{"id":190866,"date":"2025-10-05T06:22:17","date_gmt":"2025-10-05T06:22:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/190866\/"},"modified":"2025-10-05T06:22:17","modified_gmt":"2025-10-05T06:22:17","slug":"napheesa-collier-cancels-meeting-with-wnba-commissioner-engelbert-amid-tensions-ap-source-says-winnipeg-free-press","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/190866\/","title":{"rendered":"Napheesa Collier cancels meeting with WNBA Commissioner Engelbert amid tensions, AP source says \u2013 Winnipeg Free Press"},"content":{"rendered":"

LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 Minnesota forward Napheesa Collier canceled a meeting with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert expected to take place next week, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press on Saturday night.<\/p>\n

The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren\u2019t authorized to speak publicly about it.<\/p>\n

Engelbert said Friday night that she had talked to Collier earlier this week after the Lynx player said the league has \u201cthe worst leadership in the world\u201d and a commissioner who lacks accountability in a blistering assessment. The two had planned to meet next week, either in person or virtually.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"FILE
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFILE – WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaks during a news conference before the WNBA All-Star basketball game, Saturday, July 19, 2025, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo\/Michael Conroy, File)<\/p>\n

ESPN first reported the meeting was canceled.<\/p>\n

\n The commissioner said before Game 1 of the WNBA Finals that comments made by Collier about a private conversation between them were filled with \u201cinaccuracies,\u201d including one about Caitlin Clark needing the WNBA to succeed financially. The commissioner denied saying that.<\/p>\n

\u201cCaitlin has been a transformational player in this league. She\u2019s been a great representative of the game,\u201d Engelbert said. \u201cShe\u2019s brought in tens of millions of new fans to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Engelbert said Friday there\u2019s work to be done to repair relationships with players in the league.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was disheartened to hear that some players feel the league and that I personally do not care about them or listen to them,\u201d Engelbert said ahead of the WNBA Finals. \u201cIf the players in the W don\u2019t feel appreciated and valued by the league, then we have to do better and I have to do better.\u201d<\/p>\n

The league and the players\u2019 union are in the middle of a collective bargaining agreement negotiation as the current deal expires at the end of the month.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP WNBA: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/wnba-basketball<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS (AP) \u2014 Minnesota forward Napheesa Collier canceled a meeting with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert expected to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":190867,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-190866","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190866"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190866\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/190867"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}