Silver made the first move
The detail that stands out is who picked up the phone. Adam Silver contacted Sophie Cunningham, not the reverse, and the Indiana Fever guard has now spoken with the NBA commissioner more than once about the job Cathy Engelbert vacates at the end of the year.
“I have talked to Adam Silver a couple times, and I think he’s a great guy,” Cunningham said on Monday, after a Fever practice during the FIBA World Cup break. “He was very knowledgeable and full of wisdom, and so getting to talk to him and hear his perspective of how he approaches the NBA is huge, who he’s kind of looking for. I think if you want to know the real answers, you go to him.”
Silver has a long record of canvassing players on league matters across both the NBA and the WNBA. The NBA declined to say what the two discussed.
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Players first, and a unifier
Cunningham named no candidates. She was specific about the profile.
“I really do think that you need a commissioner who is players-first, who wants a relationship with their players,” she said. “That doesn’t mean we’re always going to get along and we’re always going to agree. Like, they have a job, they work for the owners, and so they’re going to have to make hard decisions. But if you have that open line of communication and that respect level, I think that it just feels different.”
She wants someone capable of holding a varied room together. “I think the WNBA has always been a place for people to feel safe and comfortable. I think there’s all types of walks in this organization, or in this league,” she said. “But I do think with that you need someone who’s going to unite everybody.”
Cunningham also raised the schedule, questioning whether back-to-back games serve the product, while acknowledging that the density of the calendar underpins higher salaries.
What the next commissioner inherits
Engelbert leaves a league transformed. Ticket sales, merchandise, television ratings and general interest have climbed steadily since Indiana took Caitlin Clark with the No. 1 pick in 2024. Her term also produced a richer broadcast deal, a new collective bargaining agreement and charter flights for every team.
The complaints piled up alongside the growth, from the hard fouls Clark absorbed this season to sustained questions about Engelbert’s own leadership. Whoever follows her walks into both halves of that ledger.
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