Overview
- A Sports Business Journal report said NBA commissioner Adam Silver told WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert she should suspend Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas for a June 24 play on Caitlin Clark, and that Silver “felt badly for Clark” and urged action.
- The WNBA’s office rejected that characterization as “absolutely false,” creating a direct factual dispute between the league’s public denial and the SBJ sources.
- Engelbert canceled a scheduled Dan Patrick interview at the American Century Championship after WNBA PR advised against it, a move critics seized on as evidence of poor communications and prompted public rebuke from media figures.
- The underlying incident on June 24 was retroactively ruled a Flagrant-2, costing Thomas a one-game suspension and a $1,000 fine, and provoked online harassment and death threats against players that drew letters from members of Congress.
- Adam Silver told reporters he is pleased with WNBA progress but said there are ongoing discussions about Engelbert’s future, a development that sharpens scrutiny of governance between the NBA and the WNBA before the July 25 All‑Star events.