The WNBA should be in an amazing spot right now. The league is arguably as talented as ever, with recent draft classes bringing in high-profile and high-performing players at several positions. Paige Bueckers is the latest, and she follows Caitlin Clark from a year ago. This week, the 2025 WNBA Finals are set to finish with A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces looking likely to win it all again.
Wilson’s Aces should be the main story, but all eyes are on a controversial war that has been brewing for several days now. Napheesa Collier, the superstar for the Minnesota Lynx, has been going toe-to-toe in the media sphere with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Collier has grown tired of what she deems “a lack of accountability” on the part of Engelbert and the league office when it comes to WNBA officiating and taking proper care of its players.
Collier took particular offense to a comment Engelbert allegedly made in a private conversation with the player. Collier claims the Commissioner said Clark and other players should be “grateful” to the league for giving them the platform to make more money than ever before. Despite the bitterness on both sides, Engelbert revealed a few days ago that she had a meeting scheduled with Collier to bury the hatchet.
Napheesa Collier hated Cathy Engelbert’s WNBA Finals press conference
But the meeting was quickly canceled by Collier, and now we know why. While speaking to Axios, Collier pointed to Engelbert’s Friday press conference as the reason for canceling, with her actions “encapsulating” why the players feel the way they do.
For her to start her speech saying she has the utmost respect for me and for the players, and then to turn around and call me a liar three minutes later… denying words that I heard come straight out of her mouth. I think it just speaks to that lack of accountability and so I really have nothing further to say.
Engelbert had claimed that she never made the comments Collier said she did about Clark. In essence, she called Collier a liar. That obviously did not sit well with the Lynx star, and now it’s fair to wonder if the relationship is well beyond repair.
With the current WNBA Collective Bargaining Agreement set to expire on October 31, there is no assurance that the league will even have a season in 2026. If that’s the case, Clark and every other player will have to look for other ventures in order to play basketball and support themselves financially.
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