Sophie Cunningham said the WNBA needs a "bold" commissioner "who wants the best for the players and not maybe for themselves," indicating Cathy Engelbert's current vision does not align "with where our league is trying to go."
Cunningham discussed WNBA leadership and Engelbert's future as the league's commissioner as part of a wide-ranging profile published Wednesday by USA Today.
Engelbert's current contract is set to expire after the 2026 season, her seventh as the WNBA's commissioner. Despite the league's exponential growth in recent years, Engelbert's future is uncertain partly because of how she has handled various situations, including a contentious labor negotiation earlier this year.
"You do have to have a person in power who is bold, who is confident, who wants the best for the players and not maybe for themselves all the time," Cunningham told USA Today. "So I do feel like, as a whole, that could be a position that's maybe open at the end of the year, but that's not my call."
Cunningham praised Engelbert for doing "a lot of good things," but also said the WNBA needs a commissioner who will support players seeking to be "trailblazers of what women's leagues can look like."
"With where our league is trying to go, I feel like you just want someone who also wants that," Cunningham said. "That's just a hard position to be in, in her shoes, us as players -- we always want more, more, more because we see how good it can be."
Cunningham added that Engelbert's fate ultimately will be decided by NBA commissioner Adam Silver "at the end of the day."
The often-outspoken Cunningham became a topic of focus for Engelbert and the WNBA last month after the Indiana Fever guard said in an ESPN article that she was opposed to transgender girls and women competing in girls' and women's sports.
Her stance led to small rallies and protests outside Fever games in Seattle and Portland, prompting Engelbert to call for a task force meeting last week to discuss league policies pertaining to transgender athletes.
Cunningham told USA Today that she thinks the WNBA can provide an environment where players, officials and fans can have a broad discourse that includes both basketball-specific topics and social and cultural issues.
"People are like, 'You have a platform. Use it,' and then once you use it, it's like, 'Go back to playing basketball,'" Cunningham said. "I think the reason why I stated that is because you go into media, and it's not anything even about basketball.
"I think I could do both. Ask me about what's going on and what I said -- and also ask me how great my teammates are doing, how great our team is doing, how great the league is doing. We can be a great example of how to do both."
