WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert “can’t catch a break” even after helping secure a historic CBA earlier this year, but she “doesn’t do herself any favors either,” according to Madeline Kenney of the N.Y. POST. At the Commissioner’s Cup on Tuesday night, fans showered Engelbert with disapproval as she presented the Liberty with the trophy. The chorus of boos “was deafening and relentless,” and there was “no mistaking Engelbert was the target of the fans’ disdain.” It was the second time in eight months Engelbert “has been booed so spectacularly.” Engelbert “had almost a week to take a public leadership stance” on the latest controversy in the league: the incident between Mercury F Alyssa Thomas and Fever G Caitlin Clark and the subsequent fallout. Kenney: “She chose not to. We shouldn’t be surprised.” Under Engelbert’s leadership, the WNBA has “failed to handle crises proactively.” Too often, the league “sits on its hands only to react when an issue becomes too grand to ignore.” It “tends to let fires burn unattended for far too long before inevitably getting burned.” The strained relationship between Engelbert and players “may be beyond repair.” But one thing is “clear: a cookie-cutter statement isn’t the way to fix problems, especially when players already feel unsupported.” Engelbert and the league at large “need to take the initiative to address concerns rather than waiting for the next round of damage control” (N.Y. POST, 7/1).
TRUE LEADERSHIP: In Chicago, Alissa Hirsh wrote WNBA fans “might have forgotten what leadership sounds like,” but Fever coach Stephanie White’s remarks on Wednesday “were a reminder.” White opened her news conference by saying, “Before we start with questions, I just want to address what’s going on with [Thomas]. First and foremost, it’s absolutely unacceptable. As a league as a whole, there’s been so much more toxicity, racism, homophobia, straight-out nonsense. Hate nonsense. It is absolutely unacceptable.” White went on to acknowledge that playing and coaching in professional basketball is “going to come with criticism.” She added, “But it’s not hard to not be a jerk. If you are one of these people who are online doing this, do not call yourself a WNBA fan.” She also acknowledged her belief that the “hateful rhetoric isn’t coming from ‘real’ WNBA fans might be privileged or naive.” Hirsch: “That was the right instinct. Good leadership leaves room for other voices, especially the ones closer to the harm” (CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 7/1).
LONG WAY TO GO: THE ATHLETIC’s Brian Hamilton writes the day the WNBA “truly arrives is the day a foul is a foul,” not an “inciting event for troll armadas to threaten the people involved.” When everyone understands “it’s all pretty much just basketball, it’ll all be pretty much just fine.” Hamilton: “That day is not this day. There’s acid all over what should be a celebratory 30th anniversary season because, apparently, no one can process trash-talking and technical fouls and the occasional fist-to-throat as anything but a cultural reckoning.” Death threats and doxxing and “a siege on leadership -- or lack thereof -- are the discourse.” Hamilton added it is time to “bring the temperature down. Way, way, way down.” What White said Wednesday was “an unambiguous, necessary refresh.” Here is hoping “everyone else occupying a leadership position in the league follows the Fever coach’s lead and takes a turn watching the thermostat” (THE ATHLETIC, 7/2).
TARGETING: TRIBLIVE’s Mark Madden wrote within the WNBA, Clark -- who is “straight and white in a league that’s heavily populated by those who are not” -- is an “oppressed minority.” Madden added to “give credit to” former NFLer Boomer Esiason, who said on N.Y.-based WFAN that Clark’s problems “are rooted in her being straight and white.” Madden: “What other conclusion can possibly be drawn? Can any opposing evidence be presented? Clark gets the bejesus beaten out of her on a regular basis.” The WNBA and referees “won’t fix it,” so Clark is “stuck being a punching bag.” It is “amazing that the WNBA won’t stop the abuse of Clark.” Madden: “But also not surprising.” Engelbert is straight and white and like Clark, she “goes against the grain of the WNBA.” If Engelbert “looks out for Clark by way of the league’s greater good, it’s perceived as preferential treatment of her own kind.” Madden: “It’s a stink sandwich, and Clark takes another bite every day” (TRIBLIVE, 7/1).
