WNBA commissioner greeted with heavy boos during…
PHOENIX — The refrain of boos showered on WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert when she took the microphone Friday evening to current the Aces their championship trophy was deafening and unrelenting.
Whatever Engelbert was saying wasn’t audible amid the jeers.
ESPN did its best to blur out the center fingers followers put up in the background.
Though it’s common for league commissioners to be the goal followers’ ire, Friday’s scene may very well be a defining second in league historical past.
The WNBA and Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association stays at odds with the current collective bargaining settlement set to expire Oct. 31.
Negotiations for a new deal amid the league’s skyrocketing recognition are far behind schedule, with a work stoppage at this level seemingly inevitable.
Whether that might influence the start of next season stays unclear.
But gamers have been clear about where they stand.
“When you have great players, you need to treat them like that, and that’s top to bottom,” Aces guard Chelsea Gray said during the media press convention after the sport. “We have great players, you need to treat them like that. There’s been a lot of eyes on this league, right? And everybody’s stepping up to the plate and putting on performances that’s legendary. You have legends that you guys get to witness every single day. And so when you have a league full of people like that, it needs to be treated as such.”
2025 Finals MVP A’ja Wilson chimed in, “They’re playing in our faces.”
Gray paused and requested if she wished to mic, to which Wilson declined and sat back.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was drowned out by boos as she introduced the Aces their championship trophy after their WNBA finals-clinching win over the Mercury on Oct. 10, 2025. Getty Images
Gray continued, “That’s payment, that’s treatment, that’s everything. That’s a bigger conversation. We’ll be here for a long time. But when you have players like that and at the forefront of change. You have to pay them like that, you have to value them like that because there’s no league without the players.”
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