJu Watkins’ season-ending torn ACL. And when asked about the news that the Fever will have 41 games nationally televised games — nine more than the Liberty’s 32 — in 2025, Collier admitted that she believes the reigning champs should be getting a brighter spotlight.
“Obviously people want to watch Caitlin play and so you have to put the people on TV that people want to see,” Collier said. “But at the same time, there’s stars all over the league. You want good basketball as well. Obviously Indiana, especially with their free agents, they’re going to be a great team. But to not have the defending champs on TV more, I think it’s kind of crazy. I mean, it doesn’t have to be where you’re taking games away from Indiana. But I think you can raise the level of TV games for the other teams as well.”
Stephen A. Smith seemingly disagreed, pushing back by noting that the NBA built a lot of its success by marketing individual stars over teams. Collier, however, reiterated that she doesn’t have a problem with the amount of attention — including nationally televised games — Clark is receiving. She just believes there’s enough room for the WNBA to market both.
“I don’t think it’s an issue. I do think Caitlin’s a star. And like I said, people want to see her, and we are trying to grow the league. Like you need to put on TV the players that people want to see,” the Minnesota Lynx star said. “I don’t think raising the level of the other teams has to mean bringing down Caitlin or the Indiana Fever. They should have those amount of games on TV on primetime. But I think other teams should also have more than what they have.”
While Collier’s suggestion might seem ideal, the reality is there are only so many nationally televised games available to the league. And if teams like the Liberty are going to get more of them, they’re going to have to come from somewhere, with Clark’s Fever currently laying claim to the bulk of the inventory. But it was the perfect response from Napheesa Collier given that anything else could have easily been used as fodder for Caitlin Clark stans who consider any dose of reality to be an unpardonable sin, or WNBA diehards who want to view Clark as any other talented young star.
The good news for the WNBA, however, is that its growing prominence will likely only lead to an increase in opportunities in the coming years. And with ESPN set to lose its Sunday Night Baseball package in 2026, it isn’t hard to imagine the Worldwide Leader filling most of that void with a WNBA spotlight, giving the league another tool to feature its Clark and non-Clark stars.
About Ben Axelrod
Ben Axelrod is a veteran of the sports media landscape, having most recently worked for NBC's Cleveland affiliate, WKYC. Prior to his time in Cleveland, he covered Ohio State football and the Big Ten for outlets including Cox Media Group, Bleacher Report, Scout and Rivals.