At her last WNBA Finals, commissioner Cathy Engelbert reflects on growth, her successor: 'You have to have very thick skin'

SAN FRANCISCO — The fashion choice that will live in infamy is the New York City skyline dress. But the one better associated with Cathy Engelbert, the first commissioner of the WNBA, is the set of high heels featuring logos of 12 WNBA teams. 

The footwear was a Christmas gift from her daughter shortly after Engelbert took the job in 2019. She joked over the years they will become a collector’s item thanks to expansion, a long-awaited point of progress that should be the first line in her biography. 

The league is entirely different than when she opened that shoe box, and so is the title she will hold for only a few more months. Her successor will have to approach it differently to sustain the period of “hypergrowth” she oversaw. Engelbert didn’t shy away from that on Saturday ahead of Game 1 of the WNBA Finals, which saw the Valkyries take a 1-0 series lead over the Dream. 

The 2026 Finals marked her last state-of-the-league press conference, aptly held in one of the six expansion franchises announced during her tenure. It was three years ago this month that Engelbert announced the Golden State franchise as the first expansion team since 2008, when the Atlanta Dream, their opponent in the Finals, came aboard. 

The finale lacked the blanket of anxiety that filled the room a year ago during tense collective bargaining agreement (CBA) negotiations, and days after she was called out by WNBA Players Association (WNBPA) vice president Napheesa Collier. 

For the first time in a long time, a calmness settled. There was no tension or questions about her leadership. No probing. No big news or inquiry. Answering a question about how she wants to be remembered in this role, she borrowed from the legends she’s sent into retirement over the years. 

“Legacies are for history books to write,” Engelbert said. 

Engelbert became a victim of her own growth. The role outgrew her and what she believed it to be more than seven years ago when she became the first WNBA Commissioner. New teams, more partners, improved marketing and supersized interest restructured her job. She seemed to know that.  

“It’s a little more complex stakeholder group than I understood when I took the job because the league was so small back then,” Engelbert said. The next leader, she said, will have to manage that, “as well as obviously build relationships with players and agents.” 

It sure felt pointed that she mentioned the media at the top of her answer. That aspect of her job responsibilities never came across as one she was fully comfortable with. The friction grew in recent years while an expanded list of national media outlets invested in the W in ways they hadn’t since the late 1990s — or, in some cases, ever.  

The WNBA Players Association (WNBPA) came next in the list. Engelbert oversaw two transformational CBAs in her tenure, including the first within her initial season. The last turned ugly in a way common in men’s professional sports, but had yet to be seen in the WNBA. The sides clashed on whether the rhetoric was personal or simply business. The day of her retirement announcement, Engelbert mentioned the toll this job in the public sphere took on her family. The next commissioner needs to have “thick skin,” she said. 

Agents are a larger part of the equation, with players acquiring them in college after the passage of name, image and likeness (NIL). Million-dollar salaries are at stake under the 2026 CBA that passed in March, and players use financial advisors. There is more to negotiate than ever. All teams, as required in the CBA, will need their own practice facilities — another element barely on the radar when Engelbert came aboard. 

There is also more sheer infrastructure to manage. The league’s official replay center is on track to open in New Jersey for the 2027 season, Engelbert said on Saturday. In her tenure, she expanded the front office, taking particular pride in the marketing department. The league liaisons with teams more, she said, to help if and when needed. Just this week, the league, in partnership with the NBA, Atlanta Hawks and TV broadcast partners, helped move the Dream’s Finals games into State Farm Arena, where they can seat more than 17,000 versus the 3,500 at their home Gateway Center Arena. 

“We weren’t doing a lot of that five, six, seven years ago,” Engelbert said. “Now we’re helping teams start up. We’re helping teams evolve.” 

The WNBA is using the search firm Excel in its commissioner search. Engelbert said again there are internal and external candidates, including ones she has submitted and from other stakeholders. 

“The good news is there’s people who really want to take on this role, which I think it’s great,” Engelbert said. 

Engelbert said earlier this year she never intended to stay at the helm longer than 3 1/2 years. She was hired from Deloitte to right the business side of a league mired in a narrative that it was nothing more than a red line in the budget that could never make money. In her opening statement on Saturday, Engelbert remarked she never thought she would be standing at the dais talking about “billions” when it came to the W. 

“But we’re there,” she said of the 4 billion viewers (up 28%) on social and digital platforms. The Valkyries became the first team worth an estimated $1 billion. The media rights deal also meets the mark at $3.1 billion, a number that, when signed, was believed to be a lowball. 

The shoes from a non-billion-dollar WNBA era never did make a reappearance. They could be called vintage, joining the apparel en vogue this 30th anniversary season. There were myriad successes in Engelbert’s tenure. The 17,000 strong in Valkyrie Violet, bopping boom sticks at key junctures of Game 1, are proof. The next leader to continue the trajectory could meet all the qualities Engelbert and stakeholders want. But the commissioner seat of a major sports league is always lukewarm at best.