Sports
Collier states MVP case with rare 50-40-90 year
Napheesa Collier stated her MVP case Thursday night, becoming just the second player in WNBA history to finish a regular season with a 50-40-90 shooting split after the Minnesota Lynx‘s 72-53 win over the Golden State Valkyries in Minneapolis.
Collier, who finished the regular season shooting 53.1% from the floor, 40.3% from 3-point range and 90.6% from the free throw line, joins Elena Delle Donne (2019) as the only WNBA players to have such a season. Collier is the first player to accomplish the feat while averaging over 20 points (she averaged 22.9 points).
“It’s only been done once before, and that player was the MVP,” Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said. “Phee deserves that recognition. The numbers don’t lie. … It’s done from start to finish. 50/40/90 is historic. I don’t know how long it will be before it happens again. Napheesa Collier has been the best player in the WNBA. She deserves MVP.”
Reeve set the goal for Collier at the start of the season. A self-proclaimed goal-oriented person, Collier wanted something to strive for after she finished second in MVP voting last season behind A’ja Wilson.
Collier entered Thursday’s game knowing how many 3s she needed — and the minimum percentage — to achieve the milestone. She went 3-for-4 from 3 against the Valkyries.
“When I accomplish those, it feels good. I kind of cut it close for the last game of the season,” Collier said while laughing.
To reach this goal, Collier, who is efficient at the line and inside the arc, focused on her 3-point shooting. Reeve pushed Collier to attempt more 3-pointers per game, setting a minimum requirement for the five-time All-Star. Reeve said that change helped Collier reach a new level.
“She’s already great. Two years in a row, she’s a top player in the league,” Reeve said. “I think [the 3-point shooting] was a special unlocking to becoming really unguardable. … Napheesa Collier is the most unguardable player in the league.”
Added Natisha Hiedeman: “She’s the GOAT. Without her, we are not the Minnesota Lynx.”
Collier now leads the Lynx into the postseason, where they look to reach the WNBA Finals in back-to-back years and this time, they hope, win their fifth title in franchise history.
The Lynx’s win Thursday means the Valkyries are the No. 8 seed and Minnesota’s opponent in the first round. Minnesota went 4-0 against Golden State during the regular season.
“We are a better team than [than last year],” Collier said. “We have that year of experience, and experience always makes better teams. We know what it takes to get there. We got there to the very last possible game of the season last year. … It made us better, it made us hungrier, and it’s something we are thinking about going into the playoffs this year.”
Sports
Star mountaineer Samina Baig reaches final degree of South Pole in historic expedition
Pakistani mountaineer Samina Baig has successfully skied to the last degree of the South Pole, adding yet another historic achievement to her adventure milestones.
She was part of an international expedition organised by Elite Exped. The team departed from Pakistan on December 2, reached Union Glacier on December 6, and Baig completed the journey on December 14.
In a post on her Facebook page, Baig said she was deeply grateful and humbled to have successfully skied to the last degree of the South Pole, describing it as part of her pursuit of the Explorer’s Grand Slam.
She said the ski journey had never been achieved by any Pakistani before and called it one of the most challenging and meaningful experiences of her life, adding that it was still difficult to put the experience into words.
“From standing on the summit of Mount Everest in 2013 to completing the Seven Summits, the highest mountains on each continent, from climbing K2 and Nanga Parbat to now reaching the South Pole, this journey has taken me across the highest mountains and the most remote places on Earth,” Baig added.
“Every step along the way has taught me patience, resilience, and the power of belief.”
She further wrote that the journey, though difficult, “has been about trusting the dream, staying committed through uncertainty, and continuing to move forward even when the path feels impossible”.
The mountaineer expressed hope that her efforts would remind others, particularly women, that dreams are worth pursuing, regardless of how long they take.
“Carrying the flag of Pakistan and my Ismaili flag across mountains, continents, and polar ice has been the greatest honour of my life. I remain grateful for every opportunity, every lesson, and every person who walked this path with me,” she said.
Baig expressed gratitude to her community members for funding the expedition and thanked her team, her family, fellow mountaineer Nirmal Purja and Elite Expeditions for their support.
“Without their trust, encouragement, and kindness, this journey would not have been possible.”
Namira Salim is Pakistan’s first astronaut and also the first Pakistani to reach both the North and South Poles. Got the Tamgha-i-Imtiaz back in 2011 for her adventure stuff.
Samina Baig is from this tiny village called Shimshal. In 2013, she became the first Pakistani woman to climb Everest. She’s also the first Pakistani to do the Seven Summits — Everest, Kilimanjaro, McKinley, Mont Blanc, Elbrus, Aconcagua, Vinson, Puncak Jaya, all of them.
In 2010, she climbed this peak nobody had climbed before, Chashkin Sar, now it’s called Samina Peak. Next year, she did another untouched peak, named Koh-i-Brobar or Mount Equality.
In 2023, she and Naila Kiani became the first Pakistani women to summit Nanga Parbat, the ninth-highest mountain in the world. And in 2022, she also conquered K2, getting there just a few hours before Kiani.
Sports
Liberty star Ionescu’s home in L.A. burglarized
New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu‘s home in Los Angeles was burglarized Monday night, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
Police responded to the home at about 8 p.m., after two suspects smashed through a glass door at the rear of the residence, setting off the security alarm.
Authorities said several handbags worth more than $60,000 were stolen from the residence, where Ionescu lives with husband Hroniss Grasu, an NFL offensive lineman. The couple was not at home during the burglary.
No arrests were made, and an investigation is ongoing, police said.
Ionescu, 28, is a four-time WNBA All-Star and won a championship with the Liberty in 2024. Grasu was drafted by the Chicago Bears in 2015 and last played for the Las Vegas Raiders in 2023.
Monday’s break-in was the latest instance of a high-profile athlete’s home being burglarized in the past year. It occurred one day after Titans defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons‘ home in Tennessee was broken into while his team was on the road to face the San Francisco 49ers on Sunday night.
Sports
College sports ‘visionary’ Neinas dies at age 93
Chuck Neinas, the onetime Big Eight commissioner whose media savvy and dealmaking helped turn college football into the multibillion-dollar business it is today, died Tuesday. He was 93.
The National Football Foundation announced Neinas’ death, with its president and CEO Steve Hatchell calling him “a visionary in every sense of the word.” A cause of death was not disclosed.
From 1980-97, Neinas was executive director of the College Football Association, an agency created by several big conferences that sought to wrest control of their TV rights from the NCAA.
Two key members, Georgia and Oklahoma, sued the NCAA and a 1984 Supreme Court ruling in their favor effectively made the CFA a separate business from the rest of college sports. It gave Neinas a key seat at the negotiating table.
He brought home deals worth billions in the 1980s and ’90s, and those huge contracts set the stage for today’s industry, currently highlighted by a TV deal worth $7.8 billion for the College Football Playoff.
After the CFA disbanded in 1997 — with conferences taking their TV rights into their own hands and the Bowl Championship Series, the precursor to today’s playoff, about to start — Neinas founded a consulting firm that helped schools create policies and hire athletic directors and coaches.
He was CEO of Ascent Entertainment Group, which owned the Denver Nuggets, the Colorado Avalanche and their arena when they sold to Liberty Media Group in 2000.
But his passion was college sports. He served as interim commissioner of the Big 12 from 2011-12, solidifying that conference during one of many surges of realignment by adding TCU and West Virginia.
In a 2014 interview with The Associated Press, Neinas envisioned a future that looks much like today as he pondered lawsuits against the NCAA that would eventually lead to players being paid.
“There is a need for some changes,” Neinas said. “The auto industry is always trying to improve their model. College athletics should do the same. But the basics are still sound.”
Born in Wisconsin, Neinas was a longtime Colorado resident and was living in Boulder at the time of his death.
After working as a play-by-play man for Wisconsin football and basketball, Neinas got a job with the NCAA, where he served as an assistant executive director from 1961-71. He became commissioner of the Big Eight Conference in 1971 until moving to the CFA.
During his Big Eight tenure, Neinas chaired the committee that recommended the NCAA withdraw from the U.S. Olympic Committee. That led to a major reorganization and the passing of the Ted Stevens Amateur Sports Act that governs the Olympics in the U.S. today.
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