Caitlin Clark Backs Napheesa Collier in Fight With WNBA

Caitlin Clark is standing with Napheesa Collier in light of the Minnesota Lynx star’s broadside against WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert. 

Collier said Tuesday that the league has “the worst leadership in the world” in a four-minute statement ripping the league as “tone-deaf” and “dismissive.”

Clark was asked about Collier’s comments at the Indiana Fever’s exit interviews with the media Thursday after the team was eliminated from the WNBA playoffs Tuesday night.

“I have great respect for Phee and I think she made a lot of very valid points,” Clark said. “I think what people need to understand is we need great leadership at this time across all levels. This is the most important time in this league’s history and this is a moment we have to capitalize on. … Phee said it all.”

Collier had referenced a conversation she had with Engelbert earlier this year at Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 winter league she founded with Breanna Stewart.

According to Collier, she asked the commissioner about the low salaries specifically earned by Clark, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers. In her telling, Engelbert responded by saying Clark should be “grateful she makes $16 million off the court, because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything.” 

Clark was paid just $78,006 this past season on a four-year, $338,000 contract as part of the league’s current collective bargaining agreement, which expires at the end of this month. Negotiations between the WNBA and the Women’s National Basketball Players Association have been tense, with a new deal unlikely to be reached before the deadline.

“I hope we have a league,” Clark’s Fever teammate Kelsey Mitchell said in response to a question about her upcoming free agency.

The WNBA has never lost games to a work stoppage. If the Oct. 31 deadline passes without a new CBA, the players could strike, the owners could lock them out, or the sides could continue negotiating without a deal. They could also agree to a deadline extension, which is what happened the last time the WNBA was in labor contract negotiations.

Engelbert released a statement Tuesday saying she was “disheartened by how Napheesa characterized our conversations,” but she did not outright deny her comments.

The Fever said Clark did not have a comment when Collier and Engelbert first made their comments. On Thursday, in her own exit interview, Clark responded for the first time. 

When asked whether she had heard the anecdote before Tuesday or whether Engelbert had reached out to her, Clark shook her head in response to both questions. 

Cunningham Torches Commish

While Clark kept her comments about Engelbert and the CBA relatively generic Thursday, her Fever teammate Sophie Cunningham did not. 

Cunningham, who like most WNBA veterans will be an unrestricted free agent this winter, had already ripped Engelbert’s comments Tuesday through social media. 

“People only know Cathy because of C…. She’s the most delusional leader our league has seen,” she wrote in an Instagram comment. “AND IT SHOULDN’T EVER BE ABOUT OUR COMMISSIONER IN THE FIRST PLACE,” she added.

Speaking to reporters minutes before Clark in Indianapolis on Thursday, Cunningham elaborated. 

“I’m just tired of our league,” she said. “Our leadership from top to bottom needs to be held accountable. … I think there are a lot of people in position of power in the WNBA who—they might be really great business people—but they don’t know shit about basketball.”

Cunningham said she’s heard from NBA players who are “in awe of how terrible” things are in the WNBA. She added there is a “big call” Thursday afternoon among players to discuss CBA negotiations. 

“I do know the league came back and really gave us nothing,” Cunningham said. “And so there’s a potential lockout, because I promise that we are not going to play until they get us what we deserve. And that’s kind of where it’s headed, which would be the dumbest basketball decision business-wise ever, considering the moment the W has right now.”

Like Collier, Cunningham is from Missouri, and the two are longtime friends. Cunningham backed the Lynx star and attacked Engelbert’s behavior. 

“It’s pretty shameful that she always makes it about her, Cathy, when it should have nothing to do with her,” Cunningham said Thursday.