Cathy Engelbert's tenure as WNBA commissioner is coming to an end. Engelbert announced Friday that she will retire at the end of the year, concluding her seven-year run as the first commissioner in league history. Prior to her arrival in 2019, the WNBA's top executive had been a president, but NBA commissioner Adam Silver made a point to change that when Engelbert was hired.
"With Cathy's hiring, we wanted to signal to the broadest possible audience that the WNBA is a major league and that she has the same status as the heads of other U.S.-based sports leagues," Silver said at the time. "Cathy is a world-class business leader with a deep connection to women's basketball, which makes her the ideal person to lead the WNBA into its next phase of growth. The WNBA will benefit significantly from her more than 30 years of business and operational experience, including revenue generation, sharp entrepreneurial instincts and proven management abilities." Engelbert lived up to the expectations, and the league experienced tremendous growth under her leadership.
Most notably, Engelbert oversaw multiple collective bargaining agreements, including one earlier this year that raised the salary cap to $7 million, created the first million-dollar salaries in league history and established the first comprehensive revenue-sharing model in women's professional sports history. She also led an expansion drive that has already brought in three new teams -- the Golden State Valkyries, Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo -- and will add three more (in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia) by 2030 to take the league to a record 18 teams. Her success on the business front was often overshadowed, however, by her poor relationship with the players and complaints about how she and the league handled off-court controversies and distractions.
Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier's explosive quote last year summed things up: "We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world, but right now we have the worst leadership in the world." The commissioner ultimately answers to the NBA and the WNBA team owners, so there's always going to be some friction between the commissioner and the players. But it's not good for either side when the relationship becomes as adversarial as it did with Engelbert in recent years.
The challenge for the next commissioner will be to build on the league's growth and business successes while also developing a better rapport with the players. Who might that person be? Engelbert told the that she has been working on a succession plan for years and that there are both internal and external candidates.
And while the plan is for her to step down at the end of the year, she will remain in place into early 2027 if the new commissioner is not in place by Dec. 31. Here's a look at some candidates who could make sense to replace Engelbert: Donaphin has been the WNBA's Head of League Operations since 2018. Not only does she have extensive experience working at the highest level of the league office, she played for the New York Liberty for two seasons from 2003-04, which would give her a unique perspective as a former player.
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