With Cathy Engelbert announcing she will retire as the WNBA Commissioner, the speculation is on. Who will step into the shoes of the woman who, despite the controversies around player safety and more, led the league to new financial heights? Among the names is soon-to-be former WNBA Players Association President Nneka Ogwumike, but there’s a problem.
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While Ogwumike excelled as a player and their representative during pivotal moments like the 2026 CBA negotiation, according to WNBA analyst Zena Keita, the former WNBA players won’t bring the balance that remains an absolute requirement of the role.
“It doesn’t make sense to have a former player in this position because it’s inherently adversarial,” Keita said on No Offseason: The Athletic Women’s Basketball Show.
“Inherently, you’re going to want to care about the needs of the players because you were one. You know what they’ve been through. You know the struggle that they’ve had to experience to get to the point that they’re even at. And so you’re always going to want to advocate for them.”
Ogwumike has arguably been the most decisive WNBPA president in the league. She has been in the leadership role for the last ten years and helped players secure two historic Collective Bargaining Agreements in 2020 and 2026. But Keita pointed out that the commissioner’s role requires her to negotiate for a side that Ogwumike has often found herself against, as the representative of players.
“Cathy’s role was, or is, until the end of the season, to appease the owners. And so you’re asking someone like a Swin Cash, you’re asking someone like a Nneka Ogwumike to go against what they’ve been for so long,” Keita added.
Swin Cash, another standout former WNBA player, was a three-time WNBA champion and a gold medalist. She also has a very confident aura on television and has experience in the front office (worked as the Vice President of Basketball Operations for the New Orleans Pelicans). She will have the backing of the WNBA players.
There is perhaps no one else that the WNBA players would want at the commissioner’s table than Ogwumike. She has been elected as the WNBPA president for the last four times. Her pivotal role in the historic 2026 CBA saw WNBA teams sign multiple players in deals north of a million dollars.
Even though she will be officially retiring from the WNBA by the end of this season, she will continue to act in her president’s role until the end of the year. But Nneka seemed less interested in taking the job immediately.
“In this league, there’s a lot to be demanded of roles like that, and I know that a lot of people ask that question. I personally don’t think I’m qualified for it,” Ogwumike said in her retirement press conference.
“But it doesn’t mean that maybe in years to come an opportunity like that could come, and I feel a little bit more comfortable.”
Failing to manage her relationship with league star players, league executives, and ownership was perhaps the weakest point in Engelbert’s leadership. While the league saw unprecedented financial growth coupled with record viewership and the addition of three teams under its expansion plan, her absence from the public bothered teams’ front offices. She was also unfavored by players, which reached a boiling point last season when Napheesa Collier called her during the CBA negotiations in a 2025 interview.
Engelbert (Deloitte ), and her predecessors like Lisa Borders (Coca-Cola), Laurel Richie (Girl Scouts ), and Donna Orender (PGA Tour) had a history of roles in management. If not Ogwumike, then Cash has played that role successfully as the CEO of ‘She’s Got Game.’
On the other hand, Ogwumike will have an overwhelming majority of support from the WNBA players. Who knows, she might change her mind and jump in the ring for the biggest role in the league.