Following the announcement of her retirement, Cathy Engelbert is leaving behind a WNBA that looks nearly unrecognizable from the league she took over back in 2019. But as the business around the league continues to boom, Stephen A. Smith argues that she just wasn’t ready to handle the biggest challenge.
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During a segment on ESPN’s First Take, Stephen A. Smith, while talking to co-host Shae Cornette about Engelbert’s retirement announcement, delivered a mixed review of her seven-year tenure at the helm. His words were clipped and posted to X by Awful Announcing.
“I think it’s very, very wise for her to retire. I thought she was ill-equipped to handle the oncoming microscope situation that the WNBA obviously had developed, and I think that they do need new leadership,” he said.
“Everything she did isn’t bad. There’s no denying that. She did some good things, but clearly cultivating relationships with players along with league officials is not something that she’s reportedly done a good job of. And when that’s your record at age 61, it is time for you to go… Nobody’s going to be lamenting the fact that she’s gone, at least not WNBA players. You can book that. They don’t mind seeing her gone, and that’s the point that can’t be escaped.”
Earlier on September 4, it was revealed in a press release from NBA Commissioner Adam Silver that Engelbert had chosen to retire at the end of the season. He praised her for guiding the league through “the most significant period of growth in the league’s 30-year history” and said that she had shown a commitment to growing women’s basketball. Smith, though he had praise of his own, also made it clear that she deserved a lot of criticism too.
“She helped negotiate the latest collective bargaining agreement. Kudos to her,” he said.
“But as Napheesa Collier said last year, she questioned the leadership, accused it of being negligent… [Collier] had the support of a vast majority of the players. And then one controversy after another came up, and Cathy Engelbert appeared to be reactive as opposed to proactive in terms of warding off some of the negative hostility and momentum aimed at players’ directions, which is something that they lamented.”
He’s referring to Minnesota Lynx superstar Napheesa Collier, who put the commissioner on blast last season. During her exit interview on September 30, 2025, she called out Engelbert for being “negligent” and said that she was told in a private conversation by Engelbert that young stars around the league “should be on their knees” for the platform given to them by the WNBA.
“We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world, but right now we have the worst leadership in the world,” she told reporters. “If I didn’t know exactly what the job entailed, maybe I wouldn’t feel this way, but unfortunately for them, I do. We serve a league that has shown they think championship coaches and Hall of Fame players are dispensable, and that’s fine. It’s professional sports, but I will not stand quietly by and allow different standards to be applied at the league level.”
Collier, who was the vice president of the WNBA Players Association, was also involved in a heated standoff with the league over the collective bargaining agreement this past offseason. Regardless of how those discussions went, though, Engelbert was thankful to the players for “helping to lead this league through a remarkable period of transformation.”
“I am grateful for your advocacy and your willingness to challenge us to be bold, listen more closely, and think differently,” she wrote. “Those conversations were not always easy, but they were essential. You made this league stronger, and you made me a better leader.”
Only time will tell how Engelbert’s time at the helm of the league is remembered, but for Stephen A. Smith, it’s clear that she won’t be missed by the player base anytime soon.