Sophie Cunningham Calls Out WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, Says League Needs a ‘Bold’ New Leader

Sophie Cunningham called out WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert and said the league needs a ‘bold’ and ‘confident’ leader during an interview published on Wednesday, Aug. 19.

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Sophie Cunningham said she thinks the role of WNBA commissioner, currently held by Cathy Engelbert, could be “open at the end of the year”

“You do have to have a person in power who is bold, who is confident, who wants the best for the players and not maybe for themselves all the time,” Cunningham said

Cunningham previously slammed Engelbert on an October 2025 episode of her podcast

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham said she thinks Cathy Engelbert’s time as WNBA commissioner may be coming to an end.

In an interview with USA Today Sports published on Wednesday, Aug. 19, Cunningham — who has been making headlines for her controversial stance on transgender athletes in women’s sports — called out Engelbert, 61.

“You do have to have a person in power who is bold, who is confident, who wants the best for the players and not maybe for themselves all the time,” Cunningham, 30, said, adding, “So I do feel like, as a whole, that could be a position that’s maybe open at the end of the year, but that’s not my call.”

Although Cunningham believes Engelbert has “done a lot of good things” for the WNBA amid a major upward trend in recent years, she told USA Today: “But with where our league is trying to go, I feel like you just want someone who also wants that.”

“That’s just a hard position to be in, in her shoes, us as players ― we always want more, more, more because we see how good it can be, but ... that’s up to [NBA commissioner] Adam Silver at the end of the day,” Cunningham added.

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Cunningham previously slammed Engelbert on an October 2025 episode of her podcast. While speaking to her co-host about the “pivotal point” the league is in, Cunningham said, “There’s millions and millions of new fans, and at the end of the day, she’s worried about her. In all of her statements, it’s like, ‘I got us here’ and ‘I should...’ – Cathy, no one cares. Literally, no one cares.”

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Cunningham has been making headlines this summer as her recent comments about transgender athletes have inspired protests outside of Fever games. Conservative activist Riley Gaines even came to support her at a game.

Cunningham told USA Today it’s important to her to use her platform to speak up. “People are like, ‘You have a platform. Use it,’ and then once you use it, it’s like, ‘Go back to playing basketball.’ We can be a great example of how to do both,” she said.

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