The WNBA is looking for a new commissioner, and the job description might as well read: “Wanted—an enterprising go-getter with a persuasive communication style to lead a women’s sports league at an inflection point. Must be conversant in basketball. A background in marketing, law, or entertainment is a plus. Contact Adam Silver at NBA headquarters.”
It’s a tall order, but as Karen Crouse writes for Sport & State, there’s a recent example of a women’s sports league making exactly this kind of inspired choice—and reaping the benefits for over a decade.
The LPGA’s Gamble on Mike Whan
Seventeen years ago, the LPGA found itself in a similar bind. It had just weathered the contentious tenure of Commissioner Carolyn Bivens, whose leadership had fractured the tour. In 2009, the LPGA went outside the box, hiring Mike Whan—a marketing executive with a background in golf and hockey equipment but no experience running a professional sports league.
Whan, as Crouse notes, was a consensus builder who succeeded a woman whose leadership failures had proven divisive. He turned an organization that “spent way too much time thinking about us,” as he told ESPN in 2015, into one that focused outward on sponsors, fans, and media partners—understanding that players’ individual success depended on collective effort.
The result? The LPGA experienced an ascendant decade under Whan’s leadership, becoming a model for how a women’s professional sports organization can thrive.
Engelbert’s Mixed Legacy
The WNBA now faces a similar inflection point. Cathy Engelbert announced last week she’s stepping down at the end of the year after seven years as commissioner. She leaves behind a league that achieved two of her primary goals: expansion and significant financial growth, including the first seven-figure player salaries and soaring franchise valuations.
But her legacy, Crouse argues, is mixed. Engelbert never fully won the trust of players. She’ll be remembered for failing to meaningfully address racial disharmony within the league and for sidestepping the question of how the WNBA defines a woman.
The league’s momentum is undeniable—supercharged by Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese’s 2024 arrival and Olivia Miles’s revelatory rookie debut this season for the Minnesota Lynx. But with Engelbert’s departure, the next commissioner must be “the grownup in the room,” as Crouse puts it: someone willing to be the players’ best boss, not their best buddy.
The Diversity Double-Edged Sword
Just as with the LPGA, the WNBA’s greatest asset—its diversity, inclusion, and global representation—can also be its biggest stressor. Crouse points to Engelbert’s 2021 support of Layshia Clarendon, who underwent treatments to transition to a man while playing for the New York Liberty. Engelbert offered her “full-throated support” for Clarendon’s active presence in the league, but that stance created unintended consequences, including former NBA players Enes Kanter Freedom, Larry Sanders, and Royce White declaring for the 2027 WNBA Draft.
As Crouse writes: “A pragmatist with a long-term vision would have recognized what a self-appointed advocate who couldn’t see past their virtue could not, that the road to eligibility rules hell is paved with good intentions.”
History Repeating: The Bivens Precedent
The WNBA’s situation echoes the LPGA’s before Whan. Carolyn Bivens’s stewardship of the LPGA was derailed by her inability to connect with players and her tone-deaf response to cultural challenges.
In the summer of 2008, Bivens proposed an English language-proficiency policy that would have required foreign-born players to speak passable English by the end of their second year on Tour or face possible suspension. At the time, 120 players—half the tour’s membership—were from outside the U.S., including 45 from South Korea. Four South Korean players finished in the top 11 on the year-end money list, and Jiyai Shin, a non-member, won three events including a major.
The backlash was swift: players, civil rights groups, and lawmakers criticized the policy, forcing Bivens to back down and replace it with a punishment-free program. But she went further, saying she wanted to help assimilate South Korean players into American culture and “emancipate” them from what she characterized as overbearing fathers.
“The language is part of the control the parents have over their young daughters,” Bivens told Crouse in a 2008 interview. “If they don’t even know survival English, they’re totally dependent on the dad.”
What was meant as advocacy instead turned a language issue into a referendum on Western vs. Eastern culture.
By July 2009, several prominent players signed a letter asking for Bivens’s resignation. Veteran Juli Inkster summed up the turmoil in Golf Digest: “We need you guys to start writing about our golf instead of all this other crap that’s going on.”
What the WNBA Can Learn
Crouse argues that the same sentiment now runs rampant through the WNBA: players and fans want the focus back on basketball, not the culture wars.
The next commissioner can shift the conversation back to the dynamic brand of basketball that should be the league’s calling card—if the choice is an inspired one, as Mike Whan proved possible for the LPGA.
Whan’s success came from being a consensus builder who prioritized collective focus over individual agendas. For the WNBA, that means a leader who can navigate the league’s diversity without turning it into a wedge, who can support players without alienating them, and who can keep the sport front and center.
As Crouse’s piece suggests, the WNBA has all the ingredients for its next decade of growth—expansion, star power, and cultural relevance. What it needs now is the right person to lead it, someone who can learn from the LPGA’s example and avoid the pitfalls that tripped up both Bivens and Engelbert.
Source: www.dailywire.com — https://www.dailywire.com/news/heres-what-the-wnba-can-learn-from-the-lpga-in-choosing-its-next-commissioner