Lynx's Napheesa Collier joins legendary 50/40/90 club in WNBA history

Billy Heyen

Lynx's Napheesa Collier joins legendary 50/40/90 club in WNBA history image

Napheesa Collier knew exactly what she needed to do to join one of the most exclusive clubs in basketball.

The Minnesota Lynx superstar had to make 3-of-4 attempts from beyond the 3-point arc. And that's exactly what she did.

"I'm a very goal oriented person, so when I accomplish those it feels good," Collier told reporters after Thursday's game. "I kind of cut it close for the last game of the season."

With that sharpshooting, Collier joined the 50/40/90 club.

The WNBA regular season concluded with Collier shooting 53% from the floor, 40.3% from 3-point range and 91% from the foul line.

She's the second player in league history to go 50/40/90, along with Elena Della Donne in 2019. Collier is the first to do it while averaging 20 points per game.

"It's only been done once before that that player was the MVP," Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve told reporters. "Phee deserves that recognition. The numbers don't lie... I don't know long it will be before it happens again."

For reference, there have been four NBA players to ever go 50/40/90: Stephen Curry, Dirk Nowitzki, Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant.

Essentially, Collier has put herself in the conversation with some of the best players in the history of basketball.

It's not easy for Collier night in and night out. She sees all sorts of difficult defensive looks from the other teams, who do make it really tough on her.

But somehow, Collier finds a way to finish inside and out, and even on nights when she gets beat up, she goes to the line and sinks the foul shots calmly.

The Lynx are the No. 1 seed heading into the playoffs and will looking to avenge their WNBA Finals loss from a season ago.

But no matter what happens next, Collier has already authored one of the greatest seasons in the history of the sport.

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Billy Heyen

Billy Heyen is a freelance writer with The Sporting News. He is a 2019 graduate of Syracuse University who has written about many sports and fantasy sports for The Sporting News. Sports reporting work has also appeared in a number of newspapers, including the Sandusky Register and Rochester Democrat & Chronicle