The trio of Napheesa Collier, Kayla McBride, and Courtney Williams has formed a formidable core for the Minnesota Lynx across the 2024, 2025, and 2026 seasons. They have led the Lynx to top-two regular-season finishes across these three seasons, including the top seed in each of the last two. However, their postseason journey this year ended in the first round.
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While speaking at the postgame presser, Kayla McBride got emotional as she talked about the connection they’ve built.
“I mean, we’ve been through a lot together. I think the biggest thing with this group, with these two up here (Courtney Williams and Napheesa Collier), there’s just a lot of unconditional love… And we understand and love each other.”
“We got to each other at special times in our careers. And what we’ve created in Minnesota, when people come into it, they love it. They love being a part of what we’ve been able to grow these last couple of years. And that’s not lost on me. These are two really special people, just people before anything,” McBride said when asked about the embrace in the postgame press conference.
They showed that connection on the court as the game clock expired on Tuesday. With the Lynx on the verge of elimination against the New York Liberty, all three shared an emotional embrace on the court.
“So that embrace is about the people that are sitting next to me, my sisters, people that I love, that will be in my life forever. It’s not even about basketball anymore.”
Napheesa Collier was drafted by the Minnesota Lynx in 2019, while Kayla McBride did not sign with the Lynx until 2021. Courtney Williams was the last to join the core of the Big Three, joining the Lynx in 2024. Since then, the three have been a key part of the Minnesota Lynx roster.
In 2024, they finished the season as the second-seeded team and then made it all the way to the WNBA Finals. That season, Napheesa Collier averaged 20.4 points, 9.7 rebounds, and 1.9 steals per game, took home the 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year award, and led the team to a WNBA Commissioner’s Cup Championship, capturing Cup MVP honours.
McBride and Williams equally had strong seasons, with McBride averaging 15.0 points and 3.2 assists, while Williams ended the season averaging 11.1 points, 5.5 assists, and 4.6 rebounds per game. Despite the level of performance, however, the championship eluded them as they lost the Finals to the same New York Liberty that had just eliminated them.
The following year in 2025, they appeared to be even more dominant, finishing as the first seed, with even better performances from all three. However, their postseason run ended on an even more disappointing note, losing the semifinal series 3-1 to the Phoenix Mercury.
Now, their postseason loss was not only the most disappointing of the last three years, but it was also historic. They had a dominant 33-11 regular season, a campaign that saw them finish as the No. 1 seed. Their star rookie, Olivia Miles, won Rookie of the Year, and Cheryl Reeve took home Coach of the Year honours.
Yet, none of it helped as the New York Liberty handed the once favorites back-to-back defeats. That made them the first No. 1 seed team in WNBA history to lose to a No. 8 seed in the first round of the playoffs.
The Round 1, Game 2 loss also took the Liberty’s total record against the Lynx in 2026 to 4-1.
Ultimately, the only thing left for the Lynx and their Big Three is to try again next year. After three seasons of regular-season success and postseason disappointment, they will have to regroup, learn from this latest setback, and return next season hoping to finally finish the job.