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Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon believes a change of WNBA leadership may be on the horizon.
One month after leading Las Vegas to its third WNBA championship in four years, Hammon opened up about the state of the WNBA during an appearance on CNBC Sport on Wednesday, saying WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s “fractured” relationship with players may be beyond repair as negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) continue ahead of the Nov. 30 extended deadline.
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“They’re probably going to look for a change in leadership,” said Hammon, who admitted that she’s only had “brief interactions” with Engelbert. “I just think it might be too fractured at this point, but we’ll see.”
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Hammon said Engelbert’s “rocky relationship status with the players” stems from things that have been said and all that’s been left unsaid.
Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier used her exit interview on Sept. 30 to publicly air her grievances with Engelbert and the league, which she said has the “worst leadership in the world.” Collier disclosed alleged conversations she had in private with Engelbert that focused on the commissioner’s dismissive attitude toward the player’s fight for higher pay and a bigger piece of the revenue pie. Englebert in turn said she was “disheartened” by Collier’s characterization of their conversations.
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“Her private conversations that she’s had with individual players – or lack of the conversations – have led to some, you know, rocky relationship status with the players,” Hammon said on Wednesday. “The one thing that I think the W has always stood on is when the players speak, people need to sit up and listen. And I think she’s sitting up and listening now. I hope she would have done it earlier. I don’t know if she can ever kind of retract and get that traction back from those conversations.”
Some have questioned if Englebert is the right person to lead the WNBA through this transformative time as the fissure between it and the players has continued to widen amid CBA negotiations. However, Engelbert assured on Oct. 3 that she’s the right person for the job and said NBA commissioner Adam Silver remains a “great supporter of mine.”
“I’ve never been a quitter, never shied away from tough situations,” Engelbert said during her annual press conference ahead of the 2025 WNBA Finals. “I’ve always been someone who believes in the fact that we have, if there’s things we need to fix, we’re going to fix ’em. If there’s things the players have a perspective on that they don’t like that we’re doing or I’m doing, we’ll fix.”
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Aces coach Becky Hammon wonders if WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert is the right leader going forward.
On Wednesday, Hammon said the players “earned” a significant salary increase. “I completely agree with Napheesa that the players should be making more than coaches,” she added.
“There’s no doubt about that. The CBA hopefully will bump up their salaries substantially. They deserve it,” Hammon said. “They’re due for a huge increase in salary. And it’s got to be, you know, something that is sustainable. And I think that’s the biggest thing you got to remember, that this league is still a young league. We’re still growing, but we’re trending in the right direction, and so the numbers got to follow salary wise.”
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Hammon hopes that the league and WNBA are able to strike a deal on a new CBA that satisfies everyone before the new Nov. 30 deadline. She said a lockout by the owners or a strike by the players could undercut the league’s growing popularity.
“I hope they do reach a deal so that there’s no lockout. I think right now, we’re on such a high wave, I wouldn’t want there to be a break in the W,” she said. “That being said, you know, you got to get to a reasonable conclusion where both sides are happy, so I hope they can do that.”
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This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Aces’ Becky Hammon says WNBA may need ‘change in leadership’
