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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 ahead of the start of the 2026 season.
Engelbert addressed the media Monday night when the WNBA Draft was scheduled to take place. She surprised journalists and fans on social media with an answer to a difficult question she received.
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WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert speaks at the WNBA basketball draft in New York on April 13, 2026. (Pamela Smith/AP)
They asked her about her future as a commissioner and she responded by playing the gender card.
“I laugh at how everyone focuses on me, and you should focus on the hundreds of incredible women and thousands of women who run this league outside of me,” she said via USA Today. “I appreciate that you’re focusing on me too. I wonder if you’d ask a man that, 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 before 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 were a man.
Engelbert belongs to an exclusive club of professional sports commissioners. Jessica Berman is the commissioner of the National Women’s Soccer League. Meanwhile, commissioners from every other league face tough questions during their own news conferences at key times of the year.
But Engelbert took the brunt of the criticism during collective bargaining negotiations. Players called on the league to pay its players more at a rally during the WNBA All-Star Game.
Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier criticized the WNBA for having the “worst leadership” at the end of the 2025 season.
Still, Engelbert remains the WNBA commissioner through the latest collective bargaining agreement. He added Monday night that the collective bargaining agreement still needs to be finalized.
She also said the league was looking to the future and hoped it could take the WNBA overseas, whether in a regular season 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 taking a hard look at that,” Engelbert said. “Obviously this year we have the FIBA World Cup. Next year we hope to do something outside of North America as a true global game.”
