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LAS VEGAS — Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier has canceled a meeting that had been planned with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, a source briefed on the situation said Saturday.
Engelbert told reporters on Friday about the meeting as she discussed her hope to clear the air with Collier, who had criticized her leadership earlier in the week.
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ESPN was first to report news of the cancellation.
During her news conference, Engelbert denied telling Collier — who is a WNBPA vice president and founder of the 3×3 league Unrivaled — that Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark should be “grateful” for her lucrative off-court earnings in a meeting between the two last winter at Unrivaled.
Collier, as part of a four-plus-minute statement she read on Tuesday, had asserted that Engelbert said that about Clark. She added that Engelbert also said players should be “on their knees thanking their lucky stars” for the record 11-year, $2.2 billion media rights deal set to go into effect next season.
“There’s a lot of inaccuracy out there through social media and all this reporting,” Engelbert said on Friday.
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According to ESPN, the relationship between Collier and Engelbert has been “pretty much pushed … beyond repair.”
Engelbert had said that she wanted the finals to start before holding a meeting, but specifics of the meeting had not been sorted out.
Engelbert opened her news conference by saying she would work to build a better connection with the league’s players.
“If the players in the W don’t feel appreciated and valued by the league, then we have to do better and I have to do better,” she said. “If they don’t feel that (appreciation), then I will do everything I can to change that. No one should ever doubt how deeply I care about this league, this game and every single player who makes the WNBA what it is.”
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The league and its players are currently in a tense collective bargaining agreement negotiation, as the current deal will expire at the end of this month. In the aftermath of Collier’s comments, she has received a chorus of support from players around the league.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
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