Silver praises Engelbert, but no talks yet on whether she returns as WNBA commissioner in 2027

A week after a collective bargaining agreement saved the 2026 WNBA season, and perhaps Commissioner Cathy Engelbert’s reputation with players, NBA Commissioner Adam Silver said Wednesday there have not yet been conversations on whether Engelbert would remain in her job past the 2026 season.

Asked at his NBA Board of Governors press conference if he anticipated Engelbert would continue as WNBA commissioner beyond this season, Silver said, “We haven’t had those discussions yet with the WNBA board. I would only say Cathy has done a fantastic job since she’s come to the WNBA. Obviously, you could see just in the results.

“I haven’t had those discussions recently with Cathy, even in terms of her future plans, how long she wants to do this. She had a storied career before she came to the WNBA as the CEO of Deloitte. I’d only say the results speak for themselves. I am very happy, I know ownership is very happy, with where things stand in the WNBA.”

Engelbert was a constant presence at the around-the-clock CBA negotiations in mid-March, which culminated in what Silver called a “fair outcome” for both sides. But at the end of the 2025 season, Engelbert was also the focus of pointed criticism from Lynx F and executive committee member Napheesa Collier, who said, “Right now we have the worst leadership in the world.” Even prior to that, sources had told SBJ that Engelbert would likely exit following CBA due to deteriorating relationships inside and out of the league office.

At the time, a WNBA spokesperson called the report “categorically false,” while other sources believed she might leave the job after a signed CBA on her own volition. But after this most recent, eight-day, 100-hour CBA negotiation, it appears Engelbert may have won over the WNBA players.

“I mean, I spoke to Cathy after we had come to a verbal agreement,” WNBPA President Nneka Ogwumike told CNBC this week. “And I reassured her that not only are we going to be seeing a generation of players playing in a league and under an agreement that has never been seen before in the W, but it’s not a lost on me and it shouldn’t be lost on her, as I told her, that we’re standing here with you, Cathy.

“We were able to come to this deal and go through the process of this deal. However bumpy or smooth it was, we got here. And it’s important for her to understand that we as players are at the table with her and all WNBA leadership to have achieved something that’s incredibly historical. So I feel like there probably isn’t a better way to represent us settling our differences and moving forward in a league that we all care about than by signing this deal.”

Then asked if the league would be better off with a new commissioner, Ogwumike said, “I definitely don’t feel like that’s a question that I can answer. That’s actually not a question for me. I think that with Cathy, we’ve seen a lot of great change with Cathy. And it’s exciting to see. This is the second CBA that I’ve negotiated as president, with Cathy as commissioner. And I don’t feel like that’s something that we can skip on. Quite frankly, we as players, our job is to make sure that our value is represented, and we can do that in [partnership] with the league and also with Kathy’s leadership.”