Reusse: Lynx’s Napheesa Collier continues building her case for MVP

What had started as a Utah franchise, and had a long run in San Antonio, became the team that brought the WNBA to Las Vegas as the Aces for the 2018 season. They had the first selection in that April draft and selected South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson, a 6-4 center, strong and agile, and the nucleus for a powerhouse was created.

The Aces won a playoff series in 2019, reached the finals during the pandemic in 2020, went 24-8 in 2021, won back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 and lost in the semifinals to New York last fall.

Based on the regular season, Wilson was a unanimous selection as the MVP, winning the award for the third time. The decisively beaten MVP runner-up was Napheesa Collier, the 6-foot-3 star of the Minnesota Lynx.

Collier had to settle for winning Defensive Player of Year, and going to the final seconds of a decisive Game 5 before losing to the Liberty.

The Lynx came flying from the gate this season and took a 21-4 record into Friday night’s home sellout vs. the Aces. Las Vegas came with a flop of a 12-12 record and rumors of an ill-fitting lineup.

It became more than a rumor in the second quarter, as Wilson was left to try to force her way through Collier and the rest of a mobile and frequently fierce defense. The Aces treated loose balls and the offensive boards as mysterious objects.

Collier hit a three late in the first half, the sellout crowd erupted and the Lynx headed off the floor with a 51-35 lead. The final was 109-78, and Collier had 25 points and nine rebounds in 25 minutes — another outstanding effort that only increased her standing as now a sizable favorite to put the MVP trophy at the front of her hoops hardware.

“We are a better basketball team than we were in that [0-10] stretch,” Reeve said, meaning from 2019 to 2023.

One reason was Collier missed most of 2022 while having a baby, and she needed more help in 2023, and Reeve went and got it in free agency in 2024 — and now she is back to the 2010s, with quite the basketball team.

And barring something unforeseen in the final 14 games of the regular season, pro sports in Minnesota will be getting its next league MVP in Collier, known simply as “Phee” (as in Phee-nominal) to the loud backers in Target Center.

And we must admit, those MVPs haven’t been regular occurrences over our last 65 years.

Collier would be the third player in the Lynx’s 27 seasons to win the MVP Award. Maya Moore was the first in 2014 and then Sylvia Fowles in 2017. That was the last of four championships in seven seasons, a brilliant run that started when Moore arrived from UConn (where else?) to be the Rookie of the Year in 2011.

Moore and Fowles are among 11 MVPs for Minnesota’s major pro teams in what adds up to 241 completed sports seasons. There have been a total of 50 NHL seasons with the North Stars (26) and the Wild (24), and that is the one area where our athletes have been shut out in having a regular-season MVP.

It goes by another name in the zany NHL — the Hart Trophy — but our skaters don’t have one of those in a half-century of seasons. We’ve done better in the non-goal-scoring portion of the league’s awards.

Three Vikings have won the NFL’s most recognized MVP award (by the Associated Press), including the most incredible of all time:

Alan Page in 1971, still the only lineman to win the MVP, and one of two defenders to do so. The other was Lawrence Taylor for the Giants in 1986.

Fran Tarkenton was the MVP for the 1975 season and Adrian Peterson for his 2,097 yards rushing in the 16-game season in 2012. He missed breaking Eric Dickerson’s all-time record by 9 yards.

The Twins have five MVPs in their 64 seasons: Zoilo Versalles (1965), Harmon Killebrew (1969), Rod Carew (1977), Justin Morneau (2006) and Joe Mauer (2009). The fact baseball has an MVP for each league increases the minuscule odds, but when it takes getting it done over a 162-game schedule, the award obviously requires a brilliant effort.

I also would state the Baseball Writers Association of America might have missed on its Twin with Zoilo in ’65; dynamic play as a shortstop, yes, but the Sporting News had the right choice with its AL Player of the Year winner in Tony Oliva.

There has been one local winner of the extra-difficult-to-claim MVP Award in the NBA: Kevin Garnett, getting the Timberwolves their first two playoff series victories and reaching the Western Conference finals in 2004.

The Garnett jersey still lives at Target Center, and the new owners (Lore and A-Rod) will offer much self-congratulations on the night KG’s No. 21 is retired.

There would be another basketball player (George Mikan) from here to have won MVPs, leading the Minneapolis Lakers to five officially recognized NBA titles in 1949, 1950, 1952, 1953 and 1954, except for this:

We had the Muskies in 1967-68 and the Pipers in 1968-69. And the league’s first two MVPs, Connie Hawkins and Mel Daniels, played here. Except, Daniels was with the Muskies in ’68 and was the MVP the next season with Indiana; and Hawkins won it in Pittsburgh in 1968, played here in 1968-69, and then the Pipers went back to Pittsburgh.