Napheesa Collier cut through the noise and targeted the person right at the top of the ladder, Cathy Engelbert. Collier tore through every obstacle, blasting the league office as “tone-deaf,” “dismissive,” more eager to sabotage its own product than support it, driven by “control and power” instead of innovation or collaboration. “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,” Collier said. Now, just days after Collier set Engelbert on fire (metaphorically, of course), the league has announced a change in schedule to one of their awards.
The WNBA won’t announce the All-Defensive team according to the planned schedule released on September 12. The league reportedly rescheduled the award announcement, according to Annie Costabile of FOS.“The announcement for the WNBA All-Defensive teams has been rescheduled, a league spokesperson said. It was noted in the league’s original release that all dates are subject to change.” Costabile wrote.
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All the previous awards (MVP, ROY, DPOY, COY, MIP, Sixth Player, Executive) have been rolled out per the league’s postseason plan. So, Collier’s statement and the outrage that followed likely prompted the league office to delay this major announcement. Considering 2024 Defensive Player Of The Year Collier was likely voted in the first team, this reads dicey to some fans. Whether that has any truth to it, we will never know.
The league has stayed silent on whether the All-Defensive team reveal was pushed back. It’s plausible the league is holding off, preferring to fire back on Napheesa Collier’s statements on its own terms rather than pair a response with an award announcement. The only response Engelbert gave was a pretty tame which did not touch all Collier’s points.
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“Let me say for the record: you should resign,” Stephen A Smith said. “When a player — any player — but especially one of that magnitude attacks you publicly like that, that weak ass statement that Commissioner Engelbert gave is not good enough.”
Many things have changed in the WNBA within a span of a week. Amid the larger CBA conversation and a potential lockout in 2026, the All-Defensive team might feel inconsequential to some, but giving players their flowers on time while you are in a dispute with them is a vital part of the ‘relationship building’ for Engelbert that the Sports Business Journal report talked about. Cathy Engelbert just can’t escape fire, as former NBA star Gilbert Arenas has demanded a public apology from the Commissioner.
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Cathy Engelbert Is Stuck In the Past
Napheesa Collier knows how to set fire to a scene. All of her anti-referee and anti-commissioner might have flown comparatively under the radar if not for the mention of Caitlin Clark and Engelbert’s comments on it.”I … asked how [Engelbert] planned to fix the fact that players like Caitlin, Angel, and Paige, who are clearly driving massive revenue for the league, are making so little for their first four years,” Collier said. “Her response was, ‘Caitlin should be grateful she makes $16 million off the court because without the platform the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything.’”
While that statement has already been debunked, 3-time NBA All-Star Gilbert Arenas added another angle to Cathy Engelbert’s thought process. “That WNBA commissioner needs to upgrade her stance. Her statement woulda worked if Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark hadn’t come onto the scene,” Arenas wrote. In another post, he added: “Them two came into the league retiring their parents. They were millionaires in college already.”
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In the pre-NIL era, college students longed to go pro to get their bag (so to speak). While college basketball had incredible quality, it did not pay its players’ bills. And while WNBA salaries seem like peanuts in NBA comparison, they were the best women’s basketball players could get at the time. The NIL era changed everything. College players could get brand endorsements, and the likes of Caitlin Clark had already signed with Nike before even setting foot in the W. Now, the rookie salaries of $66,079–$78,831 look even worse than they did in pre NIL era.