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WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert has been in the spotlight for about a year as she navigated the league through a stressful collective bargaining agreement before the start of the 2026 season.
Engelbert spoke to the media Monday evening as the WNBA draft was scheduled to take place. She raised eyebrows among reporters and fans on social media by answering a tough question she received.
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WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaks during the WNBA Basketball Draft in New York on April 13, 2026. (Pamela Smith/AP)
Asked about her future as commissioner, she responded by playing the gender card.
“I understand how everyone’s focused on me, and you should focus on the hundreds of amazing women and the thousands of women who are running this league besides me,” she said via USA Today. “I appreciate you focusing on me as well. I wonder if you would ask a man this, by the way, but I realize that as women we get asked different questions than men.”
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WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaks ahead of the WNBA basketball draft in New York on April 13, 2026. (Pamela Smith/AP)
Some social media users, including columnist Jemele Hill, agreed that she would have been asked the same question if she had been a man.
Engelbert is part of an exclusive club of female professional sports commissioners. Jessica Berman is the commissioner of the National Women’s Soccer League. Meanwhile, commissioners from every other league face tough questions at their own press conferences at key times of the year.
But Engelbert was most harshly criticized during the CBA negotiations. Players called on the league to pay its players more during a protest during the WNBA All-Star Game.
Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier slammed the WNBA as having the “worst leadership” at the end of the 2025 season.
Yet Engelbert is still the commissioner of the WNBA through the latest CBA. She added Monday evening that the ABC still needs to be finalized.
She also said the league is looking to the future and hoping it will be able to take the WNBA overseas, whether it’s a regular season game or an exhibition game.
UCLA center Lauren Betts poses with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert after being selected fourth overall by the Washington Mystics in the first round of the WNBA draft in New York on April 13, 2026. (Pamela Smith/AP)
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“We’re thinking about it carefully,” Engelbert said. “Of course, this year we have the FIBA World Cup. Next year we hope to do something outside of North America, as part of a true global game.”
