We should be talking about the Phoenix Mercury and Las Vegas Aces.
Phoenix: A scrappy collection of underappreciated players in their first season together, combining to create a greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts squad that’s underdogged its way to the WNBA Finals like “Hidden Figures” meets “Hoosiers.”
Las Vegas: Have you seen A’ja Wilson play? How about Chelsea Gray? Jackie Young? Jewell Loyd? We’re talking about MVPs, Finals MVPs, scoring champs, all-WNBAs … you name the accolade, and they’ve either got it on display or out in a box in the garage. Plus, they went from Aug. 3 to Sept. 15 without a loss.
Instead, we’re talking about the future of the league – and unless league commissioner Cathy Engelbert steps down, there isn’t going to be a future worth talking about.
It started with an Alyssa Thomas steal. The Mercury’s MVP darted in front of Napheesa Collier and came up with a steal and fast-break layup that secured a win in Game 3 of the Phoenix-Minnesota semifinals series.
The play was close. In real time, it looked clean to Phoenix fans, while Minnesota supporters considered it an obvious foul. No foul was called.
Collier was hurt on the play, and her coach, Cheryl Reeve, went nuclear, going after referees during the game (physically) and after (with her words in her postgame interviews).
A few days later, Collier blistered Engelbert, saying the WNBA has “the worst leadership in the world,” in part because repeated complaints from players and coaches about referees have been ignored by the league office. (Collier said Engelbert and other league officials were “tone-deaf and dismissive.”)
Former Phoenix star Sophie Cunningham, who played for Indiana this season, called Engelbert “delusional.”
Retired superstar Elena Delle Donne supported Collier.
Current megastar Caitlin Clark said Collier made “very valid” points and that “this is the biggest moment in WNBA history.”
Engelbert responded, saying she was “disheartened” by Collier’s comments. Engelbert also said her commitment to the players and to elevating the game “will not waver.”
Stephen A. Smith said it was a “weak-ass response” and that Engelbert should resign immediately.
Love him or hate him, in this case, he’s not wrong.
The WNBA and the players association are about to start negotiating a new collective bargaining agreement. League revenue has skyrocketed, thanks to attention from Clark, Angel Reese, Sabrina Ionescu, Wilson and yet another Olympic gold medal.
Players want a bigger share of the pie.
Critics have long said the league is still subsidized by NBA profits, and WNBA leaders are certain to make that point in contract talks. But there’s money in women’s basketball.
Ionescu has had Nike’s hottest-selling basketball shoe. Not the hottest-selling women’s shoe. It’s the hottest-selling shoe, period.
Players such as Wilson, Breanna Stewart and Kelsey Plum have seen more and more opportunities to make big money in endorsement deals.
And then there’s Clark, an industry unto herself, earning about $11 million, according to Sportico, from her contracts with Nike, Gatorade, State Farm and a slew of others.
She makes only about $80,000 from the Indiana Fever, a point that Collier brought up in her two-page statement that escalated all of this. Collier said that Engelbert told her that Clark and others “should be on their knees” in gratitude for having a league that gives them a platform to secure lucrative endorsements. (And, yeah, I know what Engelbert meant, but that’s not what we heard.)
Clark is so popular that a source in a story from The Athletic estimated that the attention she draws has been worth about “a billion” dollars to the league.
That’s not all.
WNBA players have other options, just like when the league started in the aftermath of the 1996 Olympics.
Back then, the ABL was paying better and attracting top talent.
More recently, international teams have paid better than the WNBA. (Remember when Diana Taurasi decided to sit out the 2015 season, rather than help the Mercury defend their 2014 championship? She said her Russian team was paying her to rest up.)
And here in the U.S., a budding 3-on-3 women’s league, “Unrivaled,” pays an average of about $200,000. The WNBA’s maximum salary is about $250,000.
And if you really want to have some fun with it, Ice Cube’s Big3 league reportedly offered Clark $15 million for one season. (Clark declined, but it couldn’t have been an easy decision. Shooters can play anywhere.)
The WNBA and the players need each other. It’s just that the WNBA needs its players more. If the top stars go elsewhere, so will viewers.
But if the top stars leave, the rank-and-file players will suffer.
This has to get figured out, and if Engelbert is this unpopular, she’s the wrong person to lead the league going forward.
But can we go back to talking about the WNBA Finals now? Because the Mercury are going to have a hard time dealing with the Aces. But if any team can figure out how to leave Las Vegas with a win, it’s Phoenix.
