This article was written by Gus Wilson and published on Sport & State, a new media company founded by Clay Travis that is built around sports, culture, original voices, and live conversation.
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After struggling to define what a woman is, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has announced she will be leaving the league at the end of 2026.
Engelbert told the world in a press release last week that during the heat of the ongoing argument to determine who can play in the WOMEN’S National Basketball Association, she’s gone. After avoiding the question time and time again, it will officially be someone else’s problem at the start of the new year.
Despite the ongoing crisis her league is facing, Engelbert praised the current landscape of the league in her announcement, as she told Howard Megdal of The IX Sports, “I just feel like we’re in a really good place from a variety of perspectives on the league.”
That is CERTAINLY one way to put it.
In the same piece, Engelbert said that her five brothers were encouraging her to “get out of there” because of all the backlash she was facing from this situation alone.
It’s a little bit too late for that.
Engelbert’s miscues as the first “commissioner” in the league’s history have extended long beyond this year and are apparent throughout since she stepped into the role in 2019. With her “retirement” looming, let’s take a walk down memory lane to show where she went wrong.
The Problems Were Evident From The Start
During her first year running the league, the cracks were already showing in Engelbert’s armor.
The 2020 WNBA season was played inside the “COVID bubble” in Florida. Already, she was given a strange scenario where the pandemic forced basketball games to be played in a remote environment, but this wasn’t the issue.
Kelly Loeffler, the United States Administrator of the Small Business Administration and former Republican Senator from Georgia, was the co-owner of the Atlanta Dream at the time when she told Engelbert the league should not plaster “Black Lives Matter” across the association. A minor request turned to players calling for Loeffler’s head and to be fired from the team.
WNBA Players Escalate Protest of Anti-BLM Team Owner, Kelly Loeffler
Loeffler’s WNBA team, the Atlanta Dream, demands she be ejected from the league. Members are outraged by her racist and anti-LGBTQ rhetoric, among other controversies. https://t.co/Y8MNQbf74U via @NYTimes
— Stephanie Kennedy (@WordswithSteph) December 7, 2020
Engelbert decided to let the players take over, and they wore shirts supporting the Democratic candidate Raphael Warnock in the 2021 Senate race against Loeffler. The commissioner just sat back and watched as Loeffler sold her stake in the team.
Following the shooting of Jacob Blake that same year, players began to protest the event and Engelbert finally stepped to the light and supported said players. These comments were made strictly to save her reputation. Former WNBA athlete Layshia Clarendon told ESPN that players had to force Engelbert to actually support them.
Yes, that is the same Layshia Clarendon that played in the WNBA as a trans-man as a member of the New York Liberty, throwing a wrench into the league’s argument that only women can play in the league.
Everything really does come full circle. Engelbert’s lack of control under a league she ran was glaring.
Engelbert’s Lack Of Grasp And Connection To The Association
That was only the beginning.
Fast forward past contract negotiations and not knowing how to pronounce coaches’ names to 2025. In the same article expressing Clarendon’s exposure of Engelbert being pushed around by players, superstar Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier blew up on the commissioner.
Collier, who is the Women’s National Basketball Players Association (WNBPA) vice president, called the league’s leadership the “worst in the world” because of her negligence when it came to what she was being paid to do. Other players and even the president of the WNBPA, Nneka Ogwumike, publicly agreed.
In 2026, Engelbert still lacks a true governing over the WNBA.
It’s evident when you look at the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark. Since she entered the league three years ago and took it by storm, Clark is constantly being attacked and downplayed by her peers. As of two months ago, Clark had drawn eight flagrant fouls in her first 72 games, which is far and away the most in comparison to the rest of the athletes. In June of this year, the Fever guard was struck in the throat by Phoenix Mercury player Alyssa Thomas in a blatantly violent act.
The WNBA announced Alyssa Thomas has been suspended for one game after making “reckless contact” to Caitlin Clark’s throat on this play.
WNBA players continue to play very aggressively against Clark three years into her career. pic.twitter.com/0pWiuI7SlE
— Evan Sidery (@esidery) June 25, 2026
To anyone who watches basketball, this surely results in a suspension of at least a game, whether it was intentional … or not.
Engelbert was not planning on punishing Thomas in the slightest until NBA commissioner Adam Silver had to step in and persuade her to do so. How do you run a league when you can’t even make the most simple decisions?
Who Can Play In The League
The breaking point in Engelbert’s tenure is one that everyone is familiar with now. Sophie Cunningham voicing her opinion on biological men in a women’s locker room set the league on fire. Coaches and players alike vehemently disagreed with the Fever guard, some in ways more than just a verbal pushback.
DiJonai Carrington assessed a Flagrant 2 and ejected after this hard foul on Sophie Cunningham 😳 pic.twitter.com/1AebZMgGUi
— Legion Hoops (@LegionHoops) August 8, 2026
Former NBA players Royce White and Enes Kanter Freedom then declared for the 2027 WNBA Draft after coming out and telling the world they identified as women. According to stances from players and coaches from around the league, they should be deemed eligible because of how they identify, right?
.@EnesFreedom to @ClayTravis on whether the WNBA would become the G league if men are allowed to play.
FREEDOM: “All they have to do is just go out there and say, I identify as a woman, and they will be making $1.4 million in the WNBA. Trust me, there are many players ready to… pic.twitter.com/kQjBnvcg71
— The Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show (@clayandbuck) August 25, 2026
Wrong. The league told White and Freedom they were not eligible for the draft, according to sources around the league. Why not? They had a woman identifying as a man play in the league five years prior in Clarendon.
There was no continuity based on past players and the stances of current players on the matter, but Engelbert didn’t say a word.
The commissioner then decided to hold a league meeting with owners and general managers to discuss biological men competing in the WNBA. Finally, a conclusion was going to be made and everyone would get an answer on the league’s next move.
Actually, the complete opposite happened. Engelbert decided on nothing, pushing the decision further down the line.
Three weeks later, she announces her retirement. The inability to make a decision on what should be a simple yes or no was the writing on the wall that her time as a commissioner would and should be coming to an end.
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