While WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert continues to sidestep questions about her future and reports indicate a growing influence from NBA commissioner Adam Silver over the women\u2019s league, the conversation has shifted toward where Engelbert has fallen short.<\/p>\n
Over the league\u2019s All-Star weekend in Chicago, many star players were asked specific questions about their relationships with Engelbert and how present she is in their lives and careers. Notably, Caitlin Clark emphasized her closeness with Silver more than Engelbert, while A\u2019ja Wilson said, somewhat jokingly, that the closest she gets to Engelbert is when the commissioner is handing her trophies.<\/p>\n
In a new episode of her podcast<\/a>,\u00a0<\/a>Chiney Today<\/a>, ESPN\u2019s Chiney Ogwumike expressed concerns that Engelbert is falling short of expectations in forming genuine bonds with the league\u2019s top athletes and figures.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we talk about open-door policies, Cathy Engelbert says she has an open-door policy, but to me, players have to initiate,\u201d Ogwumike said. \u201cI don\u2019t see a circumstance, in my experience and in talking to a number of (players), where she\u2019s doing a lot of the initiating. Or, a player might initiate, and the follow-up may not be in a meaningful way where the player feels like their relationship can continue to go.\u201d<\/p>\n Ogwumike\u2019s perspective is especially useful on these dynamics, given that she played in the WNBA under Ogwumike and now works as an analyst across the NBA, WNBA, and women\u2019s college basketball.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n Ogwumike added that even though she never played in the NBA and spends most of her time as a broadcaster covering women\u2019s hoops these days, she has much closer connections to Silver, deputy commissioner Mark Tatum, and Kathy Behrens, the NBA\u2019s president of player programs, than she does with anyone in the WNBA league office.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we reach out, it\u2019s not ignored,\u201d Ogwumike said of the NBA. \u201cBut they also know us. They are invested in our stories.\u201d<\/p>\n While Ogwumike clarified that she did notice an effort from Engelbert early on to form genuine ties with players, now she believes Engelbert has failed to \u201cbe there in the biggest and most challenging moments\u201d when players most need support.<\/p>\n \u201cI think dynamics have changed with Cathy Engelbert. That was initially the aspiration, and at times, I felt that,\u201d she said. \u201cI think there is a level of responsibility on the commissioner to be there in the biggest and most challenging moments, and we are not necessarily experiencing that, despite myself having countless friendly encounters with her.\u201d<\/p>\n Though Ogwumike is speaking from personal experience in this case, it is also useful to remember that she is sister to Nneka Ogwumike, a veteran WNBA star and the president of the players\u2019 union. Likely, Ogwumike is aware of many other players\u2019 experiences<\/a> with Engelbert as well.<\/p>\n Engelbert\u2019s contract is reportedly up after the season<\/a>, and Silver was believed to be in the driver\u2019s seat for a recent suspension issued for Phoenix\u2019s Alyssa Thomas after an altercation with Clark<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"While WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert continues to sidestep questions about her future and reports indicate a growing influence…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":834888,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,11628,11629,291357,82,630],"class_list":["post-834887","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cathy-engelbert","tag-chiney-ogwumike","tag-chiney-today","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834887","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=834887"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/834887\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/834888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=834887"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=834887"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=834887"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}