WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert Catches Heat for Angel Reese-Caitlin Clark

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert is catching some serious heat for the comments she made in regards to the “rivalry” between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert is facing serious backlash after comments made regarding the rivalry between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. Several fans and players took to social media to share their thoughts after Engelbert made an appearance on CNBC’s Power Lunch show.

CNBC anchor Tyler Mathisen asked Engelbert a question regarding the “dark” turn the rivalry has taken amongst fans on social meda.

Now it seems, on some social media channels, to have taken a darker turn. A more menacing turn,” Mathisen asked. “Where race has been introduced in the conversation, where sexuality is sometimes introduced into the conversation.

“How do you try and stay ahead of that… or act as a league when two of your most visible players are involved — not personally, it would seem, but their fanbases are involved — in saying some very uncharitable things about the other?”

Many believe Engelbert avoided the question in her response.

“Well the one thing that’s great about the league right now, we do sit at this intersection of culture, and sports, and fashion, and music. Like, the WNBA players are really looked at now as kind of cultural icons,” Engelbert said.

“And when you have that, you have a lot of attention on you. There’s no more apathy. Everybody cares. It is a little bit of that (Larry) Bird-Magic (Johnson) moment if you recall, from 1979. When those two rookies came in from a big college rivalry, one white, one black. And so we have that moment with these two.

“But the one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry. That’s what makes people watch, They want to watch games of consequence between rivals. They don’t want everybody being nice to one another,” Engelbert then said.