WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert isn’t any more popular with league fans than she is with its players, as it turns out.
While awarding the Aces their third WNBA Championship trophy in the last four seasons after Las Vegas’ Game 4 win over the Mercury in Phoenix, Engelbert was not only booed, but flipped off by several fans in the crowd on Friday night.
The abuse was so bad that ESPN cut to a grey screen several times during the post-game ceremonies. Meanwhile, Aces players including Finals MVP A’Ja Wilson couldn’t contain their smiles as Engelbert was jeered with only a few weeks to go before the league labor deal expires on October 31.
‘ESPN had to blur/grey the screen multiple times during commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s remarks because of a fan in the crowd flipping double birds at her,’ ESPN’s Sarah Spain wrote on X.
The scene unfolded a week after Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier blasted Engelbert’s leadership in a season-ending press conference. Specifically, Collier claimed Engelbert said Caitlin Clark owed the WNBA for giving her a platform to earn endorsement money.
Several fans in Phoenix were seen giving the finger as Cathy Engelbert addressed the crowd
Engelbert said earlier this month there’s work to be done to repair relationships with players in the league, while adding that there were ‘inaccuracies’ in some of the comments attributed to her by in a blistering assessment days prior.
‘I was disheartened to hear that some players feel the league and that I personally do not care about them or listen to them,’ Engelbert said before Game 1 of the WNBA Finals. ‘If the players in the `W’ don’t feel appreciated and value from the league, we have to do better and I have to do better.’
In wide-ranging comments, Engelbert said officiating will be reviewed this offseason by a new ‘state of the game’ committee. The commissioner also said the league and the players’ union have meetings scheduled for next week to discuss a new collective bargaining agreement. Engelbert also said she plans to remain as commissioner after a CBA is finalized.
As for comments that Collier said Engelbert made in private conversations about Clark needing the WNBA to succeed financially, the commissioner denied saying them.
‘Caitlin has been a transformational player in this league. She’s been a great representative of the game,’ Engelbert said. ‘She’s brought in tens of millions of new fans to the game.’
Napheesa Collier issued a blistering attack on WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert
Engelbert said she’s talked to Collier, the Minnesota Lynx star who said Tuesday that the league has ‘the worst leadership in the world’ and a commissioner who lacks accountability.
Engelbert believes a new CBA deal will get done, albeit not necessarily by the October 31 deadline.
‘That is a real deadline from that perspective. We have extended deadlines in the past,’ she said. ‘I know last time when I was only a couple days on the job, we got to an extension and got a deal done. … I feel confident that we can get a deal done, but if not, I think we could do an extension.’
Engelbert said higher salaries for players is a goal both sides share.
‘We continue to meet and have important conversations with the players’ association. I want to reiterate that we want much of the same things that the players want,’ Engelbert said. ‘We want to significantly increase the increase their salary and benefits, while also supporting the long-term growth and viability of the WNBA.’
Engelbert said it’s clear there are differences between the way players and coaches feel about the physical nature of the game and the way the referees officiate.
The committee tasked with reforming officiating will include players, coaches, general managers and others.
‘I think it’s pretty clear that we’re misaligned currently on what our stakeholders want from officiating,’ Engelbert said. ‘We have heard loud and clear that we have not lived up to that needed alignment.’
Engelbert said the league needs to look at ‘good, aggressive play that we recognize has evolved into rough play and how to calibrate the line for legal and illegal content to ensure player safety and exciting competition.’
Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark made a base salary of just over $78,000 this year in the WNBA
Engelbert has denied reports that she’ll be leaving the WNBA after the new CBA is finished.
‘I’ve never been a quitter. I’m entering my 40th year, actually, this month in business. Never been a quitter. I’ve never shied away from tough situations,’ she said.
The Commissioner has delivered on many of her promises since coming into the league in 2019. She will have added six expansion teams by 2030 and secured a major new media rights deal for the next decade that will bring in more than $2.2 billion. Engelbert also had the league pay for a full charter flight program this season that the players hope will be added to the new CBA to address concerns about issues ranging from safety to travel time.
The league has enjoyed monumental growth over the last few years, and Engelbert said she knows there’s more work to be done.
