After seven years as commissioner, Cathy Engelbert is set to step down at the end of the 2026 season, leaving behind a WNBA that has grown from 12 teams to 18 planned teams by 2030. And it seems like former NBA center Enes Kanter Freedom is already eyeing the position she will leave behind.
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“I would actually love to,” Freedom said on The Ingraham Angle. “I think, you know, the first thing that I would do, I would bring a dictionary.”
Not just that, through his own social media post Freedom addressed Engelbert’s retirement as a “win for women” although adding that the the move doesn’t resolve what he feels are broader issues.
“Her retirement does not solve the systemic issues which must be addressed in order to protect women’s sports,” he said. “If the WNBA is unable to define what a woman is, then I, Enes Kanter Freedom, would be more than happy to step in as commissioner and lead this league back to greatness and restore fairness for all women.”
But while Freedom has framed Engelbert’s departure as a failure to address the league’s eligibility rules, Engelbert has given a different perspective as to why she chose to leave, and it’s more for her family.
“Obviously, some of the noise more bothered my family… wanting to spend more time with me and support me,” Engelbert said in an interview with The IX Sports. “And I’m not going to lie about its impact on my kids, on my mother. And again, I have a huge family. My five brothers are like, ‘Get out of there, Cathy.’… I have pretty thick skin.”
Neverthless, Freedom’s remarks about the commissioner comes just a day after he had filed a federal case against the Chicago Sky, the city of Chicago, and the Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority for the ejection on August 23 from Wintrust Arena.
The owner of Sky, Michael Alter, rejected such claims in his statement released via Kareem Copeland on X. In the statement, Alter said that Freedom wore the shirt, which says, “WOMAN noun. adult human female,” for hours without any problem until he stood up and started heading towards the court after security intervened.
The problem goes back to the confrontation that Freedom had with Sky guard Natasha Cloud in a game between Chicago and Indiana Fever. Freedom was sitting along the baseline when Cloud approached him late in the third quarter. Video showed him standing and stepping towards the court, as security and several other Sky players moved between the two.
Freedom was then escorted from the arena, and the Sky later banned him from attending its home games at Wintrust Arena. Alter however clarified that the decision was based on Freedom’s conduct rather than the message on his t-shirt.
“It was pretty clear to us that his purpose of coming here was trying to be provocative and just see how much attention he could get and stir up and create,” Alter told the reporters.
The entire dispute comes shortly after Freedom and former NBA player Royce White declared for the 2027 WNBA Draft while saying they identify as women. The WNBA has not recognized Freedom to be someone eligible to enter the draft.
The WNBA’s collective bargaining agreement states that “only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA.” It does not include more broader details like gender identity or s** assigned at birth.
While the retirement of Engelbert was marked with a tone very much opposite to that which had surrounded Freedom, the head of the NBA, Adam Silver, commended her tenure as the most significant period of growth in the league’s 30-year history.
“Cathy has presided over the WNBA through the most significant period of growth in the league’s 30-year history,” Silver said in the league’s official announcement. “We are grateful for Cathy’s leadership and unwavering commitment to the advancement of women’s basketball.”
Engelbert expressed the same views as she thought about the scope of her tenure, which covered negotiations for the largest media deals and collective bargaining agreements ever in the league.
“In 2019, I had the privilege of being appointed the league’s first commissioner and to lead a league with enormous potential yet untapped awareness and significant undervaluation,” Engelbert said in the same statement.
In light of Engelbert’s departure expected at the end of 2026, the league now finds itself not only having to deal with the consequences of Freedom’s lawsuit but also preparing for a change in its leadership.