For about 44 awkward seconds inside a nightclub, Cathy Engelbert was indeed the beloved commissioner of the WNBA.The setting: the 2025 All-Star weekend in downtown Indianapolis. The vibe: mixed drinks and bad decisions. The moment: Engelbert and a pair of pink-haired players, Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman, streaming their ‘StudBudz’ shenanigans nonstop.With the camera rolling and the DJ playing the party anthem “Knuck If You Buck,” Engelbert greets the players, tells them they’re “amazing,” and raises both hands in a way that someone who’s never given a fist bump in their life would attempt a fist bump.Then, the commissioner starts dancing.Alas, the next woman who becomes WNBA commissioner — and it will be a woman — she’ll have to continue this delicate dance.
WNBA COMMISSIONER, CATHY ENGELBERT, DANCING TO "KNUCK IF YOU BUCK" BY CRIME MOB????????
STUDBUDZ HAS GONE TOO FARRRRR, BRUH 😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/pWbEwMwvcj
— zavanté is temporarily patriotic 🇺🇸💫 (@zavanchy) July 19, 2025Now that Engelbert has announced her decision to retire at the end of this season, she leaves with a long list of business wins and strained relationships. So the next commissioner chosen to lead this league, she’d better be a special boss. One who can show business competence and still communicate like a regular person. One who can anticipate the outside disruptions while empathizing with the targeted workforce inside the storm. Above all else, she’d better understand that the WNBA hasn’t reached the finish line of being financially solvent, while still seeing the players as more than just parts of the money machine.Since she’ll be a woman required to do all this heavy lifting, she’d better accept the unfairness of it all.Because the world is the way it is, the standard for female CEOs will always be higher and more personal than that of their male counterparts. She has to be approachable in the hallways, yet have some callousness in the boardroom. Her personality has to demand respect, but she still has to be, you know, a boss with rizz. She should be prepared to be condemned as a tyrant for making the same hard decisions a man might make, as researchers found in 2016 in coverage about then-Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer compared with Jack Dorsey, the guy who allowed Twitter to go to hell.Now, let’s get this straight: Bad bosses are bad bosses, regardless of gender. Comedian Ellen DeGeneres lost her popular talk show for creating a toxic work environment. Former Vice President Kamala Harris ran through staffers as though she was hosting a version of “Squid Game” inside the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson racked up tons of civil lawsuits from her previous day job as a licensed interior designer. So to ignore the missteps made by Engelbert, or shield any woman in a leadership position from justifiable criticism, would be the opposite of equality among the sexes. It would be condescending and a distorted version of “women helping women.”
