The Cathy Engelbert era was about CBAs and SMHs.
But the biggest shake-of-the-head of all — which, according to multiple team executives, “still blows all of our minds” — is that the WNBA’s outgoing commissioner has still never attended a regular-season Caitlin Clark game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
It is both a cautionary tale and likely road map for how the league now replaces Engelbert, who oversaw unprecedented growth during her seven-year tenure (viewership up 454%, attendance up 70%) and unprecedented discord. Her successor after she retires at the end of the year will have to heal as much as they do deals.
In conversations with multiple executives with ties to teams and the league, the No. 1 prerequisite for the next commissioner should be “relationship repair” and/or “relationship building” — and that is in reaction to Engelbert’s perceived disconnect with coaches, GMs, players and specifically Clark herself.
At July’s All-Star Game in Chicago, for instance, chatter about Engelbert never attending a regular-season Fever home game since Clark’s arrival in 2024 (outside of the 2025 Indy All-Star Game) reached a crescendo among executives, with layered disbelief. She eventually scheduled a trip to Indianapolis this August, multiple sources confirmed, before it was mutually unscheduled, never ending up on the calendar. There’s always the playoffs.
Engelbert, through a league spokesperson, declined an interview request for this story. But the point is, industry executives believe the corporate face of the league (Engelbert) should have long been in lockstep with the presumed face of the league (Clark). Sources, though, have indicated that Engelbert — in a league of largely Black women — felt she had to find a delicate balance, trying to avoid any preponderance of Clark favoritism, almost to a fault. Her critics complained she took it too far.
What the commissioner needed to do, according to executives, was get out and travel, do a “listening tour,” be a “Commissioner of the People,“ get to as many venues as possible and be a shoulder to lean or cry on.
“These jobs, you have to go in with your eyes open because that is the job,” said one executive. “It’s not dropping in, et cetera. You’ve got to show up. It’s every weekend. … You just have to be there.
“Because you need the base. You don’t do it in a manipulative way. You do it because you want to and because you care about people. And when you have a base with people, then you can have a hard conversation every now and again. You have something to fall back on.”
Despite the critiques, Engelbert leaves her successor in enviable hands, with a historic CBA that pays players million-dollar annual salaries, an 11-year TV deal worth over $3 billion (with a reset provision in 2028) and expansion in place. In other words, the nuts and bolts of the job are set.
So because the W’s business side is booming — with the average team valuation well into the $400 millions — executives believe the most pressing, right-now quality for the next commissioner is creating goodwill, beginning with that “listening tour.” The executives say whoever vets the candidates should start there — with someone who can work a locker room and a corporate room; someone who can mesmerize the masses with a speech.
Otherwise, according to those executives contacted by SBJ, the preferred qualities of the next commissioner should be someone who: (1) can execute the three-year review in the TV deal; (2) can shepherd the next expansion round of the early 2030s, with Boston angling to be first; (3) can ingratiate themselves to WNBPA Executive Director Terri Jackson; (4) can connect with corporate sponsors and fans, because that’s where the money is and; (5) can create a more symbiotic relationship within the NBA-WNBA league offices at Olympic Tower, where there seemed to be a divide under Engelbert — i.e., NBA Commissioner Adam Silver having to step in and urge her to suspend Alyssa Thomas for roughing up Clark.
Basketball executives say whoever vets the candidates for WNBA commissioner should start with someone who can work a locker room and a corporate room, someone one who can mesmerize the masses with a speech.
Considering it’s a job for a “unifier,” politicians Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris have already made some preliminary speculated lists — partly because Obama’s husband (the former president) and brother (former Oregon State coach Craig Robinson) are basketball junkies; partly because Harris has done forums with the Lynx’s Napheesa Collier; and partly because they’re known the world over. But industry executives say the WNBA has tried outsiders before, and it’s always been a challenge.
After original WNBA President Val Ackerman (initially an NBA employee) resigned in 2005, then-NBA Commissioner David Stern turned to Donna Orender, a former captain of the U.S. women’s national team who had ascended to senior vice president of strategic development in the PGA Tour commissioner’s office. But she had no ties to the NBA, which made for a strenuous learning curve in terms of league culture and starting relationships from scratch.
Stern’s next choice of WNBA president (the title being “president” because Stern felt there should be only one basketball commissioner) was Laurel Richie, who’d been senior vice president and CMO for Girl Scouts of America, another pure outsider. Silver then chose Richie’s successor, Lisa Borders, who shared a spot with him on the Duke University board. But that lasted just two-plus years.
Engelbert was the supposed breakthrough when she was hired in 2019, anointed as the first W commissioner because, according to insiders, Silver believed it was time to give the job a premium title. Engelbert checked every box, too: CEO of Deloitte; former player; her father, Kurt, drafted by the Pistons. But she was also another outsider who industry executives say struggled to connect with FIBA and USA Basketball. They admit it wasn’t totally her fault because she inherited conflicts (such as the WNBA dealing with the FIBA World Cup hiatus right now). But that’s the argument for picking an in-house candidate this time around: Someone who knows what makes FIBA and USA Basketball tick.
Of course, it all depends on what the league’s search firm (which hasn’t been announced), the W’s board of governors and Silver himself define as “in-house.” They’re the ones who will vet and formalize the commissioner choice, a process that will begin at the end of this month, with Engelbert providing some input and Silver presumably having final say.
Cathy Engelbert, the first to hold the title of commissioner of the WNBA, will leave the post at the end of the year. Getty Images
So far, the potential candidates run the gamut. Amy Brooks, a former Stanford player who once ran the NBA’s TMBO unit, is as in-house as it gets. Another stellar in-house name, Deputy Commissioner Mark Tatum, might be deemed by some as ineligible because he’s a man, but one executive said, “Why? The LPGA has a male commissioner [Craig Kessler].”
Swin Cash, a former player and current Prime Video broadcaster who once was the Pelicans’ VP of basketball operations and team development, has been mentioned — although one executive said, “If you told me she ran the team, I would say, ‘OK.’ But general head or vice president of player personnel, that means nothing to me.” But still another executive, Liberty CEO Keia Clarke, has pushed Cash hard for the job in the past and once said: “She is a businesswoman. She’s been an entrepreneur since forever, in just the way she thinks and the way she collaborates.”
Otherwise, former players — such as WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike — who have never run a franchise are long shots. The league would more likely zero in on a current WNBA team president (the Liberty’s Clarke, the Valkyries’ Jess Smith) or a current team owner (Nadia Rawlinson, co-owner and operating chairman of the Sky) or an NBA team president (perhaps Shelly Cayette-Weston of the Hornets, a former player at Tulane).
If they go out-of-house (and that’s when they’ve had those mixed results), they could turn to Renie Anderson, the NFL’s chief revenue officer and executive vice president, or Ally Financial’s Andrea Brimmer or Duke Athletic Director Nina King. With more NBA teams bidding for W franchises, the NBA’s board of governors will weigh in heavily, too; they certainly have Silver’s ear.
But listen closely to Silver himself — and how in recent months he’s gone to great lengths to defend Clark, saying she’s been politicized, saying “it’s incredibly unfair to her,” saying she has “brought an entirely new audience” to the WNBA.
Engelbert never went down that Clark road — literally and figuratively — but Silver is bound to find somebody who will.