Amid WNBA players receiving hate, commissioner Cathy Engelbert holds meeting with union committees

Fiifi Frimpong, New York Daily News on Jul 22, 2026

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NEW YORK — With WNBA players experiencing recent surges in online hate, commissioner Cathy Engelbert held a meeting with the WNBPA’s executive committee and Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) Committee.

The consensus from Tuesday’s meeting was mostly positive, with the players deeming Engelbert’s acknowledgment of needing to be better in her role protecting players as a good sign.

“I think there are steps that are being taken, which is encouraging. But we just want to see a little more consistency,” Chicago Sky veteran and union secretary Elizabeth Williams said.

The 90-minute meeting surrounding player safety also included another recurring topic throughout the season: officiating.

It was the first time Engelbert was joined by the head of league security for such a meeting, Williams said.

“The conversation underscored the importance of addressing issues early through proactive communication and strengthening the league-union relationship,” the WNBA and WNBPA said in a joint statement. “The league committed to continuing to enhance security resources and will work with the players’ union to explore collaborations with organizations that share the values of our league and advance our shared priorities.”

In the meeting, both sides spoke about the importance of tech companies needing to be accountable for racist, misogynistic rhetoric thrown at players.

Last week, Las Vegas Aces All-Star Chelsea Gray shared a social media post showing an alleged racist message sent to her by a man identified as a Hilton Grand Vacations employee. The company fired the man a day later and the WNBA released a statement backing its star guard.

Two weeks prior, Mercury star Alyssa Thomas condemned death threats and racial slurs she received in the aftermath of a one-game suspension after making contact with Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark last month.

At the time, Thomas criticized the commissioner for not doing enough to protect players.

On Wednesday, Williams said Engelbert acknowledged her lack of communication with players while they expressed concerns.

“Yeah, she did [acknowledge it]. She did. I think she appreciated hearing it from us directly, you know. And I think she definitely acknowledged that she could be better.”

Another point of emphasis of the meeting was to make all sides are clear on the needed steps to undergo when under attack.

“There’s also just gonna be even more streamlined conversations between teams, league security and if it gets escalated to law enforcement, that’s something that I think it happens, but I don’t know if everyone knows like the steps that are being taken,” Williams said.

The Sky big added: “I think sometimes players didn’t understand what that process looked like, and I think they did a good job, at least because security was on explaining what that process actually looked like.”

Liberty star Breanna Stewart said Engelbert informed the committees just 42 of the league’s 181 players utilized Social Protect, a free app offered to WNBA players that automatically detects and deletes abusive social media comments in real time.

“Making sure that everyone is really aware of it because you know you don’t need that you don’t need nasty stuff on your page ever,” said Stewart, the WNBPA vice president.

When talking about league officiating, the players stressed the need for consistency from game to game.

“I think we want to see consistency between calls depending on who’s being played,” Stewart said. “You know, I feel like if somebody gets a tech for clapping, then then all the other people should get a tech for clapping. That type of consistency is what I mean. Making sure that we really understand the points of emphasis. Things that they say they’re gonna call, they need to actually call because we’re all catering our games [to that].”

Williams noted the Thomas-Clark incident — which resulted in Thomas’ fist making contact with Clark’s throat — started because of a missed call by officials.

“And so a lot of the players took the backlash for it. When in reality, the officiating, if they had made the call in real time, I think a lot of that [would have been] prevented. So we talked about how is there a way to make that public.”

Another meeting has yet to be scheduled between the pair of committees and the league, but Williams said there were talks of having such meetings more regularly.

“We don’t want it to just be like kind of how it was. It felt like [this meeting was out of] desperation. So we want to feel a little more collaborative,” Williams said.