{"id":205383,"date":"2025-10-11T15:11:13","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T15:11:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/205383\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T15:11:13","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T15:11:13","slug":"wnba-commissioner-greeted-with-heavy-boos-during-aces-championship-trophy-ceremony","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/205383\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA commissioner greeted with heavy boos during Aces championship trophy ceremony"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>PHOENIX \u2014 The chorus of boos showered on WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert when she took the microphone Friday night <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/10\/11\/sports\/aces-solidify-dynasty-status-in-impressive-fashion\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">to present the Aces their championship trophy<\/a> was deafening and unrelenting.<\/p>\n<p>Whatever Engelbert was saying wasn\u2019t audible amid the jeers. <\/p>\n<p>ESPN did its <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/big_business_\/status\/1976841196619415811\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">best to blur out the middle fingers<\/a> fans put up in the background.<\/p>\n<p>Though it\u2019s common for league commissioners to be the target fans\u2019 ire, Friday\u2019s scene could be a defining moment in league history.<\/p>\n<p>The WNBA and Women\u2019s National Basketball Players\u2019 Association remains at odds with the current collective bargaining agreement set to expire Oct. 31. <\/p>\n<p>Negotiations for a new deal amid the league\u2019s skyrocketing popularity are far behind schedule, with a work stoppage at this point seemingly inevitable.<\/p>\n<p>Whether that could impact the start of next season remains unclear.<\/p>\n<p>But players have been clear about where they stand.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen you have great players, you need to treat them like that, and that\u2019s top to bottom,\u201d Aces guard Chelsea Gray said during the media press conference after the game. \u201cWe have great players, you need to treat them like that. There\u2019s been a lot of eyes on this league, right? And everybody\u2019s stepping up to the plate and putting on performances that\u2019s legendary. You have legends that you guys get to witness every single day. And so when you have a league full of people like that, it needs to be treated as such.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>2025 Finals MVP A\u2019ja Wilson chimed in, \u201cThey\u2019re playing in our faces.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Gray paused and asked if she wanted to mic, to which Wilson declined and sat back.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37355151\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Cathy-Engelbert.jpg\" alt=\"WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was drowned out by boos as she presented the Aces their championship trophy after their WNBA finals-clinching win over the Mercury on Oct. 10, 2025.\" class=\"wp-image-37355151\"  \/>WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was drowned out by boos as she presented the Aces their championship trophy after their WNBA finals-clinching win over the Mercury on Oct. 10, 2025. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Gray continued, \u201cThat\u2019s payment, that\u2019s treatment, that\u2019s everything. That\u2019s a bigger conversation. We\u2019ll be here for a long time. But when you have players like that and at the forefront of change. You have to pay them like that, you have to value them like that because there\u2019s no league without the players.\u201d    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PHOENIX \u2014 The chorus of boos showered on WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert when she took the microphone Friday&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":205384,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,3460,3461,82,630,26214],"class_list":{"0":"post-205383","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-las-vegas-aces","11":"tag-phoenix-mercury","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-wnba","14":"tag-wnba-playoffs"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205383","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=205383"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/205383\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=205383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=205383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=205383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}