There aren’t many things that almost everyone can agree on these days. The country is more divided than ever over so many topics, but there seems to be one that’s uniting just about everyone. Nobody is a fan of WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert right now.
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Engelbert was minding her own business last week when Napheesa Collier, the runner-up in the MVP voting and one of the most respected and trusted voices in the league, took a flamethrower to her leadership with a four-minute prepared statement that was as brutal as it was honest.
Collier blasted Engelbert for not valuing the players and for being too self-important, and one of her strongest points was when she quoted Engelbert as saying that players basically owe all their success to her.
“‘Players should be on their knees, thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them,'” Collier recalled Engelbert saying during an offseason meeting.
She also quoted her as saying that Caitlin Clark, the face of the league and its most popular player, wouldn’t have any of her $16M endorsement deals without the WNBA. If true, that’s an objectively insane statement to make, as Clark was a superstar well before she was selected first overall by the Indiana Fever in the 2024 WNBA Draft.
Clark’s Fever teammate Sophie Cunningham had a lot to say in the wake of Collier’s comments, saying in an Instagram comment that Engelbert “is the most delusional leader our league has seen.” This morning, she dropped a new episode of her Show Me Something podcast, and it only got worse for the embattled commissioner, who should know by now that Cunningham will risk it all to protect Clark in any way she can.
“Great leaders want to see other people be more successful than them,” Cunningham said. “They want to make sure that they’re cared for. I get it, she’s the business side of it, but you can be respectful and treat your product, the product of why people are paying attention, why people are buying certain jerseys, treat your product with respect. Be a great leader, and she’s not in any sense. The disrespect is just crazy to me.”
Cunningham’s cohost, West Wilson, compared Engelbert to Adam Silver, Rob Manfred, and Roger Goodell, fellow commissioners who aren’t universally loved, but who understand one important part of their jobs. “NBA, MLB, NFL, they embrace their f***** stars,” he said. “It’s like the kindergarten lesson for owning a f***** league.”
Everyone with a voice or a platform has taken Team Collier in this lopsided fight, and that’s bad news for Engelbert. Not only is she facing a mutiny from the players within her league, but it’s coming at a time when a new collective bargaining deal needs to be hammered out.
The WNBA is in a better spot than it ever has been, with expansion franchises set to join the league from now through 2030. With such a non-existent level of confidence in her leadership from the players, the best thing she can do is step aside so that someone else can fix this.
