NOTE: This also appears today on our sister site Leblanguage. Please visit it regularly for coverage of media, sports, politics and life.
Her name is Cathy Engelbert, and if she happens to be your boss, boy, am I sorry. She isn’t mine but I’ve had ones with similar traits and, let me tell you, it ain’t great.
She does happen to be in charge of the entire Women’s National Basketball Association, and has had that job as the league’s first-ever commissioner since 2019. To her credit, she actually does have some experience playing the game, serving as a captain for those feared Patriot League stalwart Lehigh Engineers. That was before she went on to a three-decade run at Deloitte where, per the ever-trustworthy Wikipedia she ultimately rose to become the first female U.S. CEO of a Big Four consulting firm. And I’m willing to bet she probably could dunk on whomever those wimps on the Price Waterhouse trotted out against her in their pickup games.
Given her business and deal-making background, it’s no surprise that she’s been praised for raising the league’s revenue streams immensely via expansion of both league size and corporate partnerships. The just-concluded 2025 regular season saw a hugely successful expansion team, the Golden State Valkyries, gain immediate traction in the lucrative Bay Area with a surprising playoff appearance, and there’s five more in current NBA cities planned for launch over the next three years. If Engelbert were merely the league’s CMO, she’d probably be praised from here to McSorley’s Old Ale House. And earlier this week there was this announcement from, among others, THE WRAP’s Corbin Bolies that reminded her business colleagues she’s still a pretty savvy dealmaker as well:
Versant and the WNBA announced on Tuesday an 11-year rights deal that grants the USA Network a series of regular-season and playoff games, an agreement that solidifies the new media company as a sports rights player as it separates from NBCUniversal.
The deal will allow the USA Network to air at least 50 regular-season and playoff games every year, most of which will be Wednesday doubleheaders, along with select coverage of its semifinals and WNBA Finals games in some years. The network will also launch dedicated shows analyzing the games. The arrangement expands the number of games USA was expected to air when the NBA struck a rights agreement with NBC last year, ahead of the spinoff announcement.
And per CNBC’s Jessica Golden, all of that apparently ain’t merely chump change:
The league signed an 11-year media rights deal with Disney, Amazon and Comcast-owned NBCUniversal last July as part of the NBA’s media rights negotiation. The WNBA’s deal is valued at about $200 million per year, CNBC previously reported. It also signed a new media deal with Scripps’ Ion in June.
Alas, the job of WNBA commissioner also involves actual interaction with the players who actually provide the skill sets and entertainment value that allows one to dabble in those boardrooms. And in the midst of that, not to mention an exciting post-season that tonight will see the streaking Las Vegas Aces square off with the rebuilt Phoenix Mercury in Game One of the first best-of-seven Finals in the league’s 3o seasons, there was a resounding cacophony of outrage that she’s been a lot less successful with that aspect of her job. As CBS MINNESOTA’s Aki Nace and Marielle Mohs reported earlier this week:
Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier turned her end-of-season interview on Tuesday into a passionate and bold critique of the WNBA leadership, and referees for losing control of games.
“We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world. But right now, we have the worst leadership in the world,” Collier said.
In her four-minute statement, Collier described an interaction she had with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert in February in which she asked how the league planned to address officiating issues.
According to Collier, Engelbert responded that “only the losers complain about the refs.”
Collier also asked about how young players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers, “who are clearly driving massive revenue for the league, are making so little for their first four years.”
“Caitlin should be grateful she makes $16 million off the court, because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything,” Engelbert reportedly told Collier.
“The real threat to our league isn’t money, it isn’t ratings, or even missed calls, or even physical play. It’s the lack of accountability from the league office,” Collier said. “Since I’ve been in the league, you’ve heard the constant concerns about officiating, and it has now reached levels of inconsistency that plague our sport and undermine the integrity in which it operates.
On the surface, it might appear to be merely sour grapes from a frustrated player whose regular season ended abruptly and painfully , as the ARIZONA REPUBLIC’s Dana Scott reminded her readers earlier today:
Collier has been diagnosed with a Grade 2 tear in three ligaments of her left ankle and a muscle in her shin, per ESPN’s Ramona Shelburne. Collier, the 2025 MVP runner-up, suffered those leg injuries when she collided with the Phoenix Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas late in Game 3 of the WNBA semifinal series.
And as the WCCO due reminded, there was a steep price paid for that:
Napheesa Collier is more than just a WNBA star who is critical of her league and its leadership.
The Minnesota Lynx player is a vice president of the players union, which means she will be sitting across from WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert at the negotiating table ahead of an Oct. 31 deadline to reach a new collective bargaining agreement. If that doesn’t cause enough tension, Collier is also a co-founder of Unrivaled, a three-on-three women’s basketball league that plays in the winter and features WNBA stars. That could give her additional leverage to try to press the WNBA as talks unfold.
And she’s got a lot of support from her rank and file, as ATHLON SPORTS’
Collier’s remarks have not gone unnoticed by her peers. Stars across the WNBA, including A’ja Wilson, Nneka Ogwumike, and Dearica Hamby, voiced public support for her. Others, like Indiana Fever’s Sophie Cunningham, went as far as calling Engelbert “the most delusional leader our league has seen.”
Not to mention another fairly powerful voice in the very media landscape which Engelbert purports to own:
ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith has now taken the criticism a step further, saying Engelbert should step down from her role. On Wednesday, Smith used ESPN’s “First Take” to blast Engelbert’s leadership and urged her to resign immediately.
Smith argued that Engelbert’s response to Collier’s public accusations was not strong enough. The commissioner had released a short statement saying she was “disheartened” by Collier’s words but did not directly deny the claims. Smith tore into that reaction.
“When a player, any player… attacks you publicly like that, that weak [explicit] statement commissioner Engelbert gave is not good enough,” Smith said. “Could you imagine a commissioner being called out like that directly? And that timid, tepid statement? She basically provided no defense of herself.”
And when a voice that loud with a megaphone that large calls one out, it apparently gets traction, as the SPORTING NEWS’ Jeremy Beren took note of in HIS report from yesterday:
As a potential lockout looms that could threaten the 2026 season, Engelbert has been backed into a corner. Collier’s comments cut to the bone, and Engelbert did not exactly deny anything the MVP runner-up said during her exit interview in Minneapolis.
The criticism came hours before Sports Business Journal dropped a bombshell report: Engelbert is set to leave her role as commissioner — perhaps voluntarily — following the CBA negotiations.
According to a league source who spoke to SBJ, Engelbert’s difficulty in forming relationships with players has led to significant strain — ever since her refusal to immediately condemn hate speech that targeted players like Angel Reese on social media last year.
Though a WNBA spokesperson has called the report “categorically false,” it could be argued that the writing is already on the wall for Engelbert in the wake of Collier’s statement — an explosive, potentially-transformative decision that weakens the commissioner’s position even further.
And should the league indeed strike not only will the second wave of Engelbert’s expansionist plans be stymied, but guess who and what might be getting exponentially more attention in the wake of that void? Yeppers, Unrivaled, the women’s basketball league that will actually play games and plans to air games on perhaps the one outlet (TNT Sports) that Engelbert couldn’t get to play ball. The one that Collier co-owns.
The good news for now is that the Mercury-Aces series is pitting two teams peaking at the right time in markets with less distractions this time of year than others with climates that reporters will eagerly flock to. It could make up some of the difference already seen for not having Clark as a part of the post-season, now not even as a cheerleader for her Indiana Fever in the wake of the Aces’ thrilling overtime Game 5 victory over them on Tuesday night.
And it might just be enough momentum for the folks really in charge of the league–the NBA itself–to ensure that Engelbert will sooner than later be reduced to little more than yet another fan watching all of those games she negotiated rights fees for on that plethora of platforms. The more one reads into this, that outcome seems to be a slam dunk.
Until next time…