The WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association have numerous issues to work through as they try to thrash out a new collective bargaining agreement before the current one expires on Oct. 31. Raising the standard of WNBA officiating ranks toward the top of the list.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Refereeing controversies dominated the WNBA postseason, which rankled players, coaches and executives alike — including commissioner Cathy Engelbert<\/a>, who revealed before Game 1 of the WNBA Finals that the league would be setting up an officiating “task force” to implement improvements in the coming seasons.<\/p>\n That’s because the playoffs in particular were dominated by physical play. In Game 3 of the semifinals between the Minnesota Lynx and the Phoenix Mercury, a firestorm erupted after a collision between Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas and Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier resulted in the latter sustaining a season-ending leg injury. Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve was suspended for Game 4 and levied a historic fine<\/a> for ripping into the referees over the incident.<\/p>\n The other semifinal between the Indiana Fever and the Las Vegas Aces was defined by its rough physicality and officiating inconsistencies that upset both Indiana’s Stephanie White and Las Vegas’ Becky Hammon. Those two coaches also received fines from the WNBA for expressing solidarity with Reeve over the Collier incident and how officials treated it.<\/p>\n And during the finals, Mercury head coach Nate Tibbetts was ejected from the deciding Game 4 over what he called “one of the weakest double technicals ever<\/a>.” Four technical fouls were issued in the second half of the season’s final game — making an already-bad look for the league even worse.<\/p>\n