Sophie Cunningham Says the WNBA Needs a New Commissioner. She’s Right About Cathy Engelbert
Sophie Cunningham of the Indiana Fever went on the record with USA Today this week and said what a lot of players around the WNBA have been whispering all season. Cathy Engelbert may not be the commissioner much longer, and the league would be better off if she isn’t.
“So I do feel like, as a whole, that could be a position that’s maybe open at the end of the year, but that’s not my call,” Cunningham told USA Today on August 19. “With where our league is trying to go, I feel like you just want someone who also wants that.”
Translation: the league is exploding in popularity, and the person at the top is not keeping up.
Cunningham said the WNBA needs someone bold, confident, and focused on the players. That is a polite way to say the current commissioner has become the story too often for the wrong reasons. And she is not wrong.
Just this Thursday, Engelbert responded to criticism by blaming “haters” using the WNBA to sow divisiveness. That is not the language of a commissioner steering a league through a pivotal moment. That is the language of a person who has lost the room and knows it.
Look at the pile of open fires Engelbert is presiding over.
The Caitlin Clark rollout has been botched at multiple turns, with officiating controversies the league has refused to address in any meaningful way. The CBA negotiation is looming, and star players do not trust the office. Napheesa Collier has publicly ripped Engelbert. Now Cunningham has essentially called for her job.
Then there is the transgender athlete question, which is about to explode. Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White have both recently declared themselves eligible for the WNBA Draft, identifying as women. The CBA states that only women may play in the league, but does not offer any further definition. That is not a fringe issue anymore, and Engelbert has no coherent public position on it.
Cunningham herself has publicly supported barring transgender athletes from women’s sports, which set off a wave of protests directed at her. Fair or not, that debate is not going away, and it needs a commissioner willing to lead through it rather than duck it.
Here is the case for Engelbert, in fairness. Under her tenure the league landed a massive new media rights deal, expanded to new markets, and rode the popularity wave that Clark, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers helped create. Revenue is up. Franchise valuations are up. That is not nothing.
But commissioner is a job about the next five years, not the last five. The league needs somebody who can negotiate a CBA that keeps stars from bolting to overseas leagues or Unrivaled. Somebody who can address officiating openly. Somebody who can talk to players like partners instead of employees.
Engelbert’s contract expires at the end of the 2026 season. Adam Silver and the board owe the WNBA a real conversation about whether she is the right person to sign the next one.
Cunningham said the quiet part loud. The league should listen.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
