“For her to begin her speech saying that she has the greatest respect for me and for the players, and then turns around and calls me a liar three minutes later … denying that the words I heard leave directly from her mouth. I think she only talks about that lack of responsibility and, therefore, I really have nothing more to say,” said Collier. “I think she encapsulated what I was talking about in my statement.”
Collier and Engelbert had planned to speak during the WNBA finals, but the growing tensions in the middle of the CBA ongoing negotiations increased last week after Collier read a statement accusing the main office of the League and the commissioner not to worry about the league players.
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At one point, Collier described multiple private conversations with Engelbert, saying that the commissioner had said that “players should be on your knees thanking their stars of luck” for the current agreement of the rights of the media, and that the star of the fever of Indiana Caitlin Clark should be “grateful” for the WNBA platform.
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Three days after Collier’s statement to journalists, Engelbert said during a press conference before game 1 of the WNBA finals that was “discouraged” by Collier’s comments, but welcomed “difficult but necessary conversations.”
Engelbert denied having said those comments about Clark and added that he had talked to Collier and the two planned to meet, just for Collier to cancel that meeting during the weekend.
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Collier, who was in Los Angeles during “a day of unreasonable conversation”, a one -day summit with former vice president Kamala Harris, told Harris that he was “fed up” with the leadership of the league “deaf and derogatory” and that is why she spoke, although he originally did not plan to do so.
“If I was going to annihilate this, or people would support me, I felt that what I was doing was correct,” said Collier. “I felt that it should be said. So it doesn’t matter the consequences, I felt it was something that should be done.”
The NBA commissioner, Adam Silver, said Monday that he believes that an agreement will be made despite the current division between the League and the union.
(Tagstotranslate) Naphesa Collier