LAS VEGAS — Three things are certain in life: death, taxes and WNBA players being told they need to be more grateful.
As the league went mainstream last year, talking heads insisted players needed to be more grateful to megastar Caitlin Clark for the massive following she brought along.
Now it appears the demands on players’ gratitude are coming from inside the league, too. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert was accused of telling MVP runner-up Napheesa Collier that the players should be “thanking their lucky stars” for the media deal she got them, which will more than triple TV revenue starting next season.
Collier said Engelbert also told her that Clark should be grateful to the league for giving her a platform, without which she wouldn’t be raking in the sponsorship dough.
These comments, and a long history of feeling dismissed, prompted Collier — an executive in the players’ union — to say Wednesday that the WNBA has the “worst leadership in the world.” She also said that lack of accountability from leadership is the biggest threat to the league.
Sounds like collective-bargaining negotiations are going pretty well, huh?
“What people need to understand, we need great leadership at this time across all levels,” Clark, who missed most of the season with injuries, said Thursday in her first media availability since mid-July. “This is straight up the most important moment in this league’s history. This league’s been around for 25-plus years, and this is a moment we have to capitalize on.”
Clark also said she has “great respect for Phee” and “Phee said it all.”
Should fans be worried about a work stoppage?
Because . . . there’s kind of a good thing going on here. The WNBA playoffs have been a blast. An underdog run from the Fever and a fascinating underperformance from Collier’s Lynx made for great television.
Both semifinal series were regularly cracking 1.5 million viewers per game — almost double the Finals averages from just a few years ago.
The league’s success is actually somewhat miraculous after being told for decades that women’s basketball would never be mainstream. Now the sports-bar owners turn the games on unprompted, and the kids at the park talk trash with references to Clark.
The players and the league have each played an important role in getting here.
As the oldest women’s sports league in the country, the WNBA brings value in coordinating and carrying forward the history of franchises across the country. And it has taken important steps to capitalize on the game’s growing popularity.
The players’ contributions are even more obvious — and more fun. It’s not just Sky star Angel Reese on your McDonald’s bag; it’s a livestream from the StudBudz during All-Star Weekend that’s proving their mass appeal.
So, yes, two things can be true. The league’s growth story has been driven by player personalities as well as the communal infrastructure provided by the league.
Interdependency! A forgotten concept in the heat of labor negotiations, where the players have been articulating their growing power, and the league, apparently, has been demanding gratitude.
It makes you wonder. Will the world of women’s basketball ever get to revel in the miracle of mainstream success, uninterrupted by directives about how much and whom they need to be grateful for?
We shall see. Engelbert, who was disheartened by Collier’s characterization of her leadership, will speak Friday before Game 1 of the first seven-game Finals in league history.
It could be a wonderful moment. In fact it could be, as Clark put it Thursday, “straight up the most important moment in the league’s history.”
Hopefully, Engelbert has learned from this mess that gratitude-mongering is not the way forward.
Because the natural response to “You need to thank me” often tends to be something like “I don’t need you.”
And that kind of thinking is a threat to the league, too.
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