Whatever problems or difficulties you may be experiencing these days, be grateful that you are not Cathy Engelbert.<\/p>\n
For the uninitiated, Engelbert is the commissioner of the WNBA, and, right about now, in the words of comedy legend David Letterman, you wouldn\u2019t give Engelbert\u2019s troubles to a monkey on a rock.<\/p>\n
Her league, the longest surviving women\u2019s professional sports organization, is in the midst of its 30th season. Television ratings are at their highest as WNBA games are seen on three broadcast networks, three cable channels and two streaming outlets.<\/p>\n
The WNBA successfully added one expansion team last season, two this year and has three more on deck in the next four years.<\/p>\n
The league and its players agreed to a seven-year labor deal in March and salaries, which had been inexcusably low through its history have skyrocketed.<\/p>\n
And yet, for all that seeming prosperity, Engelbert\u2019s seventh year at the helm has been the rockiest.<\/p>\n
The now 15-team league has been handed an influx of remarkable young talent in the past three years.<\/p>\n
In Dallas, there\u2019s Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, a pair of gifted young guards taken first in successive drafts. The Washington Mystics have a promising duo in Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen.<\/p>\n
Minnesota rookie guard Olivia Miles shows all the signs of being a dominant force for years to come. And, of course, there\u2019s Baltimore\u2019s own Angel Reese, who appears ready to be as much of a talented basketball player as she is an off-the-court cultural influencer.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s the WNBA\u2019s inability to meet and master the challenges presented by the tsunami of attention attached to the presence of Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark that has weighed the league down.<\/p>\n
Since she was drafted in 2024, Clark has brought bigger crowds, higher ratings and a level of notoriety to the WNBA that it has never seen.<\/p>\n
People who wouldn\u2019t have watched a WNBA game played in their backyards have hung on every word about the former University of Iowa star.<\/p>\n
But all that attention has come at a cost on a few fronts.<\/p>\n
First, the narrative put forth by her supporters that Clark alone is responsible for the league\u2019s upturn in fortunes has rankled some fans and players.<\/p>\n
Secondly, Clark\u2019s penchant for flopping and gesticulation when she wants an official to make a call in her favor has rubbed many the wrong way.<\/p>\n
Thirdly, Clark\u2019s status as a cis white woman in a league that is dotted with women of color, many of whom are gay or queer, has triggered some horrific social media responses.<\/p>\n
Just last week, Phoenix\u2019s Alyssa Thomas drew a one-game suspension for placing her fist in Clark\u2019s neck while Clark was on the ground.<\/p>\n
Thomas deserved the suspension, to be sure, but the uproar that followed was another example of the drama that follows Clark, justified or not.<\/p>\n
Engelbert\u2019s not to blame directly, of course, but her glacial response to it all raises legitimate continuing questions about her acumen in making the WNBA all it can be.<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s how I see it for this week. You can reach us via email with your questions and comments at Sports at Large at gmail.com. And follow me on BlueSky, Threads and X at Sports at Large.<\/p>\n
Until next week, for all of us here and for producers Lisa Morgan and Rob Timm, I\u2019m Milton Kent. Thanks for listening. Enjoy the games.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Whatever problems or difficulties you may be experiencing these days, be grateful that you are not Cathy Engelbert.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":735458,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-735457","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735457","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=735457"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/735457\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/735458"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=735457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=735457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=735457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}