After a dramatic season worthy of cinema, the WNBA has finally wrapped up 2024 with the New York Liberty taking home their first-ever championship. While anyone would expect the losing side to be salty, the Minnesota Lynx have upped it a notch with well-aimed jabs at the Liberty. After Cheryl Reeve’s explosive post-game interview, the latest to jump on the bandwagon is Napheesa Collier. And Rachel DeMita is diving into the details of exactly what the freshly-crowned WNBA DPOY did.

Taking to Instagram to bid goodbye to the “gut-wrenching” season, the Lynx star posted a few pictures from Game 5 that should have been called fouls for New York but weren’t. “It gets so spicy at the end,” says DeMita on her YouTube channel. The pictures include a non-call when Kayla Thornton seemingly hit Collier’s face as she drove to the basket and another with Alanna Smith standing in front of Jonquel Jones on the ground. “There’s one foul right here,” DeMita continues.

“Literally her arm is locked up and she’s getting smacked in the face. And then on the next play, you can see the reaction to clearly a bad call,” the reporter says. The image of Jones on the ground shows Lynx players with their hands over their heads in disbelief. Then comes the incriminating evidence, of Smith against Breanna Stewart.

“Alanna Smith is not even close to fouling Breanna Stewart. There was a consensus not only among the fans but among the Minnesota Lynx. They feel like they got cheated,” DeMita concludes. She goes on to call Cheryl Reeve’s words “epic“, respecting the head coach for calling out the refs’ bad calls. And it’s not just the Lynx.

The controversial foul at the end of the game has a lot of takes from the basketball world, including LeBron James, Damian Lillard, and Candace Parker. With this victory, each Liberty player will take home a bonus of $20,825, totaling $249,900. Meanwhile, the Lynx will receive $7,746, totaling $92,952, the difference coming up to $13,079. With that sum almost coming down many players’ monthly salaries in the league, it can be understood just why Minnesota is so upset.

As the Lynx now nurse their wounds, they might take comfort in former pro Lisa Leslie’s words.

Lisa Leslie picks Napheesa Collier over Jonquel Jones as MVP

Although New York won, their star players, Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu, did not actually perform well in Game 5, accounting for only 18 points combined. Given that Sandy Brondello has a deep roster, their teammates stepped up, with German star Nyara Sabally delivering a clutch performance. Jonquel Jones finally won the Finals MVP after being snubbed the last two times, and finally has a trophy after four attempts in her nine-year career. But for Lisa Leslie, it was Napheesa Collier who also delivered an MVP-worthy performance.

“Wow! What an amazing effort @PHEEsespieces You gave it your all❤️🙏🏾 Not the ending you wanted but a true MVP effort!!” she wrote on X. Looking at the playoff stats overall, Collier did make W history. She DPOY recorded 22 points with 47.8% from the field, 7 rebounds, and 2 blocks while playing all 44.25 seconds of the game except a few seconds. Per ESPN, she is the first player to lead a single playoff run in points (285), rebounds (107), steals (25), and blocks (23).

Maybe if the Lynx had won, the MVP title could have gone to the winning team. Lisa Leslie certainly thinks so, as does a major part of the W fanbase. But for now, it was Jonquel Jones and the Liberty’s moment!