The WNBA just can’t get out of its own way, with the latest example being the league’s commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, ghosting a major sports radio show.
Currently, The Dan Patrick Show is set up at the American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament in Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The event brings out many celebrities to showcase their golf game, and because the tourney is a real who’s who, it creates the perfect storm for content creators to bring in celebrities competing in the championship for soundbites.
Patrick and his crew were trying to get WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert on their program, since she’s playing in the tournament, but that proved to be harder than they expected, as the sports radio host explained:
“(We) said, ‘We’d love to have you on.’ There’s a lot of questions. People have not heard answers from the commissioner. She said yes. So yesterday, after the show, we waited almost two hours for her. This was scheduled. She was going to do a meeting in her hotel, a conference call, and then she was going to join us.”
Then she never showed up.
Patrick and his crew waited for hours for an update and never got any. To them, it was all very strange, because Engelbert had previously expressed that she was looking forward to sitting down with them. The radio show had stated they wished to ask questions about the league’s Caitlin Clark problem, and the expansion of the WNBA.
They received no pushback on any of that, and then all of the sudden when it came time to do the interview, the commissioner was a no show, as Patrick detailed:
“We got word that the commissioner said that the WNBA PR staff said that she’s not allowed to do this. They would prefer that she did not do this. You are the commissioner, and you are listening to the PR department, which is fine. But did you check with PR before you said yes to us? We promoted it all day yesterday.”
That definitely puts The Dan Patrick Show in a tough spot.
The long-time sports analyst saw it as an opportunity for Engelbert to finally field some tough questions. He wasn’t planning a bit of “gotchya journalism.” He just knows that there are plenty of WNBA fans out there who would love to know why the league isn’t fully embracing Caitlin Clark, among other things.
Patrick said they couldn’t get a hold of anyone from the WNBA to comment on the matter, and then they got ghosted by the leader of the league:
“We’re just trying to be journalists here. That’s all… If you want to be treated as a serious league, this is what happens! These are tough questions, but this is a fair outlet for you – a fair platform. I will treat you with respect.”
The worst part of it all? Because The Dan Patrick Show is set up at the American Century Celebrity Golf Tournament, they know that Engelbert is in the area. At one point Patrick even said that, while they couldn’t get a hold of her, they could see her 50 yards away hitting practice shots.
The least she could have done is walk over and apologize for the unnecessary fiasco that she caused. Instead, she never responded to Patrick and his show, and the radio host says that’s largely representative of where the WNBA is at this very moment:
“We deserve more respect than what she gave us yesterday. We want to cover the WNBA. This is an important league. There’s expansion. There’s been conversation. It’s been agenda-ized. Everybody has something to say about it. Now you have a chance to answer these questions…
I wanted Cathy to have that opportunity. And I don’t know her. But I wanted to get to know here so I could have an opportunity to ask questions. That was what’s disappointing. You don’t want to come on the show? Tell me you don’t want to come on the show.
I have no problem with that. But if you tell me you are coming on, and you make us wait two hours, that’s a problem. And it says a lot about what’s going on, in my opinion, with the WNBA.”
