Napheesa Collier delivered a blistering evaluation of the WNBA and its commissioner on Tuesday as she sat in entrance of the media with a ready assertion, disclosing personal conversations she stated she had with Cathy Engelbert that portrayed her as a frontrunner who lacks accountability.
The Minnesota Lynx star spoke for greater than 4 minutes on subjects starting from Caitlin Clark — and her worth to the league — to inconsistent officiating, which she feels Engelbert and the WNBA haven’t addressed.
“We’ve got the perfect league on the earth. We’ve got the perfect followers on the earth. However we’ve the worst management on the earth,” the runner-up for MVP stated. “12 months after 12 months, the one factor that continues to be constant is the dearth of accountability from our leaders.”
Throughout what usually can be a routine end-of-season media availability, Collier blasted Engelbert as a frontrunner who’s insensitive to the present realities of being a WNBA participant. Her remarks got here because the WNBA gamers union, for which Collier is a vice chairman, prepares to have interaction the league in extremely contentious collective bargaining that may set the parameters for a league making an attempt to maintain up with its unprecedented progress and world curiosity.
“If I didn’t know precisely what the job entailed, perhaps I wouldn’t really feel this manner,” Collier stated. “However sadly for them, I do imagine we serve a league that has proven they suppose championship coaches and Corridor of Fame gamers are dispensable, and that’s high-quality. It’s skilled sports activities, however I can’t stand quietly by and permit totally different requirements to be utilized on the league degree.”
Engelbert responded to Collier in a press release not lengthy after the media session, saying she was disheartened by “how Napheesa characterised our conversations,” however was dedicated to her job and “won’t waver.”
“I’ve the utmost respect for Napheesa Collier and for all of the gamers within the WNBA,” Engelbert wrote. “Collectively we’ve all labored tirelessly to rework this league. My focus stays on making certain a shiny future for the gamers and the WNBA, together with collaborating on how we proceed to raise the sport.”
Many followers at Tuesday night time’s Sport 5 semifinal in Las Vegas between the Aces and Indiana Fever booed the common pregame video during which Engelbert promoted good fan sportsmanship.
Issues have been heated in Minnesota as of late. The Lynx have been eradicated from the playoffs on Sunday in a Sport 4 that Collier missed with an ankle harm and her coach, Cheryl Reeve, missed as a result of she was suspended for her habits towards officers in Sport 3.
Reeve additionally acquired what was believed to be the heftiest high-quality for a person coach or participant in league historical past, in keeping with an individual conversant in the penalty who spoke to The Related Press on situation of anonymity as a result of an official announcement hadn’t been made but.
Collier stated she hadn’t heard from Engelbert following her harm, which occurred on the play that prompted Reeve to take to the court docket and scream at officers earlier than her workers and gamers held her again in an try and defuse the state of affairs.
“Not one name, not one textual content. As an alternative, the one outreach has come from her No. 2 telling my agent that she doesn’t imagine bodily play contributed to accidents. That’s infuriating,” Collier stated. “It’s the proper instance of the tone deaf, dismissive strategy that our leaders all the time appear to take.”
Collier stated that in a non-public dialog with Engelbert, the commissioner of seven years informed her WNBA star Clark needs to be grateful to the league for her earnings and endorsement offers, which stemmed from Clark’s record-breaking school profession that noticed her grow to be probably the most polarizing participant in girls’s basketball historical past.
“This previous February, I sat throughout from (Engelbert) and requested how she deliberate to deal with the officiating points in our league,” Collier stated. “Her response was, ‘Effectively, solely the losers complain concerning the refs.’ I additionally requested how she deliberate to repair the truth that gamers like (Clark, Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers), who’re clearly driving huge income for the league and are making so little for his or her first 4 years.
“Her response was, ‘(Clark) needs to be grateful. She makes $16 million off the court docket as a result of with out the platform that the WNBA provides her, she wouldn’t make something.’ And in that very same dialog, she informed me, ‘Gamers needs to be on their knees, thanking their fortunate stars for the media rights deal that I bought them.’”
Engelbert didn’t deal with the precise feedback Collier stated she made within the personal dialog, solely saying that “views differ.”
Collier, in addition to enjoying within the WNBA, is a co-founder of Unequalled — a three-on-three girls’s basketball league that performs within the winter and options WNBA stars. A lot of these gamers search offseason leagues to play in to complement their WNBA salaries, that are capped at about $250,000 for a supermax contract. Earnings for high rookies are capped round $78,000.
WNBA gamers for years relied on going overseas within the offseason to search out these leagues, however safety and quality-of-life issues that have been dropped at mild by the imprisonment of Brittney Griner in Russia paved the best way for leagues corresponding to Unequalled to supply a safer different.
Collier, in the long run, stated she simply desires the league to do a greater job defending its gamers.
“The league talks about sustainability. That is about sustainability. How are you going to guard your gamers? How are you going to make it possible for we’ve the perfect merchandise on the ground night time after night time, when it’s so inconsistent and individuals are getting damage left and proper?”
