“ The worst leadership of the world ”, explains the WNBA player in the final theater of the elimination of the theater
The WNBA final begins on Friday, but it is not the match between Las Vegas Aces and Phoenix Mercury who is talking to basketball fans.
This is the match between Napheesa Collier de Minnesota Lynx, Napheesa Collier and the WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, after Collier entered the direction of the WNBA at an post-season mediation conference on Tuesday.
Necklace, vice-president of the WNBA players’ Union and co-founder of the 3×3 basketball league out of season, accused the WNBA of a “deaf and disdainful” approach of the players. In his four -minute speech, Collier castigated Engelbert for being “neglected” in his governance.
“We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world. But right now, we have the worst leadership in the world,” said collar on Tuesday.
“(Official) has now reached levels of inconsistency that afflict our sport and undermine the integrity in which it operates,” collar for journalists told. “They ignore the problems that everyone inside the game implores to be repaired – it is negligence.”
Engelbert has since published a statement according to which she is “discouraged” by the characterizations of necklace, and has the “greatest respect” for her and all the players of the WNBA. But fans flood social media with calls to Engelbert, who became the league commissioner in 2019, to be dismissed.
“You are a shame,” wrote a fan on X, as others have told him to “suit your bags”.
The players, on the other hand, also seem to support necklace.
“I’m always going to ride with Phee,” said star Aces and MVP A’ja Wilson in response.
“Phee speaks for me,” published the president of Seattle Storm Forward and the president of the WNBPA, Nneka Ogwumike.
“When Phee speaks, people listen to. We are convinced that his words talk today about the feelings and experiences of many, if not most or all of our members,” published the WNBA Players Association in a press release on Instagram.
But how did we even get here? What exactly is the problem? Let’s take back.
Listen to an extract from Napheesa Collier, a Minnesota Lynx player, representative of the WNBA union and co-founder of a 3 basketball league against 3, while calling Commissioner Cathy Engelbert on the League leadership.
The coach is “burned” after a necklace injury
The comments of necklace occurred after the match of the semi-final of the Lynx May 3 against the Mercury on Friday, during which necklace underwent an ankle injury while the Phoenix striker Alyssa Thomas stole the ball in the last minute of play. Thomas was not called for a fault.
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve embarked on a tirade responsible for explanatory on the game managers after the incident. Or, to quote illustrated sports, she went “burned earth”.
She continued and reprimanded an official of the game on the field, was slow to leave after his ejection with 21.8 seconds to play, led fans when leaving and was then launched in a dazzling criticism of the function of the League in her post-match press conference.
“I want to call for a change of leadership at the League in terms of officer. It is bad for the match. The crew officiating that we had this evening, so that leadership judges these three people in the semi-finals in the playoffs is a professional fault of King,” said Reve at the press conference.
The WNBA slapped it with a suspension of a match and a fines $ 15,000 record. Then, the lynx was eliminated from the playoffs on Sunday in a match 4 that Collier missed with his ankle injury and Reeve missed because it was suspended.
Collier said on Tuesday that she had never heard of Engelbert about the call or his injury.
“Not a single call, not a single text. Instead, the only awareness came from her n ° 2 by telling my agent that she does not believe that physical game has contributed to injuries. It is exasperating,” said collar.
“This is the perfect example of the deaf and disdainful approach that our leaders always seem to adopt.”
Engelbert was also called by the players in 2024 for not having taken a stronger position against the speech of hatred and the vitriol of social media while the players faced racist and misogynous comments, reports USA Today.
Comments also come during negotiations
The remarks also occur in the midst of increasingly acrimonial negotiations of collective negotiations (CBA) between the League and the players. The current ACB is expected to expire on October 31.
The two games disagreed with the players, said the union in July, with young stars like Caitlin Clark arousing new interest in the League and a new media rights agreement that is triggered next season.
“(Engelbert) told me that” the players should be on their knees by thanking their lucky stars for the agreement with the rights of the media that I obtained them, “said collar on Tuesday.” This is the mentality that stimulates our summit league. “
Engelbert did not address the specific comments that Collier said that she had made in private conversation, only saying that “the perspectives differ”.
Women’s basketball has experienced a spectacular increase in popularity in recent years, between the emergence of superstar players such as Clark, the expansion of WNBA and a wave of March Madness audience. But wages remain a painful point.
For example, choice n ° 1 n ° 1 of the WNBA, Paige Bueckers, should earn only US $ 78,831 for its recruit year – around $ 109,480 CDN, or less than real median household income in the United States. The choice of recovery n ° 1 for the NBA, in comparison, can expect to earn 13.8 million US dollars during its recruit year, according to the Sporac sports report site.
Many players complete their revenues playing abroad during the dead, a problem recently highlighted when the WNBA player Brittney Griner was detained in Russia for drug-related charges that ended with an exchange of prisoners.
In July, the WNBPA urged the league just ahead of the star match, saying that the WNBA had failed to respond to their priorities. Ogwumike, the president of the WNBPA, told journalists at the time that they celebrated incredible growth, but “it is not lost for us that we live the growth when we negotiate our value”.
“Fans know what we are worth. Now we need the League to find out what we are worth.”
Many players have warmed up for the game of the stars of the WNBA in shirts that read “pay us what you owe us”.
Launch of the PWHL and the NSL to the shattering success of the WNBA in recent years, female sports have become a large company.
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