NEW YORK -- WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced shortly before the 2025 WNBA draft Monday that the league has assembled a dedicated task force for combating hate and vitriol directed toward players and teams.
"We want to ensure that the WNBA remains a space where everyone -- players, fans and corporate partners -- feel safe, valued and empowered," Engelbert said.
The task force features a four-pronged approach, she added: monitoring social media and other digital platforms using an advanced technology solution to detect comments and threats; strengthening conduct standards across WNBA platforms, including in arenas; adding security measures at league and team levels; and continued services of dedicated mental health clinicians for players.
Engelbert said the WNBA has collaborated with league and team representatives as well as external organizations and experts as the task force has come into fruition. Multiple WNBA players spoke out last season about an uptick in racist, misogynistic, anti-gay and otherwise vitriolic rhetoric directed to them over social media, and there were also incidents that occurred outside of those online platforms.
Liberty forward Breanna Stewart's wife received a threatening anti-gay email during the WNBA Finals last year, and earlier in the season a man with a camera harassed former Sky guard Chennedy Carter while the team got off its bus on a road trip.
"There's no space for hate, and I think there is just continuing drain on all of us, on players, on staff, staff on our teams," Engelbert said on Monday. "After last year, I think we just really wanted to do something ... it was time to put this task force together and really hit it head-on, so that's what we're going to do."
Engelbert addressed a variety of other topics in her pre-draft availability:
• Conversations about future expansion teams remain ongoing. This year the Golden State Valkyries will tip off play, while next year the Toronto Tempo and Portland's WNBA team will debut. Engelbert reiterated that the league remains on track to add a 16th team by no later than 2028.
• CBA negotiations with the WNBPA also remain ongoing, with Engelbert describing the talks as "in the early phases" and adding she is "optimistic about coming to a transformational CBA at some point." The players' opt-out of the current CBA goes into effect following the 2025 season.
• When asked about higher salaries provided by the 3-on-3 league Unrivaled, Engelbert said she is "really proud" of what Napheesa Collier and Stewart, WNBA stars and Unrivaled co-founders, have created and that "anything that raises the game of basketball, of women's basketball, obviously we support." The commissioner drew a distinction between the WNBA needing to take care of more than 190 players by the time it adds a 16th team, and Unrivaled, which featured 30 players this past season.
"I think what the WNBA offers is a huge platform to our players, around their corporate partners, around activating," Engelbert said. "Certainly thrilled with the viewership we have and the momentum we have, and the capital coming into our league as well, in the investments our owners are making."
Engelbert visited Unrivaled during the season and thought the WNBA could learn from the new league's player and fan engagement approaches. "We'll look innovatively at anything that we think works that we could incorporate into our game," she added.