Sophie Cunningham slams WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert on podcast

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Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham has been among the many most outspoken WNBA gamers to handle the latest controversy surrounding Commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Throughout her newest podcast episode, Cunningham continued to talk out, calling out the league boss for performing out of self-interest.

Each on social media and through her exit interview on Wednesday, Cunningham spoke at size about her points with Engelbert and league officiating.

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) warms up earlier than the beginning of the sport in opposition to the Connecticut Solar at Mohegan Solar Enviornment. (David Butler II/Imagn Photographs)

"I’m simply uninterested in our league. They should step up and be higher. Our management from prime to backside must be held accountable. I feel there are lots of people in positions of energy within the WNBA, who they is perhaps actually nice enterprise individuals, however they don’t know s--- about basketball. And that’s gotta change."

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Within the newest episode of her podcast, "Show Me Something," Cunningham expanded on her ideas amid the present collective bargaining settlement (CBA) negotiations.

"On the finish of the day, everybody’s fed up – fed up with how the league is treating us.

"They need to be ashamed of themselves for what they’re giving again to us as a result of it is nothing. It's nothing. They’re not listening. The factor is, they’re not even partaking with us. It's unhealthy."

Cunningham, whose first season with the Fever was minimize brief as a result of damage, once more addressed Engelbert. She mentioned Engelbert lacked the qualities of a "nice chief," and mentioned that latest feedback from the commissioner have been out of self-interest.

Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham (8) performs in opposition to the Phoenix Mercury throughout a WNBA recreation at PHX Enviornment in Phoenix, Arizona, on Aug. 7, 2025. (Mark J. Rebilas/Imagn Photographs)

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"Nice leaders need to see different individuals be extra profitable than them, they need to ensure that they’re cared for," Cunningham mentioned. "And I get it, she’s the enterprise facet of it. Like, I get it. However you might be respectful and deal with your product – the product of why persons are paying consideration, why persons are shopping for sure jerseys – deal with your product with respect.

"Like, be a fantastic chief. She’s not. She’s not in any sense. The disrespect is simply loopy to me."

"I feel this simply such a pivotal level within the WNBA as a result of there’s so many eyes on us, there’s so many new followers – there’s hundreds of thousands of hundreds of thousands, I ought to say, of recent followers – and on the finish of the day she’s fearful about her. In all of her statements it’s like, ‘Properly, I acquired us right here and I –,’ Cathy nobody cares. Actually, nobody cares."

Engelbert addressed the media Friday, and was requested about feedback Napheesa Collier alleged she made about star participant Caitlin Clark. Engelbert denied the accusations.

Cathy Engelbert talks to the media in the course of the 2024 WNBA Draft on April 15, 2024, on the Brooklyn Academy of Music in Brooklyn, New York. (Melanie Fidler/NBAE by way of Getty Photographs)

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"Clearly, I didn't make these feedback. Caitlin has been a transformational participant on this league. She's been a fantastic consultant of the sport. She’s introduced in tens of hundreds of thousands of recent followers to the sport," she mentioned.

"There's quite a lot of inaccuracy on the market by way of social media and all this reporting," she later added. "Plenty of reporting, quite a lot of inaccuracy about what I say, what I did not say."

The gamers’ affiliation and the WNBA agreed to an eight-year settlement in 2020, however final 12 months the WNBPA voted to decide out of the settlement early. The present settlement is ready to run out Oct. 31.