Tonight, the Las Vegas Aces and the Phoenix Mercury will meet in Game One of the 2025 WNBA Finals (8 PM ET, ESPN), kicking off the league’s first-ever best-of seven game championship series. The Aces took the regular season series from the Mercury, 3-1, but playoff basketball is an entirely different monster and anything could happen.
The match-up marks the Mercury’s return to the Finals for the first time since 2021 and now, the team is being led, in part, by the player that beat them then: Kahleah Copper. It’s a remarkable turn around for a franchise that scrapped their entire 2024 roster — save Copper and Natasha Mack — and rebuilt around Copper, Satou Sabally, and Alyssa Thomas. Meanwhile, the Aces return to the Finals for the fourth time in six years, led by the league’s first four time MVP, A’ja Wilson. While it’s easy to chalk this run up to another show of the team’s dominance, back when the Aces were hovering at 0.500 and getting blown out at home, few people saw this championship run coming.
While the Aces vs. Mercury and A’ja vs. Alyssa should be the biggest story in all of women’s sports, it’s not. Instead, the most talked about moment and one that will certainly cast a pall over this year’s WNBA Finals is the exit interview of Minnesota Lynx star, Napheesa Collier.
Fresh off a semifinals run that ended with her tearing three ligaments in her ankle and a muscle in her shin, Collier took aim at the poor officiating and the person whom she holds accountable for not addressing the issue: WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Collier did not hold back, saying, “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.”
She continued, “We go to battle every day to protect a shield that doesn’t value us. The league believes it succeeds despite its players, not because of them.”
It was a stunning rebuke by a player not typically known for making them. If it’s Satou Sabally or Seattle Storm’s Gabby Williams — two of Engelbert’s most vocal critics — levying this critique, I don’t think it gains as much traction. But this was Napheesa Collier.
Perennial MVP candidate, Napheesa Collier.
Five time All-Star, Napheesa Collier.
Two time Olympic gold medalist, Napheesa Collier. Vice President of the WNBPA, Napheesa Collier. Unrivaled co-founder, Napheesa Collier. Mila’s mama. Bud to our favorite WNBA studs.
It’s Phee!
When Napheesa Collier comes for you, with receipts, the world listens.
I want to pause here and note one thing: it shouldn’t have to come to this. Everyone’s wearing those shirts that say “everyone watches women’s sports,” but is anyone listening to the women that play them? According to reporting, Collier’s had multiple conversations with league leaders about the same issues that she pointed to earlier this week but all she’d been given in return is lip service. Back during WNBA All-Star when league officials met with an unprecedented number of players to discuss the collective bargaining agreement and they were dismissive about the players and what they understood about league operations. This isn’t an issue limited to the WNBA either: the US Women’s National Team had to sue US Soccer to get the equal pay to which they were entitled. Women shouldn’t have to make their cases public to be taken seriously at the bargaining table…and that Collier and the players in the WNBA feel they still have to, even when other women are sitting across the table, says a lot about how we value female athletes in this country.
The Context Of Napheesa Collier’s Comments About Cathy Engelbert
Late in Game 3 of their semifinal series, Minnesota is down four to the Mercury when Collier inbounds the ball. She shoots a pass to Natisha Hiedeman, immediately gets it back, and then starts her drive toward the basket. Alyssa Thomas knocks the ball out of Collier’s hands, running over Minnesota forward’s legs in the process. No foul was called and as Collier writhed in pain on the court, Thomas cemented Phoenix’s victory with a layup. Collier’s coach, Cheryl Reeve, is incensed. WNBA fans have see Reeve mad before — she famously threw her blazer onto the court in Game 2 of the 2012 WNBA Finals — but never like this. It wasn’t just that encounter between Thomas and Collier or even just Game 3, though Reeve was clearly frustrated about that; instead, Reeve’s outburst felt like the inevitable collusion to months and months of mounting tension between the league’s officiating and WNBA players and coaches.
“I want to call for a change in leadership at the league level when it comes to officiating,” Reeve stated during her post-game media availability. “It’s bad for the game. The officiating crew that we had tonight, for the leadership to deem those three people semifinals playoff worthy, is fucking malpractice.”
Reeve’s words and actions, during and after Game 3, earned her a swift rebuke from the league: an unprecedented $15,000 fine. For the sin of agreeing with Reeve, Aces Head Coach Becky Hammon and Indiana Fever Head Coach Stephanie White were both fined $1,000. It’s hard to know, for certain, what the final straw was for Collier — if it was the injury, Reeve’s unprecedented fine, or the culmination of it all — but here’s what stood out to me: after a call from three of the league’s top coaches for a change in leadership, the league said virtually nothing. MNBA officials delivered a rare defense of their colleagues, ignoring the bulk of what Reeve said and insisting what happened between Thomas and Collier wasn’t a foul. Then, after a performance that a Hall of Fame coach had called “fucking malpractice,” the league sent that same officiating crew to Las Vegas to call a decisive Game 5 of the Aces/Fever series. It was a textbook example of the kind of defensiveness, lack of transparency, and lack of accountability that Collier would call out in her exit interview.
“Fans see it every night. Coaches, both winning and losing, point it out every night in pregame and postgame media, yet leadership just issues fines and looks the other way,” Collier noted. “They ignore the issues that everyone inside the game is begging to be fixed. That is negligence.”
No one wants a lockout. Everyone wants the league to exist and continue thriving for years to come but not at the continued expense of the players.
Some have responded to Collier’s statement by criticizing its timing. Yes, Collier’s comments threaten to eclipse the basketball that’s yet to be played, but two things are worth noting. First, traditionally, ahead of the WNBA Finals, the league’s leader typically hosts a media availability. Last year, Engelbert used that stage to announce the changes in the playoff format. If Collier wanted to push Engelbert to address these issues publicly, this was the optimal moment. Second, the league is on the clock: the WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement expires on Halloween and, based on what we know of the negotiations, talks have largely stalled.
“We’re not where we should be or we thought we would be when we decided to opt out,” Aces guard Chelsea Gray acknowledged to The Athletic. “It’s not anywhere where we thought it would be. It’s market share, it’s salaries, it’s player safety, it’s everything. I wouldn’t say that we’re where we want to be for maybe one thing.”
If there is any hope of avoiding a lockout, something had to happen to jumpstart those conversations and it’s my hope that Collier’s comments will do that. No one wants a lockout. Everyone wants the league to exist and continue thriving for years to come but not at the continued expense of the players. Hopefully, Collier’s words are a clarion call for all parties to return to the bargaining table.
Why Does Everyone Hate Cathy Englebert?
Admittedly, when Collier said that the WNBA has the “worst leadership in the world,” my immediate thought was, “girl, have you seen the president,” but I can see through the hyperbole to understand Collier’s broader point. In a lot of ways, Engelbert has been exactly the WNBA leader that MNBA — who is largely responsible for her hire — wanted her to be. The MNBA wanted a good business partner and they found it in Engelbert, who before arriving in the W, spent 33 years in the private sector at Deloitte, including four years as the company’s CEO. She came out of the gate strong: creating a player marketing agreement, negotiating the 2020 collective bargaining agreement, organizing the Wubble season, and securing a $75M capital raise.
She’s overseen the WNBA’s methodical expansion — from 12 teams when she started in 2019 to 18 teams by 2030 — in a way that ensures long-term stability for those franchises and the league. She’s secured partnerships and drastically improved the WNBA’s marketing strategy. She negotiated an 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal and, in the hours before Collier delivered her blistering critique, announced another media rights deal with Versant/USA Network. She was hired to turn the WNBA into a “thriving business” and by most metrics has succeeded. Engelbert has been a stellar partner for her bosses — Adam Silver and the MNBA — but for the WNBA and its players? The track record isn’t as pristine.
“I also asked how she planned to fix the fact that 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. Her response was, ‘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,'” Collier recounted. “In that same conversation, she told me, ‘Players should be on their knees, thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them.’ That’s the mentality driving our league from the top.”
It seems inevitable that any WNBA commissioner would be forced to choose a side when those groups end up in conflict with each other, and conflicts will inevitably arise.
Collier’s critique of Engelbert isn’t about the business side of the WNBA — though I share the concerns about that undervalued media deal and wish we talked about that more — it’s a values argument about accountability and transparency. It’s less about what kind of businesswoman she is and more about what kind of leader she is. In her response to Collier’s statement, Engelbert said she was “disheartened by the characterization,” did not deny any of the quotes that were attributed to her. It’s not clear that Engelbert has done the work to build genuine relationships with the players or head coaches. Napheesa Collier is a franchise player, Elena Delle Donne is a WNBA champion and multi-time MVP; if outreach from the highest levels isn’t happening with them, it’s impossible to imagine it happening with anyone. That’s a huge problem and one night of dancing to “Knuck if You Buck” with the Studbudz in Indianapolis isn’t going to solve it.
In fairness to Engelbert, though, I don’t know if the role of WNBA commissioner is one that anyone could really thrive in. The nature of the job requires addressing the needs of so many disparate groups — from Adam Silver and the MNBA to the WNBA’s team owners to the WNBA players and coaches — that it’s hard to imagine anyone being able to effectively serve that many masters. It seems inevitable that any WNBA commissioner would be forced to choose a side when those groups end up in conflict with each other, and conflicts will inevitably arise. Engelbert has consistently chosen to align with Adam Silver and the MNBA, at the expense of non-MNBA affiliated owners (see: the Mohegan Tribe) and the players of the WNBA. Could Engelbert even change officiating, unilaterally, even if she wanted to? Even with the increased power given to Engelbert as commissioner — previous leaders of the WNBA have been league presidents — it’s not clear that she could. Frankly, it’s kind of a miracle that Engelbert has lasted this long.
The WNBA Finals kick off tonight from Las Vegas and while all eyes should be on the court, we’ll all be waiting, with bated breath, to hear what Cathy Engelbert has to say. If there’s any hope that Engelbert can survive as commissioner until after the collective bargaining agreement has been finalized, as has been reported, the mending of fences has to start tonight. For the long-term viability and success of this league, it might be a more important event than whoever wins Game One.
Great article, I think the acknowledgement of the successes Cathy has had is worthwhile because it makes her failures even more perplexing. Phee’s criticism of league leadership’s claim that they can’t afford to pay higher salaries without damaging “sustainability” arguably could have been an even harsher criticism – Phee used that to contextualize her grievances about officiating but it’s not just the bad officiating that makes the W’s trajectory unsustainable, it’s also the fact that players can earn much more money playing overseas or in Unrivaled or in college via NIL. It’s mind-boggling that Cathy isn’t treating that as a huge crisis and doing whatever she can to boost salaries in order to make the W into something that players will treat as a priority.
Great article on a subject I’m completely ignorant about. I’d rather watch WNBA then most sports because I like the aggression the players have on the court. Reminds me of older NBA.
Thank you for writing this well-articulated piece on what’s happening in the WNBA. Although I admittedly don’t watch the sport, I’ve loosely followed the league over the last 4-5 years because of Cathy Engelbert; I worked at Deloitte while she was CEO (the first woman!) and found her a bit odd but an impactful leader that I was sad to see go (one of the big wins under her watch was increasing parental leave for everyone to 16 week).
I agree with the analysis that she seems to be overly focusing on the business / partnership side of the league at the expense of the players, which honestly I can see from her (and is troubling). But from my outsider’s view, the WNBA has grown exponentially since she has taken over as commissioner, and I know people who have never before watched or played sports become season ticket holders seemingly overnight.
It would be interesting to see who could (or would) step into her shoes and continue to drive such a complex organization forward.
Great article, successes Cathy Failure is the mother of success