{"id":897321,"date":"2026-09-16T01:46:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-16T01:46:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/897321\/"},"modified":"2026-09-16T01:46:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-16T01:46:18","slug":"silver-next-wnba-commissioner-could-have-more-autonomy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/897321\/","title":{"rendered":"Silver: Next WNBA Commissioner could have more autonomy"},"content":{"rendered":"

The next WNBA commissioner could eventually have expanded authority, Adam Silver said Tuesday, as the league continues interviewing search firms and compiling an unofficial list of interested or recommended candidates.<\/p>\n

Asked what kind of autonomy Cathy Engelbert\u2019s replacement will have — especially since Silver had to step in and urge Engelbert <\/a>to suspend Alyssa Thomas for roughing up Caitlin Clark this season — the NBA commissioner said, \u201cIt\u2019s something I would say we\u2019re constantly recalibrating.\u201d<\/p>\n

But, with seven WNBA teams currently owned by NBA governors (and with Cleveland\u2019s Dan Gilbert, Detroit\u2019s Tom Gores and Philadelphia\u2019s Josh Harris arriving in 2028, 2029 and 2030, respectively), Silver also said a fully integrated league — with the W commissioner reporting directly to him — has operated efficiently up until now.<\/p>\n

\u201cHaving been involved now with the WNBA for 30 years, I think there are enormous benefits to running integrated operations, and there are also aspects of the league which I think are best run independently,\u201d Silver said in his post-NBA Board of Governors press conference. \u201c\u2026Under Cathy, we fairly significantly increased the portion of our office who\u2019s solely focused on the WNBA. I would say in issues particularly around basketball and player issues, I believe those should be independent people of the NBA and should be under the direct control of the WNBA commissioner. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd at the end of the day, I think, yes, I oversee the greater organization. But Cathy had enormous independence in those areas on the player relations when it came to overseeing collective bargaining discussions, certainly when it comes to potential rule changes in the WNBA. On the other hand, for example, when we did our media deals, our ability to address the market with year-round programming, I thought added significant value to both leagues. And I think to our partners, both on media and then some of our marketing partners, again, coming to them and saying, \u2018We have both NBA programming and WNBA programming, it\u2019s year-round, in many cases, it reaches different demographics,\u2019 is very attractive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Silver said \u201cthere may come a time at some years from now when it makes sense to have even more [WNBA] independence\u201d and added that the next WNBA commissioner<\/a> could \u201chave a view, too, as to the appropriate operating structure of the league.\u201d<\/p>\n

That said, he would not provide clues on who the next commissioner will be, other than to say the league will name its search firm by the end of the month and candidates have already come trickling in.<\/p>\n

\u201cOnce we hire a search firm, we\u2019ll begin the search in earnest,\u201d Silver said. \u201cWe\u2019ve heard from several potential candidates. We\u2019ve heard from others who are recommending candidates and we are keeping that list right now at the office. And then again, we will move forward on that process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speculation on the candidate list has ranged from Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris from the political world; Swin Cash and Nneka Ogwumike from the former player world; the Liberty\u2019s Keia Clarke and the Valkyries\u2019 Jess Smith from the WNBA team executive world; the Sky\u2019s Nadia Rawlinson from the WNBA ownership world; Duke AD Nina King from the college sports world; Chief Revenue Officer and Executive Vice President Renie Anderson from the NFL world; and Ally\u2019s Andrea Brimmer from the corporate world. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The next WNBA commissioner could eventually have expanded authority, Adam Silver said Tuesday, as the league continues interviewing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":897322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,459,82,630,310590],"class_list":["post-897321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nba","tag-sports","tag-wnba","tag-women-s-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897321","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=897321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/897321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/897322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=897321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=897321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=897321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}