Inside WNBA players' rocky relationship with commissioner Cathy Engelbert

NNEKA OGWUMIKE HEARD astir Napheesa Collier's exit interrogation earlier she saw it. She was astatine location erstwhile her telephone buzzed from a substance connection barrage, subordinate aft subordinate asking if she had seen Collier's statement.

Ogwumike didn't cognize what everyone was talking about.

A speedy hunt connected societal media filled her in. Collier had spent four minutes criticizing WNBA enactment successful wide and commissioner Cathy Engelbert successful particular. The Minnesota Lynx prima described the WNBA's enactment arsenic "the worst successful the world" and elaborate Engelbert's deficiency of relationships with players.

"My archetypal thoughts were, 'I agree,'" said Ogwumike, president of the WNBA players union. "And that I was arrogant to beryllium portion of this national and with players similar Phee who show their leadership."

She sent Collier a congratulatory text.

The effect from different WNBA players was swift and decisive. Post aft station praised Collier.

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

The enactment Collier has received from crossed the WNBA, including from her chap members of the enforcement committee of the WNBPA, points to an erosion of the narration betwixt Engelbert and the players successful the league she leads.

Shortly aft Engelbert was named the league's archetypal commissioner connected May 15, 2019, players celebrated the signing of a corporate bargaining agreement. Both the commissioner and the players described it arsenic "groundbreaking." Since then, Engelbert has presided implicit important maturation for the league, but determination person been moments of turmoil arsenic well.

Some of those moments person been funny, similar the comically tiny All-Star MVP trophy Engelbert presented to Kelsey Plum successful 2022. Some person not been comic astatine all, similar erstwhile she mispronounced Golden State Valkyries first-year caput manager Natalie Nakase's sanction earlier presenting her with the 2025 Coach of the Year award. Some person undermined the players' consciousness of nonrecreational and idiosyncratic worth and near scars that haven't adjacent begun to heal.

With the WNBA Finals continuing successful Phoenix and the CBA acceptable to expire connected Oct. 31 amid contentious negotiations, attraction has been diverted to the players' skepticism of Engelbert's quality to lead.

Their mistrust has been gathering for years.

MEMBERS OF THE WNBPA enforcement committee sat successful precocious chairs connected a Bradenton, Florida, hoops tribunal successful beforehand of the WNBA squad logos. It was Aug. 27, 2020, and the sports world, similar nine astatine large, was grappling with the realities of COVID-19 and constabulary brutality.

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

The WNBA extended its interruption for different night, and Ogwumike explained wherefore successful a unrecorded interrogation connected ESPN.

"As we had specified a dense time past night, we besides decided contiguous to instrumentality games off," she said. "The players of the WNBA usage contiguous to bespeak ... we volition proceed demonstrating our solidarity by not playing today. It is important to enactment that this is not a strike. This is not a boycott. This is affirmatively a time of reflection."

Games resumed connected Aug. 28.

The WNBA players were sequestered that play astatine IMG Academy playing successful beforehand of bare stands arsenic a precaution against COVID.

They enactment activism astatine the halfway of their 2020 bubble season. The players dedicated the play to the "Say Her Name" campaign, which highlighted women who had experienced constabulary brutality. "Black Lives Matter" decals were enactment connected the court. Webinars led by the recently created societal justness assembly featured speakers crossed the governmental and advocacy worlds.

"One props that I bash person to springiness Cathy is that she a...