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Alexa Philippou
INDIANAPOLIS — Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark said Napheesa Collier “made a lot of very valid points” this week when the Minnesota Lynx star ripped WNBA leadership.
Clark added that she has “great respect for Phee” and “Phee said it all.”
“I think what people need to understand, we need great leadership at this time across all levels,” Clark, who missed most of the season with injuries, said Thursday in her first media availability since mid-July. “This is straight-up the most important moment in this league’s history. This league’s been around for 25-plus years and this is a moment we have to capitalize on.”
Collier said Tuesday that WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told her that Clark “should be grateful she makes $16 million off the court, because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything.” Clark said she had not previously heard that story and that she has not heard from Engelbert since Collier’s remarks.
Clark didn’t directly respond to Engelbert’s alleged comment but pointed out that NIL has allowed college players to grow their brands and earn money before they get to the league, such as how she did at Iowa.
Clark was also asked what she would consider great leadership, in the context of players’ recent comments saying they’re disappointed with what they’ve seen from the league level.
“It is all about relationships, and that’s the truth,” Clark said. “I know that’s really hard to say in professional sports, but whether it’s a relationship with your front office, whether it’s relationship with commissioner of the league, whether it’s relationship with your teammates. … Why would my teammates want to listen to me if I didn’t have a relationship with them? I think it’s the most simple thing, and you have to be very intentional about seeking those out and understanding your teammates.
“I’d say the most important part of leadership, whether that’s the WNBA, whether that’s corporate America, I think it comes down to relationships and really caring about the people you surround yourself with.”
Clark’s teammate Sophie Cunningham went a step further in expressing her frustration.
“Not really a fan of our leadership in the W,” she said. “I just think they’re failing us as a league, definitely failing us as players. And everything that Napheesa said, we all feel that way, and we’re all going to back her. … I think it’s pretty shameful that she always makes it about her, Cathy, when it should have nothing to do with her.”
Cunningham added that she has had NBA players reach out “in awe of how terrible it is … and feeling bad for us because of how we’re getting treated.”
“I’m just tired of our league,” she continued. “They need to step up and be better. Our leadership from top to bottom needs to be held accountable. I think that there are a lot of people in the position of powers in the WNBA who, they might be really great business people, but they don’t know s— about basketball, and that’s got to change.”
Cunningham called out the league’s officiating, saying referees allow things to become like a “battlefield out there.” She said the league is asking for “improvement to change the criteria [on what calls should be made]” but claims little has been done about it.
The Fever guard also described league leadership in the context of CBA negotiations as “very, very poor.” The WNBPA and WNBA are in the midst of talks with the current CBA set to expire at the end of October, and players have increasingly expressed exasperation in how things have stalled.
Cunningham said the players have a call Thursday to get an update.
“There’s a potential lockout, because I promise you that we are not going to play until they give us what we deserve,” Cunningham said. “And that’s kind of where it’s headed, unfortunately, which would be the dumbest basketball decision business-wise ever, considering the momentum the WNBA has right now.”
Cunningham and Clark were two of the Fever’s five players who were ruled out for the 2025 campaign with season-ending injuries. Clark, who was limited to just 13 games and last suited up in mid-July, said she injured her ankle in August with “probably one of the worst sprains I’ve dealt with” while recovering from her groin injury, the former preventing her from seeing how she had recovered from the latter.
Clark said that she has “probably started feeling my best” over the past couple of weeks and hopes to start incorporating 5-on-5 into her on-court work by the end of October. She also will be preparing for USA Basketball opportunities in the coming months.
