The NBA has retained Excel Search & Advisory to lead its search for the next WNBA commissioner, multiple sources said, jumpstarting a hiring process that will ultimately be made by NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, likely just before or shortly after the end of the calendar year.
Excel Sports Management — which acquired Nolan Partners in February 2022 and last year rebranded it to Excel Search & Advisory — has assisted dozens of pro basketball teams with C-suite searches and has ties to the WNBA. Not only does it represent the Fever’s Caitlin Clark and the Lynx’s Napheesa Collier, but it has handled jersey patch deals for the Dream, Sparks and Wings.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is scheduled to retire by the end of December, and sources said it’s likely the NBA will finalize the search before she departs, although there is no official timetable for naming her successor. Sources said both the WNBA and NBA Board of Governors will have input into the hire (considering the NBA and its collective 30 teams will own roughly 80% of the W by the time three more expansion teams arrive by 2030), with Silver having the final say.
Silver said at his Board of Governors news conference in mid-September that the league had already heard either directly from potential candidates or received outside recommendations — and that all of those names were passed along to its human resources department. Those names will now be handed to Excel.
The last four WNBA commissioners — Engelbert, Lisa Borders, Laurel Richie and Donna Orender (the latter three holding a president title) — had no ties to the NBA before being hired, and a key question from stakeholders is whether it’s time to look in-house or within WNBA teams for a top candidate. In-house speculation has ranged from current team presidents such as Keia Clarke of the Liberty and Jess Smith of the Valkyries to former TMBO director Amy Brooks to Nadia Rawlinson, co-owner and operating chairman of the Sky.
The speculation on external candidates has ranged from the political world (Michelle Obama and Kamala Harris) to the corporate world (Ally Financial’s Andrea Brimmer) to outside sports executives (Renie Anderson, the NFL’s chief revenue officer and executive vice president, and Duke AD Nina King) to former players (Swin Cash and WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike).