A “lack of accountability” from WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is what led Napheesa Collier to cancel a scheduled meeting between the two, the Minnesota Lynx star told Axios on Monday.
“For her to start her speech saying she has the utmost respect for me and for the players, and then to turn around and call me a liar three minutes later … denying words that I heard come straight out of her mouth. I think it just speaks to that lack of accountability and so I really have nothing further to say,” Collier said. “I think she encapsulated what I was talking about in my statement.”
Collier and Engelbert had planned to talk during the WNBA Finals, but growing tensions amid ongoing CBA negotiations escalated last week after Collier read a statement accusing the league front office and the commissioner of not caring about the league’s players.
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At one point, Collier outlined multiple private conversations with Engelbert, saying the commissioner had told her “players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars” for the current media rights deal, and that Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark should be “grateful” for the WNBA’s platform.
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Three days after Collier’s statement to reporters, Engelbert said during a press conference before Game 1 of the WNBA Finals that she was “disheartened” by Collier’s comments, but that she welcomed “difficult but necessary conversations.”
Engelbert denied saying those comments about Clark and added that she had spoken with Collier and the two planned to meet — only for that meeting to be cancelled by Collier over the weekend.
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Collier, who was in Los Angeles for “A Day of Unreasonable Conversation,” a one-day summit featuring former Vice President Kamala Harris, told Harris that she was “fed up” with “tone-deaf and dismissive” league leadership and that’s why she spoke out, despite originally not planning to do so.
“Whether I was going to get annihilated for this, or people were going to support me, I felt what I was doing was right,” Collier said. “I felt like it needed to be said. So no matter the consequences, I felt like it was something that needed to be done.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said on Monday that he believes a deal will get done despite the current divide between the league and union.
