In one breath Friday night, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said she needed to repair her relationship with players, starting with Napheesa Collier.
In the next, she said the influential Lynx star lied about a conversation they had.
Now a planned meeting between the two is canceled. Collier decided to cancel the meeting after Engelbert’s comments, ESPN reported Saturday night. Representatives for Collier and the WNBA did not respond to requests to comment.
The Engelbert–Collier rupture could have major consequences, as Engelbert is representing the owners at the bargaining table while Collier is a union vice president. The players and owners are negotiating a new labor deal that will determine how the league works for years to come; the current collective bargaining agreement expires in 26 days.
Speaking at her annual WNBA Finals press conference Friday night, Engelbert said she planned to meet to clear the air with Collier. Three days earlier, the 29-year-old Minnesota forward had trashed her as “the worst leadership in the world” in a stunning four-minute statement. She also called league leadership “tone-deaf” and “dismissive.”
Collier also relayed two comments she said the commissioner made to her at Unrivaled, the winter 3-on-3 league Collier co-founded with Liberty star Breanna Stewart.
First, she said Engelbert told her that “players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media-rights deal that I got them.” (The WNBA has a new media rights deal that will pay it more than $200 million annually starting next season, jointly negotiated with the NBA.) Engelbert was asked about this remark on Friday and did not outright deny making it, instead complaining about “inaccuracies” and “clickbait.”
Second, Collier said she asked Engelbert what the league planned to do about the five-figure salaries of players on rookie deals like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers. According to Collier, Engelbert responded that Clark should be “grateful she makes $16 million off the court, because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything.”
Asked about that by Front Office Sports at the Las Vegas press conference, Engelbert said unequivocally, “Obviously I did not make those comments … I certainly did not say that.”
That was apparently too much for Collier. ESPN reports that Engelbert forcefully pushing back on her version of events “pretty much pushed the relationship beyond repair.”
Engelbert said at the press conference that she exchanged text messages with Collier between Tuesday and Friday.
Over those three days, nearly every WNBA player who spoke publicly said they backed Collier, including Clark. “I have great respect for Phee and I think she made a lot of very valid points,” Clark said Thursday. “Phee said it all.”
