Sophie Cunningham Questions Cathy Engelbert's WNBA Future

Sophie Cunningham said the WNBA commissioner job could be open after this season and called for a leader who is "bold" as Cathy Engelbert's contract approaches its end.

The Indiana Fever guard made the comments in a USA Today profile published Wednesday. Engelbert's current contract expires after the 2026 season, her seventh as commissioner of the WNBA.

"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 said Engelbert has done "a lot of good things" during her tenure. She also said the league needs a commissioner who will support players trying to be "trailblazers of what women's leagues can look like."

Engelbert has led the league through a period of major growth. Her future has remained unsettled this year, which also included a contentious round of labor negotiations between the league and its players.

Cunningham said players keep asking for more because they see how much further the league can go.

"With where our league is trying to go, I feel like you just want someone who also wants that," Cunningham told USA Today. "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."

She said NBA Commissioner Adam Silver will decide Engelbert's future "at the end of the day."

One day after the USA Today profile was published, Engelbert spoke before Indiana's game against Dallas at American Airlines Center. She was seated alongside Wings CEO and managing partner Greg Bibb.

Demonstrators were outside the arena Thursday. Similar groups have appeared at Fever games since Cunningham stated her position on transgender participation in women's sports in a July ESPN profile.

Engelbert said some people weighing in on the subject have never watched the WNBA, written about it, or reported on it. She called the situation a "political football."

"People are trying to use the league to sow divisiveness," Engelbert said.

Cunningham said in July that she opposes transgender girls and women competing in girls' and women's sports. Small rallies and protests followed at Fever road games in Seattle and Portland.

The WNBA's anti-hate task force met virtually Aug. 12. Transgender athlete eligibility and online vitriol directed at players were among the subjects discussed. The league said afterward that no immediate eligibility matter was before it.

Under the collective bargaining agreement, only players who are women are eligible to play in the WNBA. The agreement does not add language on gender identity or sex assigned at birth.

The task force did not announce a policy change after the meeting.

At Indiana's Aug. 16 game in Atlanta, security asked fans to cover shirts carrying messages about transgender athletes. The WNBA later said they should not have been asked to cover the shirts.

Cunningham told USA Today that discussion around players does not have to stop with basketball. She said players can answer questions about issues away from the court while also talking about their teams and the league.

"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."

Indiana lost 91-85 at Dallas on Thursday. The Fever play at New York on Saturday and at Chicago on Sunday.