It’s been a rough few months for Cathy Engelbert. Despite the WNBA’s unprecedented growth and popularity, Engelbert’s time as the league’s commissioner seems to be comingw to an end. In a fiery exit interview speech, Napheesa Collier called WNBA leadership the “worst leadership in the world” and accused Engelbert of dismissing players’ concerns about officiating, salaries, and many other issues, as well as taking credit for Caitlin Clark’s off-court success and saying that players should be thanking her for everything she did. Those comments weren’t well received, and Engelbert’s response did little to bridge the gap between her and the players. A new CBA could very well mean a new commissioner.
However, Cathy Engelbert isn’t the only one to blame for the many issues that have been plaguing the WNBA for so long. Engelbert is the face of the WNBA as a business, but she does not have free rein. The NBA still owns 42% of the league, and many NBA owners also own WNBA teams on top of that. Engelbert still has to report to NBA leadership and owners, and many of the issues that plague the WNBA have existed for much longer than Engelbert has been commissioner. Much of what the players are fighting for in the current CBA is a result of years of neglect and poor investments from owners.
When Lexie Brown, a WNBPA player representative for the Storm, appeared on Good Follow with Ros Gold-Onwude, she made sure to remind everyone that Engelbert doesn’t deserve to shoulder all the blame.
“All of a sudden, the league explodes and now everyone wants their money, their return on investment, but y’all weren’t investing in us for real. It was just a tax write off to some of you…Our Seattle owners, the New York owners, the Vegas owners, they are the first ones that really put the money where their mouths were, and everybody has to follow suit,” Brown said. “I feel like people have been really hard on Cathy [Engelbert]—as they should be—but she works for the owners. Everyone needs to be looking at the owners and [ask], ‘What are y’all talking about in these meetings? Who’s for the players and who’s for themselves?’ That’s the questions that need to be asked. It’s not all on Cathy. She’s just the face of it.”
A lack of investment has been an issue in the WNBA for a long time
For the longest time, the WNBA was viewed as a little sister league to the NBA or even a charity case. Players were supposed to simply be grateful that they had a league to play in. That attitude was reflected in many owners’ willingness to invest in their teams. Until recently, most of them got by with doing the bare minimum, and few people outside the players blamed them. Teams didn’t have dedicated practice facilities, appropriate training staff or equipment, or access to charter flights.
A lot of that changed a few years ago. The Las Vegas Aces opened the first state-of-the-art practice facility built solely for a WNBA team in 2023. Aces players have often cited those facilities as one of the many reasons for the team’s success. Other owners have since followed suit, building great, dedicated facilities in Seattle, Phoenix, and Oakland. Other teams, like the Wings, Sparks, Sky, Liberty, and Fever are planning or building practice facilities at the moment.
The WNBA has moved past the time when it was acceptable for owners not to invest in their players and everyone will have to put in the work to catch up with the franchises leading the charge. To accomplish that, owners and NBA leadership will have to continually be held accountable.