MINNEAPOLIS -- NAPHEESA COLLIER is deep in negotiations, and her opponent doesn't want to budge. The Minnesota Lynx forward knows the deadline is looming. She has one more bargaining chip to play.
She holds out a tendril of string cheese.
Collier's 3-year-old daughter, Mila, is on the other side of the standoff -- plopped down in the middle of their apartment, unwilling to put on her sneakers. A consensus for her outfit came easily. But the shoes require a better deal.
Mila eyes the offer. After a long pause -- the kind of toddler silence that means power is shifting -- she takes the cheese.