Emergency Pod: Cathy Engelbert era ends after 2026 Season
Join the No Offseason crew LIVE as we discuss WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelberts tenure coming to an end after the 2026 season.
Video Transcript
Hello everyone, and welcome to No Off Season.
I'm Chantel Jennings.
And I'm Annie Costabile.
And I'm Sabrina Merchant.
And today on the show, a bonus pod for all of you.
WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced that she will resign at the end of 2026.
This will mark the end of her seven-year tenure that has seen plenty of ups and downs during a time of unprecedented growth for the league.
To use a term we've heard her use ad nauseam over the last seven years, it has truly been a time of transformational growth.
But now with the league on an absolute rocket ship, Cathy's role is open, and I think that's a huge point of conversation too.
So, let's get into it.
The timing of this announcement, Cathy's tenure, her legacy, and also we can get into who we think is next, maybe have some time on this live show for some listener questions.
But first things first, Cathy's out.
Not a surprise necessarily, but, props to the W for dropping this news on a Friday morning at 10:35, uh- Mm-hmm Eastern.
Just a lovely Friday morning news dump for all of the reporters out there.
Annie, can you give us a little bit of a like behind-the-scenes vibe?
How did this all come to be?
Yeah.
So obviously, I think this, it needs to be said that this, questions about Cathy's tenure have really been going on for quite some time.
And I think coming into this season, there was a lot of, there were a lot of rumblings about the potential that this will be her final season in the WNBA following this obviously historic CBA that was ratified.
It, it really looked like the moment that would kind of be the bookend to her, her tenure.
But Adam Silver remained kind of vague about his expectations for her.
He said, "We're having ongoing discussions."
He was never quite clear on her future, but also wasn't quite clear on expectations that, that she would leave.
Now internally, there were sources who again expressed confidence that to me throughout the year that, that this could be her, her final year, but there was never anything definitive.
Now, in the last week, I would say week to two weeks, that shifted and there were, again according to the sources that I've spoken to, conversations internally began to shift to a better understanding that her resignation was coming and it was expected to happen in September.
Now obviously,- Mm-hmm the fact that it happened today, I think we can all glean has something to do with the holiday weekend and the changing of the sports schedule and attention kind of being dispersed throughout multiple leagues.
And so there's maybe an expectation that this news won't be as inflammatory as maybe it would've been had she dropped this during the, the playoffs.
But I mean, I firmly disagree with that.
The story is now not going to be about the playoffs, it's going to be about Cathy Engelbert's resignation.
Yeah.
I feel like the timing here is just really, really interesting because it's like, I mean, obviously like you said, you laid it out, like there is this idea in media of like the Friday news dump.
Like anything you wanna get out the door, you get it out the door on a Friday.
You've got the weekend.
You hope people by Monday, and again it's a long holiday weekend, are kind of like, old news, right?
Um- Right the WNBA is on break.
But it does feel like this is, this is now going to be the story of the playoffs, and like her legacy has been such a complicated thing throughout this entire season.
As you said, so many people assuming that this might be her last year.
Sabrina, like what do you make of the timing of this early September departure announcement?
Well, I think it, it's interesting that it happens during the break because one, it doesn't distract from games themselves.
There's gonna be another, what?
13 days or so before the league comes back, and at that point I think, I mean, people are obviously gonna ask about people's reactions to Kathy's departure, but there's enough of a lag where something else will have probably popped up and it's not gonna be incumbent on all of the other stakeholders in the league to have to speak on this.
Like Cathy's voice, Adam Silver's voice, like the statements that they put out get to carry, you know, the narrative for this immediate time period, which I think is important, and I think it's like kind of nice to the players that they don't have to immediately provide their reactions, you know, if they don't want to.
Though they can.
They can.
They absolutely can.
Though they can.
Like, I've seen Tash Cloud's post on Threads.
But I, I don't think that they have to, and that's I think that's a nice like service to the players that, this stands like independently of that.
Yeah.
I think obviously the timing here is really interesting, I think for our listeners who, you know, aren't as familiar with everything that has happened in the league over the last seven years.
And I think, you know, part of this is like how much do we attribute the last seven years to Engelbert's leadership, and how much of it is, you know, Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, this like group of players coming into the league, and how do we sort of negotiate that as we're talking about it?
But, you know, in terms of her tenure over the last 70, or last seven years, not 75 years- It feels that way in this league.
She led a $75 million capital raise in 2022.
The league signed an 11-year, 3.1 billion Media Rights deal, that nets the league about 200 million annually.
Franchise valuations have like absolutely gone through the roof.
You know, the league had 12 teams when she became commissioner in 2019.
It will have 18 by 2030.
She was a part of getting all those teams to come in.
Annie, I'm curious for you, you know Like when we think about her legacy and we think about the growth of this league, you kind of smiled when I said for those who are listening- like how much of, how much of this is Cathy, how much of this is sort of where women's basketball was headed regardless of who was sort of in that driver's seat for the league itself?
Well guys, I'm a Libra sun and an Aries moon, so I haven't been able to hide- an emotion a day in my life.
Oh, I'm also a Cancer, so oh, my face says it all.
But no, I think to be serious obviously, you know, there's no denying she was the commissioner during this moment.
She will always be able to own that because of her title.
But I think what's consistently come into question and speaks to how much influence she truly had in these moments is the question of what role has the NBA played, i- specifically Adam Silver played in her, her job title?
We know that she reports to him, and even when it comes to expansion, we know the NBA has played a role in the league's expansion in some of these teams that are, are joining by 2030, specifically the obvious, move of the Connecticut Sun to the Houston Rockets.
And so, you know, there, there is real question about who is actually the puppet master behind all of these moves.
And the one move that I think has, Kathy has owned and, and really has much of it has, has gone or has, you know, been given to her the cr- the credit for this, this one move is the capital raise, the $75 million capital raise.
And in the moment, that was looked at as this transformational stabilizing decision.
Transformational is the move that, the word that gets used for everything.
But when we look back at that, there are serious questions about why there wasn't a future thought of the impact of these players coming in, the ones you mentioned, Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers, and the impact they were gonna have and now you've given up 16% of the league for 75 million and, and changed the owners- diluted the ownership structure even more, convoluted the ownership structure even more, and the business boomed after that.
And as commissioner, there's questions about why there wasn't the foresight to see the shift that was happening and how much that 75 million really impacted things, where that was e- that was spent dispersed and, and furthermore why that money couldn't have been raised internally.
So I think what's unquestionable is again, Cathy has been the leader for these last seven years.
In these last seven years, the league has reached success it has not seen before but that doesn't mean that there aren't serious question marks about decisions that were made and who deserves the credit for them.
100%.
I think it's interesting, so that was a 2022 capital raise and obviously the, there were w- There was, you know ongoing and working ahead of that right?
She became the commissioner in 2019 ahead of the 2020 season.
Sabrina can you like I guess let's take a step back from that 2022 capital raise and just give a sense of like what was the state of the league coming into that capital raise at that point?
Yeah, so she comes in in 2019 and then obviously, well first negotiates a new CBA in 2020 that was widely regarded as pretty player friendly.
You know, raising of salaries, limiting the core provisions, adding maternal protections, for the first time in like a women's sports collective bargaining agreement.
A lot of big gains they got in that CBA and then the pandemic shuts down sports and, it was kind of an existential moment for the WNBA and her working with the PA to have that 2020 season was critical just to keep the WNBA on television in people's minds.
You know they didn't really get any, a big amount of revenue out of that deal because there were no fans obviously like they had a limited TV contract because it was only 22 games for the season as opposed to the 30 plus that they were having in previous years.
But it was important just to have the WNBA in the national consciousness and then you think about the 2020 season that's when, you know the players dedicate the season to Breonna Taylor and the Say Her Name movement and the Atlanta Dream and the PA spearhead this campaign to, get Kelly Loeffler out of office and elect, Raphael Warnock to the Senate seat in Georgia.
So there was a lot that, you know created a platform for the WNBA in that season and that doesn't really happen if they're not playing during that time which again was like up in the air because it was very hard for sports to get back on after the pandemic and her ability to combine with the PA to make that happen I think was a huge part of it.
Then you get into the 2021 season which is also like a limited attendance year A lot of arenas are not letting fans back in and I think it's kind of still like this very ,again existential point for the WNBA where like they don't know what is going to happen How it's going to rebound out of this really terrible time for the country and sports as a whole.
And that's like the situation when the race happens Right?
So I understand like in hindsight It looks terrible Even in the time It looked really weird Because so many of the investors were current owners.
So if they were willing to put the money in as part of the capital raise Like couldn't there have been some other agreement whereby They could have given money for maybe not a stake But like just the general growth of the league You know like Or a better negotiation there Because 16% is just so much of the league to give up Especially when the WNBA Is already half half owned by the NBA So it diluted the stake further To where the WNBA Only owns 42% of its own league.
So I understand like Where the business was To get Cathy to that point But it's just hard to rationalize it with the group of investors that came in not being able to get a better deal because they were already part of your league.
And then all of the things that were supposed to come out of this, like the digital transformation of the WNBA.
I, I cannot complain enough about WNBID and the WNBA stats page - and why these things aren't better because it used to be so good.
No, it- Agreed.
It also went to, like, marketing and, I, I'm sorry, but since then there have still been serious questions about the marketing of players and the league itself, so it's just It's confusing to say the least.
I will credit, Cathy during that time for, introducing the word, was it psychographics?
Oh my God.
Was that the word?
To the, to the lexicon of women's basketball fans.
There is certainly, certainly that.
I-- So I think this all, like, kind of wraps up into the fact that, like, she has this complicated, if that's the adjective we wanna use, legacy.
Like, she was commissioner.
She oversaw these, you know, the fund raise, was the capital raise.
Was it good?
Was it not good?
Hindsight's 20/20.
How much of this is hindsight?
How much of it in the moment?
Like, all of these different things, but I think it's also, like And maybe this is, like, too online sometimes and, like, the, the era of her tenure also is a time when, like, our internet culture has been, changing and shifting in some ways.
And like, but I think of, like, her tenure and it's like what pops to mind immediately?
And it's like Napheesa Collier's comments.
I think when people look back at Cathy's tenure, they're going to remember Napheesa Collier's 2025 exit interview.
And, like, the New York City dress and, like, the Kelsey Plum MVP trophy from All-Star.
Like, these sort of, like, memeable moments, the latter two obviously.
I think there are those sort of things where it's like the, th- the missteps where this league which was gaining this footing and this, this grounding in sort of the popular culture of the United States, and like But then you have these things where it's like really this is happening?
And like we can complain about oh my gosh, the stat site is very annoying.
But I think other people what they see is they're like, "W- why is Kelsey Plum's All-Star Trophy-" It was so small ..."this big?"
It was so small.
But- So small.
But that's where this gets even more complicated, I think, is because again as much as that's, eh-, that kind of embarrassment or meme- those memeable moments are associated with Cathy how much of that has to do with who is overseeing all of this?
Right.
And that's the NBA and Adam Silver.
Mm-hmm.
And so when, when we talk about all of this we cannot separate Adam from it.
We cannot put the criticism solely on Cathy.
Right.
And I think that's again, like, the, the speaks to this moment but also the future and where the WNBA goes from here because do you want the next commissioner to be second fiddle to Adam or is there a way to separate this even more?
And the idea of her being a commissioner as opposed to a president, which is what all of the leadership- Mm-hmm ...of the WNBA that title was before Cathy she was the first commissioner I thought was supposed to give her some of that independence and ability- Mm-hmm ...to execute decisions you know separately- Right ....from Adam Silver.
But like you said Annie it's hard to know where the fault lines are drawn because I'm sure a lot of the things that we're complaining about go all the way up to the NBA and Cathy does deserve credit for things that like maybe we don't give her credit for.
But it's just hard to know like again where, where all their responsibility is because we don't know what her role is specifically separate from the NBA Commissioner.
I think what you can s- What you, what we can glean from all of this are the rare moments where Adam does talk about the, the WNBA and the moments where he does insert himself and, and how major those moments are.
So obviously the CBA He was asked about it at NBA All Star and he said you know he's, he hasn't necessarily been at the table but he's been working behind the scenes That says a whole lot When you think about the reports that he intervened to dole out the punishment for Alyssa Thomas out with the officiating issues and Caitlin Clark that says a lot.
When he speaks on a CNBC boardroom panel and Kathy's on the panel just before him and she doesn't say anything about it but he addresses Kaitlyn Clarke and the way she's being politicized and used as a political football.
That was more than Kathy had ever said e- ever on the topic of Again the politicization of the league and Caitlyn Clark all of it And so I think that Those are the moments when you could really tell who's Who's driving the car.
I love to be dramatic.
So no I think I mean so then this This instantly makes me think like I mean anytime in sports something like this happens Anytime anything in sports happens right Like the season ends and our way too early top twenty five Top ten whatever drops the next day Like we're always thinking about who's next what's next what comes next And I think this news comes out and it's like alright who's gonna fill that spot But I think like let's get to names but I'm curious for both of you like At this time like even before we get to names like what qualities knowing like that there is this like The Adam Silver Kathy relationship like Where are the fault lines What are the what is like the division there And like Do we see someone coming from the NBA side Is something like that important for this next era of WNBA leadership How important is it to be someone that can sort of patch over the relationship with players How much of this is someone could we see from a media side From like what what factors or experiences or personality traits do you think are sort of most important in whomever fills this role next Annie Why don't you is there anything that jumps to mind for you Yeah, I mean listen.
I, I know I'm new to The Athletic team but I gotta give you know our squad a shout-out because everyone's really done such a amazing job jumping on this news and you guys put together a great list of potential candidates And then our colleague Brian Hamilton answered this exact question that you just posed Chantel in that him saying the WNBA needs a visionary.
That is true they got the business leader in Cathy she was the former CEO of Deloitte which obviously was a priority for them what was lacking was the communication aspect so now the next leader need to have that business acumen obviously also be relationships person someone who can be what Adam Silver has proven himself amongst NBA players Adams silver isnt without fault in the NBA Okay I know he's one of the more popular commissioners right especially right now like okay yeah We should say no commissioner is beloved You step into the job knowing your not going to be loved Right exactly it think its combination those two things A business leader an also some one get relationship part aspect of it But Its Also somebody Who Can Take Control Of This League Who Can Demand Some From Adam An from the nba i donno how looks Like or How Those Conversation Happen For Wnba To Truly Reach Full Potential It Needs Somebody Not Operated As Little Sister To Nba Leader Making These Decisions Outside That Control In My Opinion And makes me wonder if thats Someone Has Existing Relationship With Adam Silver Feels They Go Conversations Navigate Relationship Way Or Is That Someone Outside Doesn't Know Him As Well Sits Down Has That Conversation Really Quickly Sabrina Curious Were There Any Personality Experience Things Think Are Important For This Person Have Yeah The Communication Part So important Because Much What Kathy Done Just Not Appreciated By Larger Populist Wasn't Carried Out Very well Announced Charter Flights Meeting Associated Press Sports Editors Instead Making Grand Huge Deal Right Should Been Big Win For Wnba Framing Tv deal Where Unclear at Table Nba Lopping on Wnba as Part Did They Have Ownership Their Own Stake tv deal big win w framing seem Add On Whatever Nba Doing Wins Wnba Rightfully Celebrated Last Seven Years Way Presented Lack Clear Communication Aren't Accepted As Such That Important Complaints We Have About Kathy Napheesa Collier Saying She wasn't Talked Equal Players Knowing where things stood there much about being Commissioner public face things problem wnba doesn't built out executive front office deputy commissioner infrastructure everything happens directly cathy desk address everything nba adam silver talk about everything deputy commission Mark Tatum day today make sure not rises level oh commissioner handle maybe quality split role dont One Person Contains Entire Multitude Qualities Difficult Get One Role Think Other Thing About This Wnbas Arrived Reached Mainstream Front Office Executive Level Cannot Be Strung Together Group Point Sabrina Everything Landing Cathys Desk Counterpart league slew officials handling most pressing issues staff improve moment given opportunity reset slate have get Next Stage Agree Both You finding right person expanding Infrastructure Beefing Up Look At This Front Office Versus Nba Need More People doing everything cant expert hire people good do Do That curious hiring New Commissioner Hiring X Y Z Getting More Headcount Corporate Term Need More Headcount Names Pop Mind athletic.com Story Up Sabrina Eight names kept adding many stories behind that yes few names somewhere we added You know, I think Jess Smith is one I'll, I'll throw out right now as someone that I don't necessarily think she would be in this conversation.
I think she's probably like one commissioner, two commissioner hires too early or you know, this is too early for her to truly be in this conversation.
But I think like Valkyrie's president, she was at Angel City Football Club.
Like all Everything she has done in her career, she's 40 I believe at this point.
Like she has a long career ahead of her still.
I think she's someone people need to know and I'm curious what her path is.
But Annie, is there anyone that you when you heard the news you're like, "I bet this person is like top of the list or near the top of the list"?
I think that's what's really interesting is there hasn't been a, a name kind of in the same way that when David Stern was the Commissioner of the NBA Adam Silver was, you know, his protege.
That hasn't been the case in the WNBA.
So even answering that question of, oh, there's an obvious candidate here, I think a lot of people would assume that it's maybe Bethany Donavan but- Mm-hmm but that's not, that's not s- a, a candidate that I think people should be Or w- To my understanding that that is just the shoo-in to get this job.
That's, that's not the case at all.
And so I think it's interesting, right?
Because Cathy in an interview with The AP talked about the fact that she's been, you know, working internally to help figure out who could be the next candidate, but those conversations are, are still you know, haven't shown exactly that there, there is a frontrunner.
Right.
I think it's pretty clear that in that piece with The AP and in an interview with The Nine Basketball she said she has a list of internal and external candidates- Mm-hmm .
Right?
So it's not as if, you know, David Stern handpicked Adam Silver and that was ready to go.
Like this is very much an evolving process and even though she's been thinking about her succession plan for a while because, you know, she has said openly that she didn't expect to be in this job for as long as she was, like I don't think that it's necessarily set.
And also that begs the question of like who actually gets to hire this person because if she doesn't get to as the commissioner, right, as the WNBA commissioner once again this goes back to Adam Silver.
Yeah.
Right.
Like the fact that she has a list, but she hasn't, doesn't have a- She is not the one giving the job out.
Right!
Yeah.
Right, right.
Who gave that list to someone.
Who did she give that to?
Exactly, exactly.
What I have been told and, and obviously like I think we're all just like glued to our phones right now ki- Like texting with sources and, and talking with sources.
What I've been told is that there is a desire for Adam to have separation from, you know, any type of kind of controlling d- Role over the WNBA.
And so again Cathy's list may be Adam's decision and it seems as though he is ready to create some separation between himself and, and the league.
That's what I was Y- yeah, so that's where I'm really curious.
Like I think, you know, the moment a new commissioner is announced or the moment, you know, someone maybe on this podcast can report that news, like once we have that information I think instantly again we go to like what's next.
So it's like okay, what does this hire say about the direction of the league?
What does this mean about their priorities?
What does this mean about X, Y, Z, right?
And I think it'll be really interesting if it is someone like Bethanie Donovan who is inside, the WNBA already.
Like analyzing sort of what have her interactions been like with Adam Silver?
Like what is their relationship?
Is she someone who can create separation?
Is she someone who's going to sort of like let the status quo continue or do they go completely outside?
You know, one of the people we included on our list was Sarah Mensah, who's the President of Jordan Brand.
Like this is someone who not only has obviously, you know, great experience working with the WNBA because of Nike and Jordan Brands, work with WNBA players, future WNBA players.
She was also with the Portland Trail Blazers for almost two decades before that, has had a ton of league experience.
And so it's like she has y- you know, sort of this wealth of experience that you could see being really beneficial in a role like this espec- especially for someone that maybe is going to like pave the way in a slightly different and more independent direction or, you know, at least independent in terms of decision making and all of that.
I guess is there, again, any names I guess Sabrina that, you and I tossed around earlier that as, you know, in the last hour since we've written it that you've been thinking about more and more?
Well I mean we, we included a couple people who are from you know the NBA/WNBA family and one of- Mm-hmm those people is Amy Brooks, uh- Mm-hmm who sort of, surfaced as we were writing this thing.
But you know just somebody who has been a part of the NBA for 20 years in their business development, has negotiated so many new revenue streams for the league which, you know, obviously everybody wants to hear them, the WNBA especially once you have revenue sharing as part of the collective bargaining agreement.
Revenue means- Mm-hmm everybody's paychecks go up, right?
So that's interesting to me.
The, the outsider candidates are like harder to think about because again like our world is so women's basketball focused that we're not- Mm-hmm familiar with like who the great execs are in football although one of the people from the NFL is on that list, uh-- Mm-hmm.
But I wonder if like because of the necessary separation I think needed between the WMA commissioner and the MBA commissioner it makes more sense to have somebody who doesn't have a built-in relationship even if that means there is like a slightly steeper learning curve.
Mm-hmm.
And that's where you get like the, like the bifurcating of the job where like you have like a deputy maybe who is more familiar with the inner workings of the league, but then you have a public head that- Right is a little bit more independent.
Well, and I think that's where like you look at, you know, the presidents.
So like you said Kathy Engelbert was the first commissioner.
Before that it was the president, of the WNBA.
Like there hasn't necessarily been like a trend.
Like it's not like the, this person has always come from another sports league or from another whatever or like There's always sort of some level of executive high senior leadership experience which Duh.
They're not gonna go and hire some sort of, like, junior intern to do this job.
So it's, like, hiring some sort of executive.
Cathy Engelbert came from Deloitte.
Before her it was Lisa Borders.
She was at Coca-Cola in a very high role.
Laurel Richie was actually the SVP and CMO of Girl Scouts.
Donna Orender came from- Which tells you a lot about how they thought about the WNBA back then.
Yeah.
Read into that how you will.
Donna Orender came from PGA, and before that it was Val Ackerman who had come from the NBA.
And so I think you sort of see this The through line is that sort of high level senior executive leadership experience.
I think Swin Cash is someone whose name, you know, even before y- this season, like, you know, you would talk about Swin and it's like, man, she would make a really great commissioner someday, I bet, because she has both And I think now sort of in, in hindsight of what, you know, the last few years have been with Kathy in this league and, like, being a former player, being, an All-Star, a WNBA champion well respected by the players, a former player herself, sort of all of these things that will allow her on a personal level, you know, to sort of patch over their relationship, but also being in the Pelicans front office for as long as she was, being a CEO and a founder currently.
Like, I think she has that kind of business experience that makes her a very intriguing candidate to me.
I question S- Swin or, or really any former player as being the right choice to be the commissioner, not because she's not qualified based on the experience, you know, like you just mentioned.
She's clearly ha- She clearly has the acumen for it, but when it comes to the, like, unconscious bias that you have as a former player, and your- Mm-hmm desire to have a better relationship with the players than maybe- Mm-hmm .
You can have when you have to make difficult decisions- Right that's where a higher, like Swin to me comes into question, or even, you know, Nneka.
I know a lot of people are like- Yeah ..."Oh, the timing."
We just put that in.
We put that in 'cause it had to be there.
We put it in.
No, of course.
It had to be there.
Yeah.
Of course.
Of course.
Yeah.
No, it makes, it makes sense that, that it's in there because everyone's - Yeah talking about it.
But again, it's like i- i-- to me that- Mm-hmm .
Can be a really big conflict, and I think as much as those im- relationships are important, you also have to be able to do the hard thing and be unafraid of, of potentially even ruining relationships with, with players that you are, are friends with.
I mean, Swin has personal relationships with a lot of retired players, and you know, has shown personal relationships with current players.
That to me is where that gets a little sticky.
Yeah, I think that's tough too, and it's sort of like can owners get onboard with this person as well?
Right.
Right.
And, and I think she retired from the league in 2016, and so it's like- Mm-hmm it's been a decade, and so it's against- That's a lot of distance.
Yeah.
There is some distance here I think, and there's been sort of a, the business and the executive experience she's had since then.
But then I, I agree with you where it's like the board of governors are, are they on board?
Like that's where it's like I think the Nneka one if very funny.
We did include her, but it's like everyone remembers- Nneka how the last CBA negotiations went, right?
Yeah.
Everyone remembers that?
Right.
Right.
Yeah, I think,...
I mean Bethany Donovan, also a former player, but like definitely a, a much shorter, less decorated career- Right than Swin Cash.
I, I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to have somebody who was a former athlete.
Obviously Cathy was a former athlete.
She played for Muffet McGraw at Notre Dame.
Like, just to have some semblance of relatability to the players, you know?
But again- Mm-hmm somebody who's right out of their WNBA career whose interests are definitely aligned towards protecting the players versus, responding to the owners, which is quite literally the job of the WNBA commissioner is to serve the owner's interests.
I can understand why, why Nneka is not the right choice right now.
But again, like 10 years down the line if a former player wanted to come in, I don't think that that's totally out of reach.
You know, if they go on the business side and get all of that experience in addition to their player career.
Yeah.
Well, I think, we can probably wrap up here.
We've been going for about 35 minutes.
I'm sure all of us have text messages and phone calls to return currently.
And maybe lunch to eat in case you forgot to do that, and drink some water as well.
But we will be back.
We are not going to have a podcast on Tuesday because Monday is a holiday, so we will back on Wednesday in all of your feeds.
We will be talking about this decision and what comes next, I mean, for the next few weeks because who knows when exactly this hire will be made, but keep your eyes on theathletic.com.
We will keep you up to date with all of our reporting.
We have already so many great stories up there right now.
Again- We just dropped a little bit more news on the site too.
Yeah, exactly.
So, Annie has a story up right now.
Brian Hamilton has a column up.
Sabrina and I have our next candidates.
There are, m- there's more to come, and as Sabrina said, there's a little LA Sparks news on there as well for ya.
So yeah.
Thank you for joining us, and we will see you all on Wednesday.
No Off Season is hosted by Zena Saida with Chantel Jennings, Sabrina Merchant, and Annie Costabile.
It's produced by Tanika Burrell.
Our executive producer is Andrea B. Scott.
Monica Compton is our video editor.
Our theme music is by Marcus Pagala.
Shannon Ryan is managing editor of women's basketball at The Athletic.
