A “lack of accountability” from WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert is what led Napheesa Collier to cancel a scheduled meeting between the 2, the Minnesota Lynx star told Axios on Monday.
“For her to start her speech saying she has the utmost respect for me and for the players, and then to turn around and call me a liar three minutes later … denying words that I heard come straight out of her mouth. I think it just speaks to that lack of accountability and so I really have nothing further to say,” Collier stated. “I think she encapsulated what I was talking about in my statement.”
Collier and Engelbert had deliberate to speak through the WNBA Finals, however rising tensions amid ongoing CBA negotiations escalated final week after Collier read a statement accusing the league entrance workplace and the commissioner of not caring concerning the league’s gamers.
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At one level, Collier outlined multiple private conversations with Engelbert, saying the commissioner had advised her “players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars” for the present media rights deal, and that Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark must be “grateful” for the WNBA’s platform.
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Three days after Collier’s assertion to reporters, Engelbert said during a press conference before Game 1 of the WNBA Finals that she was “disheartened” by Collier’s feedback, however that she welcomed “difficult but necessary conversations.”
Engelbert denied saying these feedback about Clark and added that she had spoken with Collier and the 2 deliberate to meet — just for that meeting to be cancelled by Collier over the weekend.
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Collier, who was in Los Angeles for “A Day of Unreasonable Conversation,” a one-day summit that includes former Vice President Kamala Harris, advised Harris that she was “fed up” with “tone-deaf and dismissive” league management and that is why she spoke out, regardless of initially not planning to accomplish that.
“Whether I was going to get annihilated for this, or people were going to support me, I felt what I was doing was right,” Collier stated. “I felt like it needed to be said. So no matter the consequences, I felt like it was something that needed to be done.”
NBA commissioner Adam Silver said on Monday that he believes a deal will get achieved regardless of the present divide between the league and union.