Cathy Engelbert announced her retirement last week and will end her seven-year tenure as the league’s first commissioner in December. Her tenure brought some major financial wins for the WNBA, but it also came with plenty of questions about her leadership along the way. So, who takes over next?

According to Declan Walsh of CT Insider, Swin Cash now appears to be the leading candidate among a list of other prospective WNBA commissioner candidates. That list includes New York Liberty CEO Keia Clarke, WNBA head of operations Bethany Donaphin, Nike vice president of global sports marketing Tanya Hvizdak, and WNBPA president Nneka Ogwumike. But there’s already a new wrinkle in her candidacy.

Some of Cash’s old X posts have resurfaced, and they could add another layer to an already fascinating search.

“The number of suicides by our youth, especially LGBTQ kids, is startling,”Cash wrote in one post. So forgive me if I prioritize real ish going on in 🌎& spreading love.”

“Transgender kids already have to deal with issues now our gov targets them abt bathrooms😒Keep up ppl, every day new attacks keep coming…” she wrote in another.

Her posts were made in response to the Trump administration rescinding an Obama-era directive on transgender students and school bathroom access under Title IX. And with the debate over transgender athlete participation becoming one of the WNBA’s biggest talking points over the past two months, those old posts could take on a whole new significance as the league looks for its next commissioner.

It all started on July 21, when ESPN published a profile on Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham that touched on her views about transgender athletes in women’s sports. She made her position clear, saying she wanted to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”

Since Cunningham’s comments, organized rallies have taken place at almost every Indiana away game, with “Support Sophie Cunningham” demonstrations becoming a regular sight. The Fever guard has also continued to be booed every time she steps onto the court. And the divide hasn’t just been visible in the stands.

Cheryl Reeve made her stance clear on the ongoing debate as well, showing up to the Fever-Lynx game wearing a “Trans Kids Belong” T-shirt.

Things took an even more unexpected turn when former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom and Royce White declared themselves eligible for the 2027 WNBA Draft, taking the debate straight to the league’s eligibility rules.

According to Article XIII, Section 1(a) of the WNBA’s Collective Bargaining Agreement, “Only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.” That was enough for them to make their intentions known and declare themselves eligible for the 2027 WNBA Draft.

Kanter took things a step further when he showed up at Wintrust Arena wearing a shirt that read, “WOMAN noun. adult human female.” He later got into a verbal altercation with Chicago guard Natasha Cloud, which led to his ejection from the arena. He has since filed a lawsuit against the franchise.

As the situation continued to develop, Cathy Engelbert and the WNBA faced growing pressure to address the situation. League officials met on August 12 to discuss the issue, but the meeting didn’t lead to any immediate resolution. Instead, the WNBA’s Anti-Hate Task Force, led by Engelbert, took up the matter and said discussions with league stakeholders would continue in the weeks and months ahead.

The lack of urgency shown by Engelbert during those moments became a major source of frustration for players, and it may be one of the reasons her tenure won’t be remembered as fondly as it could have been.

We are talking about an executive who helped keep the WNBA afloat during a pandemic, secured a massive media rights deal, set the league on a path toward expansion and helped deliver a landmark collective bargaining agreement just months ago.

Which is exactly why Engelbert’s replacement will need to do more than just understand the business side of the WNBA. They’ll also need to communicate with the players, understand their concerns, and build a genuine connection with them. So when it comes to Cash, could her past stance on the issue become a problem?

Well, there’s a reason Cash is being considered in the first place. She knows the WNBA from both sides of the table. She spent 15 years as a player, winning three WNBA championships, before building a remarkable career as a basketball executive.

As CT Insider’s Declan Walsh put it, Cash has become “a prominent executive and investor in the basketball world over the past decade.”

She has been involved in various front-office roles, serving as Director of Franchise Development for the New York Liberty, Vice President of Basketball Operations and Team Development for the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans, and as Senior Vice President of Basketball Operations for the same franchise.

Cash also currently serves as the Board President for the Women’s Sports Foundation, a nonprofit founded by Billie Jean King, and was a notable part of the WNBA’s historic $75 million capital raise in 2022.

However, while Cash does have the qualifications and experience, could her past public record on the transgender issue affect how her potential candidacy is perceived? Especially among WNBA fans who oppose transgender athletes competing in women’s sports?

Whether this issue eventually affects Cash’s chances of becoming commissioner remains to be seen. But the next person in charge will have a tough balancing act ahead. They’ll need to anticipate the outside disruptions while still being able to connect with the players inside it.

More than anything, they’ll need to understand that the WNBA hasn’t reached the finish line when it comes to financial stability. The players can’t simply be viewed as pieces of a money-making machine. They need to feel heard, understood, and valued.

Will Swin Cash be that person?

If she gets the job, everyone around the WNBA will be hoping she’s the right person to guide the league into the next chapter of this wild ride.