Salaries aren't the only issues WNBA players carry into CBA negotiations

The WNBA season is drawing to a close. Tonight, the Las Vegas Aces and the Indiana Fever are playing a deciding game five to see who will make the finals. The Phoenix Mercury are already there. Their star player is down two shoulders, but she’s used to that. If basketball, then, in this case, extremely basketball. So to speak.

Unfortunately, this season’s near-MVP Napheesa Collier and the Minnesota Lynx went down along the way, and the Lynx were reasonably displeased with how officiating was handled. And then how their comments about the officiating were handled.

A bit of time has passed.

Napheesa Collier took to the podium today to address a few things from her perspective. I’ll leave an appropriate video of Collier’s statement here:

Well. Then. Napheesa Collier appears quite unhappy with WNBA leadership

Here are some quotes in case you are unable to watch the video.

"[Officiating] has now reached levels of inconsistency that plague our sport and undermine the integrity in which it operates. Whether the league cares about the health of the players is one thing, but to also not care about the product you put on the floor is truly self-sabotage. Year after year, the only thing that remains consistent is the lack of accountability from our leaders."

"Leadership just issues fines and looks the other way. They ignore the issues that everyone inside the game is begging to be fixed. That is negligence."

According to Collier, she asked before the season what Cathy would do about the inconsistent officiating. Cathy’s response was, “Well, only the losers care about the refs.”

"Caitlin [Clark] should be grateful she makes 60 million off the court because without the platform that the WNBA gives her she wouldn’t make anything."

Cathy Engelbert, per Napheesa Collier

Oh, that one was Cathy. Worth pointing that out.

"Players should be on their knees thanking their lucky stars for the media rights deal that I got them.
"

Cathy Engelbert, per Napheesa Collier

Oh, that was Cathy too. It seems like she’s the one saying the dumb stuff, so it should be obvious who is saying what, but I will keep notating which quotes are coming from who below the quotes themselves. I gotchu.

"The league believes it succeeds despite the players, not because of them… I finally grow tired. For too long I had tried to have these conversations in private, but it’s clear there is no intention of accepting there’s a problem. "

Napheesa Collier

"The league has made it clear it isn’t about innovation. It isn’t about collaboration. It’s about control and power. I’ve earned this platform, and I’ve paid the price to get here, and now I have a responsibility to speak on behalf of the fans and everyone in this league that deserves better. The league’s response to being held accountable is to suppress everyone’s voices by handing out fines."

Napheesa Collier

"We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world. But right now we have the worst leadership in the world."

Napheesa Collier

It seems Napheesa Collier doesn’t trust that Cathy Engelbert is looking out for the health of the players. That feels like a bad thing for WNBPA leadership to feel about the commissioner. It’s hard to say whether Deloitte trained Cathy for this particular moment.

In regards to, “being grateful for the platform the WNBA gives,” furries solved this a long time ago.

Random bad furries going up to furry artists being like “you should draw my request, so I can post it on my Twitter and FurAffinity accounts, and then you can get all of that exposure.” The bad furries doing this were deemed defective and quickly forced to improve as a person (or at the very least withdraw the public presence of their shitty ideas) by no longer thinking that “exposure” is proper compensation for labor. You pay people for their expertise and work. Especially when the labor is so much prominent, more important, and less outwardly disgusting than whatever platform typically tries to pull this s**t.

Basically what I’m saying is that Cathy Engelbert is the worst kind of furry. Metaphorically, of course. What that says about her as an WNBA leader is for you to decide.