{"id":888286,"date":"2026-09-08T19:04:09","date_gmt":"2026-09-08T19:04:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/888286\/"},"modified":"2026-09-08T19:04:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-08T19:04:09","slug":"wnba-faces-crucial-pick-in-landing-next-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/888286\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA faces crucial pick in landing next commissioner"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WNBA is in a \u201ctransformative time,\u201d and the league now must make a \u201ctransformative choice\u201d for its next commissioner who can see everyone \u201cthrough it and beyond,\u201d according to Brian Hamilton of THE ATHLETIC. WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is retiring after the 2026 season<\/a>, and now the league \u201crequires a leader who does everything spectacularly.\u201d The WNBA \u201ccannot miss here.\u201d There can be \u201cno backslide on the business side as the league launches into its next 30 years, but there must be a formidable presence in the chair with a relentless ambition in every phase of the job.\u201d The next commissioner needs to be \u201cpresent and accounted for much more<\/a>\u201d than Engelbert was. They also need to create a \u201cconnection with players who seem to crave it more than most professional athletes\u201d and they must earn the trust that \u201cmakes the unavoidable hard decisions more digestible.\u201d That person also needs to ball up \u201cboth fists to take on the cynics and bad actors, all while continuing to make everyone involved more and more money as a world watches.\u201d The new commissioner needs to be a \u201ctone-setter instead of a caretaker.\u201d Hamilton: \u201cImagine a proactive, authoritative voice confronting the wide and varied controversies the WNBA has dealt with this summer\u201d (THE ATHLETIC, 9\/4<\/a>).<\/p>\n

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS: THE ATHLETIC\u2019s Candace Buckner wrote the league needs \u201ca special boss\u201d as its next commissioner — someone who can \u201cshow business competence and still communicate like a regular person.\u201d Someone who can \u201canticipate the outside disruptions while empathizing with the targeted workforce inside the storm.\u201d Above all else, the new commissioner \u201cbetter understand that the WNBA hasn\u2019t reached the finish line of being financially solvent, while still seeing the players as more than just parts of the money machine.\u201d He or she needs to \u201cunderstand the high-wire act of being in charge while combating the perception of not being warm enough.\u201d It is \u201cunfair, but it\u2019s the dance women leaders have danced since the beginning of time\u201d (THE ATHLETIC, 9\/5<\/a>). THE RINGER\u2019s Seerat Sohi wrote the job will \u201crequire political savvy and bridge building.\u201d It will need someone with \u201cenough institutional wisdom to understand the league without being bogged down by the culture of defensiveness and cynicism that has overtaken it.\u201d It will \u201crequire someone who can simultaneously nurture the popularity\u201d of Fever G Caitlin Clark and the expansion teams in Golden State, Portland and Toronto. But in the end, the answer will \u201ccome down to what\u201d NBA Commissioner Adam Silver wants. Sohi: \u201cDoes he want a figurehead who can better handle the day-to-day operations, from rule enforcement to marketing, while the NBA pulls the levers on the biggest decisions? Or does he want someone he can trust to forge a future? … Does he want someone who can sell him on the advantages of building the WNBA differently than the NBA?\u201d (THE RINGER, 9\/7<\/a>).<\/p>\n

CRUCIAL TIME: In Philadelphia, Mike Sielski wrote this is a \u201ccritical moment for women\u2019s athletics and for the WNBA.\u201d The league will add three more franchises<\/a> in the next four years by adding teams in Philadelphia, Detroit and Cleveland. It has an \u201copportunity both to solidify its existing fan base and build upon it.\u201d It has an opportunity to reach a level that, \u201cjust a decade ago, few would have thought reachable.\u201d It needs a new commissioner who can \u201cbe more than the one Cathy Engelbert was, more than someone sitting on the deck, doing nothing to avoid the swells and crashes, more than someone just along for the ride\u201d (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER, 9\/4<\/a>).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA is in a \u201ctransformative time,\u201d and the league now must make a \u201ctransformative choice\u201d for its…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":888287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[461,49,48,139,82,630,4143],"class_list":["post-888286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-basketball","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-leadership","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-womens-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888286","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=888286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/888286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/888287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=888286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=888286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=888286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}