Yesterday could be known as the day everything changed in the WNBA. Star player Napheesa Collier (known by fans as Phee) gave an exit interview after her team the Minnesota Lynx were eliminated in the playoffs. Collier, who was injured during the playoff series, read from a prepared statement that shocked everyone watching—if not for its contents, for its frankness.
Collier criticized league leadership, and specifically commissioner (and former Deloitte CEO) Cathy Engelbert, in the strongest terms. “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 said. Of all the WNBA’s current players, Collier has perhaps the most exposure to what it takes to run a sports league. She cofounded Unrivaled, the VC-backed women’s basketball league that runs during the WNBA off-season; it’s led by her husband. She said she’s seen that work up close—and it reinforced her belief that the athletes she plays alongside are not being served by their current league leaders, from business strategy to general leadership—like reaching out to players when they’re seriously injured.
This week’s concerns started with officiating. Three out of 13 total head coaches were suspended or fined by the league for complaining about refs in the playoffs. Now, thanks to Phee, it’s boiled over into a bigger discussion about the state of the league. Other players, from Angel Reese to the Indiana Fever’s Lexie Hull, have voiced support for Collier and co-signed everything she said. Even Mark Cuban has weighed in, calling officiating issues in both the NBA and WNBA “purely a management issue.”
It’s important to note that the league and its players are in the midst of negotiating a collective bargaining agreement. It’s been a rocky season—after a surge of attention during her rookie year, Caitlin Clark was injured. Angel Reese was recently suspended and was suspected to be interested in a trade. Players have been told more money is coming after media deals were signed (without taking effect yet), but it’s been a long two seasons waiting for it. Despite (or because of) all the successes and excitement in women’s sports over the past few years, tensions are running high. Players are ready to work together to earn their share of the sport’s profits; they’ve worn “Pay Us What You Owe Us” shirts on the court. A lockout is on the table if they don’t secure a contract. Engelbert has also said she’s aiming for a “transformational” CBA; the first one under her tenure in 2020 increased player salaries and added maternity benefits, but there’s a long way to go.
This got more personal, though, than basic labor negotiations. Collier specifically described conversations she said she had with Engelbert about player compensation. Collier said that Engelbert said that Caitlin Clark “should be grateful” to the league, because she wouldn’t be able to earn millions off the court without it. She said that the commissioner said that players should be “on their knees thanking their lucky stars” for the media deal she got them. A’ja Wilson, four-time MVP with a major Nike deal, said she was “disgusted” by those comments. Engelbert said in a statement that she was “disheartened” by how Collier characterized their conversations and that she remains focused on ensuring a bright future for the league.
I wrote about the state of the league a year ago, spending time with Engelbert at 2024’s All-Star Weekend and speaking with players, agents, advertisers, owners, media execs, and other stakeholders throughout the sport. I can confirm—Engelbert is prone to candid, off-the-cuff remarks (you can read some of them in that 2024 story).
My takeaway: Being the commissioner of the WNBA is a very hard job. Being the commissioner of any league is a hard job, but with WNBA job comes with extra challenges—including bosses at the NBA and a divide among ownership between those with billions who want to step on the gas and those who have been there for years, but don’t have endlessly deep pockets. It’s more complicated than running a startup league like Unrivaled. The leader of the league must have fluency in business and sports, yes, but also in race, culture, social justice, and more. When the NBA hired Engelbert six years ago, it sought a “proven executive,” Adam Silver told me, to tackle some of the fundamentals the WNBA was missing. Players, though, want more than the fundamentals.
And women’s basketball’s most important stakeholder will always be its players. Without them, there is no sport. Fans have allegiance to those players—more than to teams, more than to the league. And the media dollars and sponsorship money that power the growth of the sport depends on those fans. The best owners in the league know that, too. To secure the league’s “bright future,” its commissioner needs to earn those players’ respect.
Emma Hinchliffe
emma.hinchliffe@fortune.com
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