The WNBA commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, insisted that she remained the right person to lead the league on Friday while responding to an avalanche of recent criticisms of the main players about their sports administration.
Engelbert, speaking before the inaugural match of the Friday of the WNBA finals in Las Vegas, has been in the sights this week after the Minnesota Lynx Napheesa Collier star accused her of “negligent” governance of the WNBA.
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Since then, a series of players have spoken in support of Collier, who said that the WNBA suffered the “worst leadership in the world” and detailed a variety of complaints from inconsistent officers and not taking the players seriously.
Collier also claimed that Engelbert had been derogatory for criticism for the star of Indiana Fever Caitlin Clark and a new generation of players who had increased interest in sport, saying that they should be “on their knees” in gratitude for the commercial opportunities they had received.
When asked directly about those comments on Friday, Engelbert initially refused to be attracted before denying later that he had used that phrase.
“There is a lot of inaccuracy through social networks and all these reports,” Engelbert told a press conference.
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“I have been in contact with Napheesa. We have exchanged text messages, we are talking next week … Obviously, many reports, a lot of inaccuracy about what I did or I didn’t say, so I will leave it there.
“I am obviously discouraged. I am a human too. I have a family. I have two children who are devastated by these comments. Obviously it has been a difficult week.”
However, when asked later if he felt that players like Clark should be “grateful” for the opportunities for profits out of the court, Engelbert replied: “I obviously did not make those comments. Caitlin has been a transformative player in this league.
“She has been a great representative of the game. He has brought dozens of millions of new fans to the game … As I said, there are many inaccuracies reported there, and I certainly didn’t say that.”
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– ‘It has never been a resignation’ –
In his departure interview of the season on Tuesday, Collier said that the leadership of the WNBA had failed to control offices accusing the “Auto-Sabotage” League.
The WNBA players are also in the midst of the negotiation of a new collective bargaining agreement and have requested a greater proportion of the income that is taken to the sport, which has enjoyed a boom in the last seasons promoted largely by Clark’s arrival in the League.
“I was discouraged to hear that some players feel the league, and personally, I don’t care or listen to them,” Engelbert said in his initial comments. “If the players do not feel appreciated and valued by the League, then we have to do better and I have to do better.”
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Engelbert said that the WNBA competition committee would meet at the end of the season to evaluate the status of the game, including the rules of the game, the trade and the security of the players.
He also said that players would be invited to contribute to the establishment of a “multiple work group” that would address the problems posed by Collier and other players, including the lack of approaching the approximate game.
“I think it’s quite clear that we are misaligned in what our interested parties want to officiate,” said Engelbert. “We have heard aloud and clear that we have not been to the alignment of that necessary alignment and that attention and change are needed to serve the WNBA at the level of excellence that is currently not being fulfilled.
“We will take a look at what should be the right line for a game for good and aggressive that we recognize that it has evolved to an approximate game.”
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Engelbert also said that the League wants to “significantly increase” salary and benefits granted to players, while guaranteeing “long -term growth and viability” of the WNBA.
Engelbert also insisted that she was the right person to lead the league.
“I’ve never been a resignation,” he said. “He never moved away from difficult situations. I think the leadership, the cream always rises to the top and I have always been someone who believes in the fact that if there are things we need to fix, we will fix them.”
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(Tagstotranslate) Cathy Engelbert
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