The Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) is having a landmark year. Viewership and attendance are up, team valuations are soaring and the league just signed a massive $3.1 billion media rights deal.
Journalist Sabreena Merchant, who covers the WNBA for The Athletic, says in many ways the league is in a better place than ever: "There's so much talent. The quality of play in the league is better than it ever has been. The playoff field is really exciting and it's kind of open. So no one really knows who's gonna win the title in 2026."
But Merchant also acknowledges that the league has become embroiled in controversy and culture wars. According to Media Matters, since June 25, Fox News has dedicated at least 206 segments to the WNBA, largely aimed at stoking tensions related to race and trans athletes.
"Everything in the WNBA seems to take on a political lens far beyond what is actually happening on the court," Merchant says. "And I think it's because people see an opportunity to use the league as a political prop."
The management of the Chicago Sky has disclosed that it is enlisting help from national security experts in an effort to protect its players off the court. Meanwhile, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert recently announced her plans to step down at the end of the calendar year.
"There is just a lack of control of the narrative of the WNBA, and I don't think the commissioner is entirely to blame," Merchant says. But, she adds, "I think they want a commissioner who is better able to control the story around the WNBA and prevent it from being a political prop in all of these culture wars."
Interview highlights
On why physicality in the WNBA has become a talking point
I think part of it is an element of misogyny. There's a segment of the population that thinks that it's protecting women by preventing them from being in any spaces where they may be, I don't know, like beaten up a little bit, like on a basketball court. There's a lot of people who don't think that women should be engaging in physical labor, which athletics very much are. And that is the undercurrent to me of any objections towards physicality in women's pro-athletics because a lot of people don't believe women should be playing professional sports as is.
On claims that Indiana Fever player Caitlin Clark, who is white, gets special treatment from the league and from the NBA
Caitlin is sort of the golden goose that came in in 2024 and created this rocket ship of popularity that the league has experienced ever since. When we talk about viewership records, those tend to involve games that include the Indiana Fever. Her WNBA draft was the most viewed. When she participated in the All-Star game, that was the one that caused record attendance. Sort of an understanding that this is where our bread is buttered, let's make sure to take care of this, and that's something that [NBA Commissioner] Adam Silver has at least publicly made clear that he is worried about the treatment that Caitlin Clark gets — that's not a sentiment that Cathy Engelbert has publicly expressed, but based on the way players' relationships are with the commissioner, there seems to be a sentiment that certain players have better access to things than others.
On the perception that Black players on opposing teams disproportionately defend Clark
There is a perception that I see online and get in my email inbox from fans that Clark is defended more tightly by Black players because they resent the attention that she gets by WNBA marketers and all of the fandom that she has brought in. … The data does not suggest that at all. Caitlin Clark draws more fouls than any other guard in the league. And yes, she has more usage. She has the ball in her hands more often. But she is still getting to the line and drawing fouls at a higher rate than other players at her position. So to suggest that she is getting played more physically, maybe that's the case. But she's also receiving the fouls because of that and earning the free throws as a result. …
The WNBA has historically been built on the back of Black women. Most of the great players in the league have been Black women and the fandom has been a safe space for marginalized communities like Black women, like LGBTQ women. And things started to change when Caitlin Clark came into the league and brought in a new fandom that, didn't have those identities. She is a straight, white woman from middle America. And it's not as if the WNBA hasn't had white superstars before. ... But Caitlin still is kind of unique in the grand scheme of the WNBA because she has a fandom that didn't relate with her because of those marginalized identities. ... The majority of players in the WNBA are Black, so she is going to be defended by a lot of Black players.
On Sophie Cunningham's statement on trans women in WNBA
In July of this year, ESPN released a profile of Sophie Cunningham, an athlete on the Indiana Fever, who has monetized being Caitlin Clark's teammate better than anybody else. ... She has taken advantage of every opportunity to increase her popularity by being on the Indiana Fever. … In this profile that was written about her, she has a line in the middle of it where she says that she doesn't believe that trans women belong in girls sports. And she was asked about that after the profile came out and doubled down on her statement saying that she wants to protect young girls in sports.
The WNBA has never had a transgender player in its history. They've had a couple of non-binary players, both of whom were assigned female at birth. There have never been any eligibility concerns about transgender women wanting to enter the league.Sabreena Merchant
In doing so, Sophie became the first active professional women's athlete to express these sentiments about restricting transgender women from women's sports. And a lot of people latched onto her as this avatar of this particular viewpoint of keeping women's sports exclusively for cisgender women. ... As of now, the WNBA doesn't have an expressed policy about transgender athletes in their league. In the CBA [collective bargaining agreement], it says that you have to be a woman to play in the WNBA, but it doesn't go on to define what a woman is.
The WNBA has never had a transgender player in its history. They've had a couple of non-binary players, both of whom were assigned female at birth. There have never been any eligibility concerns about transgender women wanting to enter the league. The NCAA doesn't even currently allow transgender athletes to play, so it's hard to see where the pipeline would come from. It's a question it's really never had to confront. So it's a theoretical issue at this point, one that the WNBA is not currently presented with.
On concerns about the quality of the officiating in the WNBA
It is universally acknowledged by white players, Black players, straight players, gay players alike that WNBA officiating is not as good as the quality of play in the league. They don't have full-time officials. The training process is such that the good ones from the G League end up going to the NBA, and the less good ones end up go to the WNBA. For a long time, it was even written that when officials went from the WNBA to the NBA, they were being promoted. So they are not even getting the best quality officials in this league. A lot of them have to referee college basketball as well during their offseason. So they're sort of picking up two different sports at the same time, because college rules are a little bit different than the WNBA rules.
On WNBA players supplementing their salaries overseas
Prior to the collective bargaining agreement that was instituted during the 2026 offseason, the average salary for a WNBA player was a little over $100,000 ... and that necessitated a lot of players to play overseas during their WNBA offseasons. ... And that means that players are competing year-round, not giving them a lot of time to rest, recover their bodies, work on their games even, or spend time with their families and loved ones during their break from their WNBA season.
For the majority of the WNBA's history, players made more money on their overseas contracts, whether that was playing in Russia or Turkey or France or Italy or Australia, compared to their WNBA contracts. I mean, it got so ridiculous at points that a player like Diana Taurasi, after winning a WNBA title in 2014, goes to play in Russia during that offseason and then her team says, we're going to pay you a million dollars not to play on the WNBA this year, just so you can rest and be ready for our next season. And so she sits out instead of defending her title and makes ten times as much money as she would for not playing as she would by playing.
The new collective bargaining agreement has created an average salary of about $600,000 now for WNBA players. ... And there is a revenue-sharing component in the CBA such that as the WNBAs revenue rises, whether that's more media money, more ticket money, any sort of revenue that the league brings in, that would create a corresponding change in the WNBA salaries.
Monique Nazareth and Susan Nyakundi produced and edited this interview for broadcast. Bridget Bentz, Molly Seavy-Nesper and Beth Novey adapted it for the web.
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