Napheesa Collier Reveals Reason for WNBA Commissioner Callout to Kamala Harris
Minnesota Lynx superstar Napheesa Collier set the sports world ablaze with her scathing comments about the WNBA league office and the commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, during her September 30 exit interview.
Within Collier's multiple-minute monologue, she said, "Let me be clear: This conversation is not about winning or losing. It's about something much bigger. The real threat to our league isn't money, it isn't ratings, or even missed calls or physical play. It's the lack of accountability from the league office.
"Year after year, the only thing that remains consistent is the lack of accountability from our leaders... What's truly unsustainable is keeping a good product on the floor while allowing officials to lose control of games... Yet leadership just issues fines and looks the other way. They ignore the issues that everyone inside the game is begging to be fixed. That is negligence," she added.
🚨🚨🚨🚨Breaking news : napheesa collier just called out the wnba league leadership , the officials , lack of accountability and went ham 🔥🔥🔥🔥🚨🚨🚨🚨🚨 pic.twitter.com/S37aW9yw3H
— Michael (@mikeaalen112735) September 30, 2025
At another point, Collier said, "We have the best league in the world. We have the best fans in the world. But we have the worst leadership in the world."
Collier also cited specific things she claimed Engelbert said about Caitlin Clark and the league's media rights deal, which has opened a whole other can of worms. And while Engelbert has since addressed Collier's statement (and denied Collier's claims about what she said regarding Clark), that hasn't changed how people feel about her.
Napheesa Collier Explains Reason for Statement Blasting Cathy Engelbert, WNBA
Collier sat with former USA Vice President Kamala Harris for a discussion on A Day of Unreasonable Conversation 2025 (which is "an annual, invitation-only gathering that brings together our culture’s most influential storytellers... with frontline activists, thought leaders, and individuals with lived experience") that took place in Los Angeles on October 6. And at one point, she revealed why she decided to make this statement.
"I never had planned to do that before," Collier said, per an X post from @mxwzy. "For so long, I felt like I saw what was going on behind closed doors. For so long, we tried to have these conversations and move the needle in those meetings that we would have with the league.
"I saw nothing was changing. Coaches, winning and losing alike, were complaining about the same things, over and over again. Players, over and over again, we weren’t seeing a change that our leadership was trying to make. And I think I just got to the point where I was fed up," Collier added.
"Whether I was going to get annihilated for this, or people were going to support me, I felt what I was doing was right. I felt like it needed to be said. So no matter the consequences, I felt like it was something that needed to be done."
Napheesa Collier explains why she wrote the statement criticizing WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert in a conversation with former VP Kamala Harris at #UnreasonableConversation in LA. pic.twitter.com/o2BOXHZmUU
— maxwell millington (@mxwzy) October 7, 2025
These are powerful comments from Collier that are only going to keep bringing more people to her (and the players') side.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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