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Bill Simmons just piled onto a growing list of people calling for Cathy Engelbert’s job. His reasoning was blunt: “nobody needs a commissioner more than the WNBA right now.”
On his podcast, Simmons didn’t just criticize the WNBA commissioner — he predicted she won’t even make it to the 2027 season. That’s a bold claim, but Simmons laid out exactly why he thinks the league needs new leadership, and fast.
A League Drowning In Its Own Drama
The 2026 season has, by most accounts, featured the deepest and most talented player pool the WNBA has ever had. And yet, according to Simmons, that talent keeps getting buried under controversy after controversy — most of it avoidable.
“The WNBA, which is for some reason turned into the Twitter for you page as a league. And meanwhile, has all of these amazing stories going on. The league’s f—— deep… The league’s legitimately fun to watch and yet all anyone talks about is dumb s—,” Simmons said.
He didn’t stop there.
“What the league really needs is a commissioner. And I would personally bet anything that we will not have this commissioner next year. I’ve never seen a league more determined to not push fun stars and fun storylines and fun people like this… It’s all this discourse stuff and they’re just stepping in bear traps left and right because they have no adults in charge of the league,” he continued.
Simmons made it clear this isn’t about the players — it’s about how poorly he thinks the league is being run around them.
“It’s too bad though because the league, they by far have the best collection of players that I think they’ve had. And I don’t know anybody who thinks they’re well-run. So they have to fix this.”
Controversy After Controversy
It’s not hard to see what Simmons is pointing to. This summer alone brought debates over officiating double standards, a congressional letter pushing Engelbert to address what lawmakers called “racially motivated attacks” on Caitlin Clark, and comments from Sophie Cunningham on transgender athletes that stirred up their own firestorm.
Then there was the USA Today column invoking Emmett Till while describing Clark flopping on the court — a comparison that drew immediate backlash.
All of this happened while the on-court product, by most measures, has been historically strong.
“Nobody needs a commissioner more than the WNBA right now.”@BillSimmons shares his frustration with the discourse around the league and explains why there needs to be a change in leadership. pic.twitter.com/67myX6RY97
— The Ringer (@ringer) August 10, 2026
Simmons also took aim at how the league handles its broadcasting deals. Games are split across multiple networks, which he argues limits visibility at exactly the moment the WNBA should be capitalizing on rising stars. He specifically called out how little the league has done to spotlight breakout names like Clark and rookie Olivia Miles.
His larger point boils down to this: the audience is there, the talent is there — and somehow, the league keeps finding ways to get in its own way.
Whether Engelbert actually loses her job after this season is still unclear. But Simmons is far from the only person making this argument in 2026 — and he almost certainly won’t be the last.
