The WNBA Finals concluded final week with the crowning of a brand new dynasty: The Las Vegas Aces took residence their third title in 4 years. However the undercurrent of the sequence — and the whole playoffs — was one in every of excessive stakes and stress. And it’d intensify because the league undergoes one in every of its most difficult offseasons ever.
The WNBA has loved super progress in recent times, with attendance, scores, funding and franchise valuations all reaching new heights. However how all of that interprets into lasting, transformational change is the query with which the league, its gamers and different stakeholders are grappling with.
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The WNBA and WNBPA are amid negotiations for a brand new collective bargaining settlement, and the potential of a piece stoppage looms. Cathy Engelbert’s future as commissioner is in query after Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier ripped WNBA management as “the worst … on the earth” in an explosive exit interview. And all eyes will probably be on how the league responds to main considerations over officiating after it got here to a head within the postseason.
ESPN surveyed an array of WNBA staff homeowners, executives, gamers and different trade sources on what the turmoil of the previous few weeks — plus the upcoming CBA deadline on Oct. 31. — and what all of it means because the league enters arguably a very powerful time in its historical past.
‘Change is a should’: Have WNBA homeowners misplaced religion in Engelbert?
One of many lasting photographs of the WNBA season was Engelbert getting relentlessly booed by the group at Phoenix’s Mortgage Matchup Heart throughout the Aces’ championship trophy presentation. A smaller group of followers continued the ruckus as she walked off the court docket and right into a tunnel.
May that be the ultimate time we see Engelbert serving as WNBA commissioner?
“After you have that sort of combating along with your finest gamers,” one staff government informed ESPN, “it is a demise spiral.”
Tensions brewed all through the WNBA season as gamers and coaches expressed frustration with officiating and as CBA negotiations intensified. However the dialog shifted particularly towards Engelbert throughout the WNBA semifinals.
On Sept. 26, Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve was ejected after erupting on the referees over a non-call on a play the place Collier was injured. Reeve decried league officiating in a scathing postgame deal with and was fined and suspended one sport.
In her exit interview a couple of days after the Lynx had been eradicated, Collier denounced WNBA management and publicized components of beforehand personal conversations she had with Engelbert. Collier claimed Engelbert stated Caitlin Clark “must be grateful. She makes $16 million off the court docket as a result of with out the platform that the WNBA provides her, she would not make something” and that “gamers must be on their knees, thanking their fortunate stars for the media rights deal that I received them.”
A swath of WNBA gamers publicly backed Collier. In her deal with to reporters earlier than Sport 1 of the Finals on Oct. 3, Engelbert stated there have been “plenty of inaccuracies” in feedback attributed to her by Collier and denied saying the particular assertion concerning Clark. However Engelbert acknowledged, “If the gamers within the W do not feel appreciated and valued by the league, then we now have to do higher, and I’ve to do higher.”
Nonetheless, the commissioner is primarily tasked with representing the homeowners, not the gamers, amid negotiations such because the CBA talks. However a number of staff homeowners informed ESPN they’re additionally sad with Engelbert’s management. “If I had a vote,” one proprietor stated, “I’d in all probability ask for a substitute.” It appears unlikely that any main management change will occur whereas CBA negotiations proceed, and Engelbert informed reporters on the Finals she’s “by no means been a quitter.”
“In case you hearth her now, it is admitting weak spot. It is a horrible search for the league,” one other proprietor stated. “I am unable to stand what [Collier] did. That was a personal dialog. It makes me not need to hearth her, though I feel she must be fired.”
Frustration with Engelbert spans a number of areas: That points delivered to the commissioner and league workplace, reminiscent of officiating, are regularly left unresolved; that a few of Engelbert’s enterprise selections — such because the $75 million capital elevate in 2022 that offered off a 16% stake within the league — may need difficult the WNBA’s possession construction and hamstrung the league from rising much more; and in how Engelbert interacts and communicates with others.
“I imagine Napheesa’s feedback,” one of many aforementioned homeowners stated. “I feel generally the strategy of [Engelbert’s] message hasn’t all the time been delivered nicely. … Anytime there’s been some challenges, whether or not it is a participant facet and even an possession facet so far as questioning issues, there might be a few of that derogatory tone.
“CBA negotiations and different negotiations are all the time laborious, but it surely won’t have been as confrontational, I feel, if there was a little bit bit higher dialogue and relationship constructing there. And I do not know at this stage if that is repairable or not.”
Engelbert’s position is completely different than in most main sports activities leagues as a result of she additionally studies to NBA commissioner Adam Silver. When requested lately concerning the state of affairs with Collier, Silver stated Engelbert “has presided over six years of a few of the strongest progress we have not solely seen within the WNBA however any sports activities league in historical past. Nevertheless it’s turn out to be too private.”
“She has finished a lot for the league commercially — folks overlook how unhealthy it was when she received there,” one other trade insider stated. “Her time will finish. I simply assume Adam is damaged up by it.”
Throughout the board, league sources who spoke with ESPN agree that if Engelbert needs to remain, she should rebuild relationships and set up belief with gamers.
“Change is a should,” one other staff government stated. “Both Cathy has to vary how she pertains to the gamers, or there needs to be a change in that position. It may be labored out, however some issues have to vary.”
The CBA negotiations supply Engelbert a final probability to salvage her position.
“It is such a sizzling take world that you simply ask that proper now and it is like, in fact the reply is ‘no’ [Engelbert won’t remain commissioner],” one other staff government stated. “But when she will restore relationships with sure people — which you’ll be able to, you all the time can — and you may get a superb CBA finished, then yeah I feel she will [stay]. It isn’t going to be simple.
“… This CBA will probably be over within the subsequent three to 4 to 5 months, so are you able to construct momentum with them on a private stage and in addition the enterprise stage and in that case, then there will probably be an actual path ahead.” — Alexa Philippou
‘A piece stoppage would not profit anyone’: The state of CBA negotiations
The disagreements and turmoil within the WNBA all appear to wind their means again to the collective bargaining settlement negotiations.
The final CBA was agreed to in January 2020, when Engelbert had been on the job for about seven months. At the moment, one of many present greatest sports activities stars within the nation, the Indiana Fever’s Clark, was a highschool senior in Iowa. Nobody knew how a lot influence she would have on the league’s funds and progress.
Now, practically six years later, the league and gamers’ union should signal a brand new CBA for the 2026 season to happen. The present CBA expires Oct. 31, however that deadline isn’t absolute; each events agreed to a 60-day extension forward of the 2020 CBA, and that is anticipated to occur once more.
“I do not assume it should be finished by Halloween,” one WNBA supply stated. “[But] in the long run, a piece stoppage would not profit anyone. I do not know precisely how far individuals are off. However typically after I’ve seen these items, normally because it comes nearer to crunch time, everyone sort of strikes a little bit bit nearer collectively, and we will get to a deal that is affordable sufficient.”
Nonetheless, Las Vegas guard Chelsea Grey informed ESPN that negotiations are “not the place we thought and needed to be at this time limit. It is market share, it is salaries, it is participant security, it is every little thing.”
One of many greater sticking factors seems to be income sharing and whether or not the gamers’ share of that might keep static all through the length of the following CBA or develop throughout it.
Fever ahead Brianna Turner informed ESPN that making constitution flights, which had been launched for all WNBA journey close to the beginning of the 2024 season, assured within the new CBA is necessary, as is asking groups to proceed paying for housing for gamers throughout the season. Turner believes roster sizes may also have to be elevated (they’re at the moment set at 12 gamers) and factors to the Fever’s 5 season-ending accidents this season for instance.
One league supply informed ESPN that WNBA homeowners who’re affiliated with NBA groups and people who aren’t may need completely different priorities throughout CBA negotiations.
“I feel you might have some groups that view it as enterprise stage, that means the appreciation of the groups and the expansion of the league,” the supply stated. “And you will have some groups give it some thought like money move, and if I’ve this expense, what does it imply for my backside line?
“Plenty of instances that comes all the way down to how folks take into consideration their enterprise — as an funding versus a real enterprise on the day-to-day.”
One other supply stated they anticipate the homeowners to be as unified of their negotiating because the gamers are.
“The gamers are crucial. No query,” one league supply stated. “However what they do not perceive is that this league continues to be not that sturdy. It is received a protracted solution to go. So that you screw up the momentum proper now, and you’re messing along with your livelihoods for future generations.”
However the gamers really feel like they’ve heard these sorts of statements for too lengthy.
“There is no progress with out the gamers,” Grey stated. “So why would not we now have one thing get finished that the gamers are pleased with?” — Michael Voepel
‘They’re simply not ok’: The WNBA’s officiating disaster
Coach Nate Tibbetts pinpointed all of the issues that went flawed on the court docket in his information convention following his Phoenix Mercury’s Sport 4 loss and WNBA Finals sweep. However as he sat on the podium after the decisive sport final Friday, he had one other gripe: the officiating. On the finish of the third quarter, Tibbetts was assessed with two fast technical fouls, making him the primary coach in WNBA historical past to be ejected within the Finals.
Two of his gamers, Kahleah Copper and DeWanna Bonner, had been additionally given technical fouls within the sport.
“It is weak, weak, weak,” Tibbetts stated. “We had been enjoying for our playoff lives. … I did not really feel like I deserved it in any respect. … It was bulls—.
“There have been points with officiating all 12 months.”
Tibbetts’ feedback had been a becoming conclusion for a season outlined by officiating complaints and controversy. Gamers, coaches and executives throughout the league have flagged a scarcity of consistency by referees in addition to the extent of physicality allowed.
A staff government stated these are legitimate considerations, however a few of the points have deeper roots.
“My first problem with officiating isn’t the officers, it is that it isn’t resourced from the arenas we play in, to not having a replay middle,” they informed ESPN. “That is a elementary [resource], I feel, that objectively must be modified.”
The manager pointed to the WNBA arenas in Dallas, Connecticut, Chicago and Atlanta as issues — these courts haven’t got the identical expertise and digicam angles that different markets have which can be seen as essential for calling a sport accurately.
The staff government additionally stated there must be a Final Two Minute report like there may be within the NBA to ascertain transparency and credibility with the officers, in addition to a replay middle to evaluate calls in actual time.
“I simply do not assume [the WNBA] is as operational — each by useful resource and construction — and all of that results in a scarcity of transparency, which ends up in folks pondering there’s a lack of accountability,” the staff government stated.
A league supply informed ESPN there may be not an elevated stage of bodily play, and that referees let the groups set up the extent of physicality inside which they need to play.
“They innovate the sport,” the supply stated, “and [the officials] simply attempt to implement that.”
Not everybody believes the physicality within the WNBA has elevated a lot over the previous 5 to 10 years, however a special league supply stated, “Truthfully, it is just like the NBA within the 80s and 90s on the market. When the Unhealthy Boys beat the s— out of Michael Jordan, they needed to change it. They removed handchecking. They removed plenty of stuff as a result of folks did not need to watch.”
There’s additionally a cry for extra sources to be put into coaching the officers.
“They’re simply not ok,” the staff government stated. “They must maintain getting higher and plenty of that comes from training and coaching. … They don’t seem to be attempting to mess up, it is only a actually laborious job and the extent of expertise there is not on the stage it must be.”
A league government stated all WNBA and NBA officers practice within the G League after which select between shifting to the W or NBA. However in line with an government, refs have a tendency to choose the NBA extra typically due to economics.
“They make more cash. There are 82 video games versus 42 video games,” the manager stated. “That’s a part of what the W is attempting to determine — how will we be sure the extent of expertise is sweet throughout the board?”
One other supply added: “I hate to genderize it in any respect, however if you happen to’re being skilled within the G League, marginal contact goes to look very completely different there than in an expert ladies’s sport.”
A league supply informed ESPN {that a} three-pillar vetting course of determines its officers. After a evaluate of every ref by WNBA officers, a panel of impartial reviewers look at the refs and their physique of labor. Coaches can even ship suggestions after each sport by way of a WNBA textual content line. Each official additionally receives a midseason and end-of-season evaluate.
The WNBA is not going to punish — via fines or suspensions — officers for a singular error, but it surely as an alternative assesses their physique of labor via the season. If there’s a frequent string of errors, that’s addressed, sources stated. — Kendra Andrews
Ramona Shelburne and Seth Wickersham contributed to this report.