Barstool chief Dave Portnoy has thrown his hat in the ring to be the WNBA’s new commissioner amid mounting speculation that the role is soon to be vacant.
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is reportedly facing rising pressure from within the league and its parent organization, the NBA, to step down as a mutiny from the WNBA’s stars continues to gather pace.
Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier launched a blistering attack on Engelbert on Tuesday when she blasted the league for having ‘the worst leadership in the world’.
In the wake of Collier’s scathing criticism, Portnoy believes he is the man to transform the WNBA’s leadership.
‘I’d love it,’ Portnoy said on FS1’s Wake Up Barstool when asked about hypothetically taking charge.
‘All these women who think they hate me,’ added Portnoy, who has been an outspoken supporter of the Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark. ‘Angel Reese, she thinks she hates me…these girls would be wining and dining like, “Oh my god, it’s not about the color of your skin, it’s about sports, basketball, and this guy’s putting money in my pocket. He’s a genius!”
Barstool chief Dave Portnoy has revealed he would love to be WNBA commissioner
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is reportedly facing mounting pressure to step down
‘We would be flying, dining and driving. I would absolutely take this league to a level it has never seen. Cathy Engelbert can’t market her way out of a paper bag. Embrace the stuff that’s going on in this league.’
Portnoy has become heavily invested in the WNBA over the course of the past 18 months amid his staunch support of Clark.
While he has often harshly taken aim at Reese – one of Clark’s main rivals – the media mogul has frequently defended the league’s players, especially on the controversial issue of pay.
WNBA stars took a stand during this season’s All-Star game when they wore t-shirts to call out the league with a pointed jibe over its failure to pay them what they believe they deserve.
Portnoy supported their stance as he took aims at the ‘morons’ who didn’t agree that the W’s players merited a pay rise.
While it is unlikely that Portnoy will take the reins, players would likely welcome his plight for greater salaries.
Collier, a five-time All-Star and former Defensive Player of the Year, sharply criticized Engelbert for being ‘negligent’ and also called out the league’s officiating.
‘We have the best league in the world,’ Collier told reporters in a four-minute prepared statement days after Minnesota fell to the Phoenix Mercury in the semifinals. ‘We have the best fans in the world. But we have the worst leadership in the world.’
Media mogul Portnoy has become invested in the league amid his support of Caitlin Clark
All-Star forward Napheesa Collier thinks the WNBA has the ‘worst leadership in the world’
‘Year after year, the only thing that remains consistent is the lack of accountability from our leaders.’
In addition to blasting the league’s officiating, Collier also revealed a private conversation between herself and Engelbert about Clark’s five-figure salary.
‘Caitlin should be grateful she makes $16million off the court, because without the platform that WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything,’ Collier alleged Engelbert as saying.
‘Players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them,’ Engelbert added, according to Collier.
Despite her enormous impact on the league and women’s basketball, Clark made just $78,066 this year from her WNBA salary.
The maximum salary, still, is just short of $250,000, which led Collier and Breanna Stewart to co-found the Unrivaled league, which promised players a minimum six-figure salary during a nine-week winter season upon its launch this year.
In a statement, Engelbert responded to Collier’s remarks: ‘I have the utmost respect for Napheesa Collier and for all the players in the WNBA. Together we have all worked tirelessly to transform this league. My focus remains on ensuring a bright future for the players and the WNBA, including collaborating on how we continue to elevate the game.
‘I am disheartened by how Napheesa characterized our conversations and league leadership, but even when our perspectives differ, my commitment to the players and to this work will not waver.’
Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu is pictured wearing a T-shirt that reads ‘pay us what you owe us’
‘Whether the league cares about the health of the players is one thing, but to also not care about the product we put on the floor is truly self-sabotage,’ said Collier. ‘Year after year, the only thing that remains consistent is the lack of accountability from our leaders.
‘Fans see it every night. Coaches, both winning and losing, point it out every night in pre- and post-game media. And leadership just issues fines and looks the other way. They ignore the issues that everyone inside the game is begging them to fix. That is negligence.’
But multiple sources told Sports Business Journal’s Tom Friend that Engelbert is facing pressure to step down from inside the WNBA and its parent organization, the NBA. Those sources say her exit is not imminent, but do expect her to resign once the current collective-bargaining negotiations are completed and a new labor deal is in place.
Engelbert has not responded publicly, but a WNBA spokesperson told SBJ the sources’ claims are ‘categorically false.’ Daily Mail has reached out to the NBA for comment.
As Friend’s sources see it, Engelbert is smart enough for the demanding job but has struggled to build connections with teams and the union.
‘She hasn’t connected; she’s not a relationship builder, which you have to be in that job with the teams, with the players,’ a source familiar with the league told SBJ last month.
‘I think she’s a wicked smart businessperson, and the success she gets a lot of credit for. But a commissioner has to have a personality element that can touch every constituent that they have. I think she’s just lacking in it.
‘You’re where you are now, you have got to get through this labor negotiation. After that, it wouldn’t surprise me if she did a victory lap and rode off back into the corporate world somewhere.’
