Cathy Engelbert said she will remain WNBA commissioner beyond Dec. 31 if the league has not found her replacement by then.
Cathy Engelbert will stay on as WNBA commissioner past the end of the year if the league has not found her replacement by then, she told The Associated Press after Friday's announcement that she will retire effective Dec. 31.
Engelbert has been working on a succession plan for the last few years. She did not name anyone under consideration but said the league has candidates both inside and outside its office.
"It's a good time to hand it off to the next leader to take the 'W' into a better phase," Engelbert said. "I'm proud of the team we built and everything we accomplished. A leader knows when it's time to drop the mic and move on after building a powerhouse team in the league office."
Multiple sources told ESPN the search will begin later this month, if not sooner. Several high-ranking team sources had told ESPN in recent weeks that they expected 2026 to be her final season.
Engelbert took the job on July 17, 2019, after Lisa Borders resigned as league president the previous October. NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum ran the league on an interim basis in between. Engelbert was the first person to hold the commissioner title. Borders and the three leaders before her, Val Ackerman, Donna Orender, and Laurel Richie, were presidents. Only Ackerman, who ran the league from its 1996 launch into 2005, served longer.
Her original plan when she left Deloitte, where she had been chief executive since 2015, was three and a half years in the job.
"I love women's basketball and am not going anywhere yet. We'll run a real succession process in the remaining four months. If we don't find someone I'll stay on," Engelbert said. "I had no transition. I walked in the door and I was by myself as no one transitioned me into this role.
"Hopefully I can help this next leader transition in especially considering the elevation of this league," Engelbert continued.
Engelbert turns 62 in November. She told the AP she had been thinking about retirement for months and that nobody at the NBA or among WNBA stakeholders pressured her into making this decision.
"When I first came to the league I intended to do this for 3 1/2 years," Engelbert explained. "The 7 1/2 years exceeded that time. This is a really good time given the financial transformation journey we've been on. Getting the collective bargaining agreement done, getting a long-term media rights deal done, getting expansion done."
The collective bargaining agreement was finalized this past spring and produced the league's first million-dollar player salaries. The media rights deals on the books total $3.1 billion. The league had 12 teams when Engelbert arrived. Golden State began play in 2025, Toronto and Portland joined this season, and Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia are scheduled to enter in 2028, 2029, and 2030, taking the league to 18.
The earlier labor agreement of her tenure was reached in January 2020. That summer she moved the season into a single site in Bradenton, Florida, during the pandemic, and in 2021 she introduced the in-season Commissioner's Cup. The regular season is set to grow to 50 games, per ESPN.
NBA Commissioner Adam Silver announced the retirement Friday. The next commissioner will report to him, as Engelbert has since 2019.
The announcement came during the league's international break, with Team USA opening World Cup play in Berlin the same day. The playoffs begin later this month, and the Finals are scheduled for October.
