Inside WNBA players' rocky relationship with commissioner Cathy Engelbert

NNEKA OGWUMIKE HEARD about Napheesa Collier's exit interview before she saw it. She was at home when her phone buzzed from a text message barrage, player after player asking if she had seen Collier's statement.

Ogwumike didn't know what everyone was talking about.

A quick search on social media filled her in. Collier had spent four minutes criticizing WNBA leadership in general and commissioner Cathy Engelbert in particular. The Minnesota Lynx star described the WNBA's leadership as "the worst in the world" and detailed Engelbert's lack of relationships with players.

"My initial thoughts were, 'I agree,'" said Ogwumike, president of the WNBA players union. "And that I was proud to be part of this union and with players like Phee who display their leadership."

She sent Collier a congratulatory text.

The response from other WNBA players was swift and decisive. Post after post praised Collier.

"Phee speaks for me," Elizabeth Williams, a member of the union's executive committee, told ESPN.

The support Collier has received from across the WNBA, including from her fellow members of the executive committee of the WNBPA, points to an erosion of the relationship between Engelbert and the players in the league she leads.

Shortly after Engelbert was named the league's first commissioner on May 15, 2019, players celebrated the signing of a collective bargaining agreement. Both the commissioner and the players described it as "groundbreaking." Since then, Engelbert has presided over significant growth for the league, but there have been moments of turmoil as well.

Some of those moments have been funny, like the comically small All-Star MVP trophy Engelbert presented to Kelsey Plum in 2022. Some have not been funny at all, like when she mispronounced Golden State Valkyries first-year head coach Natalie Nakase's name before presenting her with the 2025 Coach of the Year award. Some have undermined the players' sense of professional and personal value and left scars that haven't even begun to heal.

With the WNBA Finals continuing in Phoenix and the CBA set to expire on Oct. 31 amid contentious negotiations, attention has been diverted to the players' skepticism of Engelbert's ability to lead.

Their mistrust has been building for years.

MEMBERS OF THE WNBPA executive committee sat in high chairs on a Bradenton, Florida, basketball court in front of the WNBA team logos. It was Aug. 27, 2020, and the sports world, like society at large, was grappling with the realities of COVID-19 and police brutality.

On Aug. 23, Jacob Blake, a Black man, had been shot by police in Kenosha, Wisconsin. On Aug. 26, teams in the WNBA, NBA, MLS and MLB chose to cancel their games.

The WNBA extended its break for another night, and Ogwumike explained why in a live interview on ESPN.

"As we had such a heavy day last night, we also decided today to take games off," she said. "The players of the WNBA use today to reflect ... we will continue demonstrating our solidarity by not playing today. It is important to note that this is not a strike. This is not a boycott. This is affirmatively a day of reflection."

Games resumed on Aug. 28.

The WNBA players were sequestered that season at IMG Academy playing in front of empty stands as a precaution against COVID.

They put activism at the core of their 2020 bubble season. The players dedicated the season to the "Say Her Name" campaign, which highlighted women who had experienced police brutality. "Black Lives Matter" decals were put on the court. Webinars led by the newly created social justice council featured speakers across the political and advocacy worlds.

"One props that I do have to give Cathy is that she always allowed the players to speak up and be their true selves," said Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally, who was a rookie during that 2020 campaign. "I came into a league where the commissioner allowed us to speak up against police brutality, against injustices in this country and really be free-minded women."

Earlier that summer, before the 2020 season began, U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, then co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, wrote a letter to Engelbert sharing her opposition to the Black Lives Matter movement and asking the league to put an American flag on every jersey.

In response, players organized a campaign to oust Loeffler from the Senate by wearing "Vote Warnock" T-shirts to games to show support for her Democratic opponent, Raphael Warnock. Warnock defeated Loeffler in a runoff in January 2021 and won a full term in 2022. Loeffler sold the Dream in February 2021.

When the players decided to postpone the games scheduled for Aug. 26, 2020, Engelbert publicly backed their decision.

"We absolutely support them," Engelbert said at the time. "We are running a 'player-first' agenda, we've said that from the beginning. That's why I was here, to listen, to talk with them, to impart some of my knowledge and experience and to think through strategically what this night meant to them."

Players recalled that the decision wasn't as collaborative as it appeared.

"Conversations from Cathy and leadership were kind of a little bit more skewed towards playing, and business, and numbers," Ogwumike said Monday. "And I just really did not feel like that was the time and place to be discussing those types of matters."

"We had to push her on all the activism we did in the bubble," former executive committee member Layshia Clarendon said last week. "The sentiment from players was very much, 'No, we're doing this. I don't care if you like it or not.'"

On Tuesday, Engelbert declined an interview request from ESPN.

In 2024, when Caitlin Clark, who is white, and Angel Reese, who is Black, brought their stardom to the WNBA, commentary about their rivalry and the league as a whole took on a racialized dynamic, particularly as it pertained to the on-court treatment of Clark. Engelbert answered a question from CNBC anchor Tyler Mathisen about online toxicity among the WNBA fan base by arguing for the need for rivalries. "But the one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry," Engelbert said. "That's what makes people watch. They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don't want everybody being nice to one another."

WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson released a statement condemning those remarks. "This is not about rivalries or iconic personalities fueling a business model," she said. "This kind of toxic fandom should never be tolerated or left unchecked. It demands immediate action, and frankly, should have been addressed long ago."

Engelbert later acknowledged that her initial comments "missed the mark," but it was another blemish, this time publicly, on an issue deeply important to players.

But even successes have seemingly created distance between Engelbert and players.

ESCORTED BY FEVER security, Clark walked through baggage claim at a Dallas airport ahead of Indiana's May 2, 2024, preseason game against the Dallas Wings. Teammates Aliyah Boston and Lexie Hull walked right behind her.

A man kept pace alongside, holding his cellphone to capture Clark's arrival. A local news crew walked in front of them.

Charter travel was banned by the CBA then, and despite multiple years of players complaining, nothing had changed.

Players would post on social media when their commercial flights were delayed or during tough travel days. In 2018, the Las Vegas Aces forfeited a game against the Washington Mystics after travel delays impacted the team's readiness to play. New York Liberty owners Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai reportedly paid for multiple charter flights to away games in 2022 and also for an unsanctioned team trip to Napa, California. The league fined the Liberty $500,000 for violating league rules.

That year, Engelbert said the league couldn't pay for charter flights for all teams without compromising league finances. "It would be more than $20 million a year to fund charter flights for an entire WNBA season," Engelbert said. "So this is something that we're not going to jeopardize the financial health of the league and be irresponsible about. If we can get it funded by sponsors and supporters, great, but that's not where we are. We do not have that."

The Liberty fine was frustrating to Sabally, who played for Dallas at the time. "That was just like 'Why would you do that?'" Sabally said. "Why would you hold back teams that want to give resources to their players and not encourage more on the lower end to step up? That's where my viewpoint changed a little bit."

Leaguewide charter travel was not implemented even after YouTuber Alex Stein pushed Mercury security in an attempt to reach Brittney Griner in June 2023. Griner was imprisoned in Russia for 10 months in 2022 and was released in a high-profile prisoner swap, which some protested. (A week after that incident, the league said Griner could fly charter for Phoenix's remaining road games that season.) But one week after Clark was greeted by cameras at that DFW airport baggage claim ahead of a preseason game against the Wings, Engelbert announced a charter flight program for the 2024 and 2025 seasons, making the Clark close encounter the final dicey entry in the WNBA's controversial commercial flight era.

Said Williams: "[Engelbert] took all of the credit."

Beyond charter flights, Engelbert can point to many other success stories. Television ratings are up. Merch sales are up. The league has signed new media deals beginning in 2026 reportedly worth in excess of $200 million per year.

Team owners are investing in facilities and player amenities. Mark Davis bought the Aces in January 2021, and design work on a practice facility for the team began in February. The facility opened in 2023, marking the first WNBA team-specific facility (multiple teams shared NBA facilities). The Seattle Storm opened a facility in April 2024. Phoenix followed in July. The Chicago Sky and Dallas are scheduled to open new facilities in 2026. New York, Indiana and the Los Angeles Sparks have announced plans to build.

The league also has expanded and valuations have soared. When Engelbert took over, the WNBA consisted of 12 teams. Fifteen teams will tip off the 2026 season, and by 2030, the league will have 18 teams. The Dream reportedly paid a $10 million expansion fee in 2008, while the latest three expansion teams paid $250 million.

Even that success has failed to unite the players behind Engelbert. Rather, it has sown distrust because of how that success is described. Players believe their contributions have been overlooked in favor of the commissioner touting her own success.

"Players felt like she talked like we should constantly be in a position of gratitude versus a partnership," Williams said. "Her language and intent may have said 'partnership,' but unfortunately it didn't necessarily come off that way."

Said Plum, another member of the union's executive committee: "It's not just what she says but how she says it."

THE EROSION OF the players' relationship with Engelbert spilled into public view at a moment when CBA negotiations are kicking into high gear. The Oct. 31 deadline is 22 days away, and players have repeatedly indicated that a deal is not close.

"This is not a copy-and-paste job," one source said. "We're not gonna just fix a few provisions. This needs to have an overhaul, because that's what the moment demands."

The primary sticking point is salary structure. In the 2020 CBA, the salary cap was predetermined for each year over the life of the agreement. For example, if players had not chosen to opt out of the CBA, the salary cap for 2026 and 2027 would be $1,552,300 and $1,598,800, respectively. The players want a salary cap that is tied to league revenue alongside higher salaries. The 2025 rookie scale started at $66,079, the veteran minimum was $78,831 and the maximum salary was $249,244.

Players believe they have earned a raise. A significant raise.

"We can all win this, and that frustration has been boiling," Plum said. "This isn't [Cathy] or [the PA], it's both of us winning and upping our levels. The conversation has been combative and that's upping the frustration."

Engelbert attempted to address that frustration last week in Las Vegas ahead of Game 1 of the WNBA Finals.

"I was disheartened to hear that some players feel the league and me personally do not care about them or listen to them," she said. "And if the players in the W don't feel appreciated and valued by the league, then we have to do better and I have to do better."

That statement did not appease all the players.

"Honestly, no comment," Sabally said. "Because that's really what she gave."