This week, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert sparked widespread outrage when she suddenly changed her mind and declined to attend a previously scheduled interview with The Dan Patrick Show. The move came after the league had faced a number of media firestorms centered around Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark.
Now, Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy is joining the chorus criticizing Engelbert and the league as he once again expressed his displeasure with the way the WNBA is run.
Advertisement
Engelbert Skips Interview
On Friday afternoon, Dan Patrick, who hosts The Dan Patrick Show, revealed that Engelbert no-showed to a previously scheduled interview and did not inform them that she would not be doing the interview until hours later.
“Yesterday, after the show, we waited almost two hours for her,” Patrick said during Friday’s show. “This was scheduled. She was going to do a conference call in her hotel room, and then she was going to join us.”
Patrick said producer Todd Fritz waited about 90 minutes for an update from Engelbert while the entire show was on standby for her arrival. He said that he thought it was going to be an opportunity for her to finally answer some tough questions regarding Caitlin Clark.
Advertisement
“We’re waiting to interview her. They didn’t balk at anything, didn’t say you can’t ask anything. And we thought, okay, we’re gonna be able to finally ask questions about Caitlin Clark, the WNBA, expansion, a lot of different things,” Patrick explained. “We waited, and we waited, and we waited, and then Todd got word that the commissioner said the WNBA PR staff said she is not allowed to do this. You’re the commissioner, and you’re 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. Look, I know people get busy, people have agendas. It was her opportunity to finally say, ‘You can ask me the tough questions.’ I thought this was going to be a good thing for the WNBA. Because people still want answers here. There’s so many people who have an opinion, agendas…and yes, would the questions be tough? Yes. Yes. And I’m sure that had something to do with it.”
‘Worst Run League in the World’
Portnoy has never been shy about criticizing the WNBA in the past, calling it “the worst marketed league in the history of leagues,” and he was once again outspoken in his criticism of Engelbert this week.
Advertisement
In a post on X, Portnoy criticized Engelbert for claiming that WNBA PR would not allow her to do the interview as he claimed that’s not exactly how it works.
“This is one of my biggest pet peeves in the world. When people like Cathy Engelbert say they can’t do something because their agent or PR said so. THEY WORK FOR YOU. Absolute coward move. Anyway this is just yet another example of what [clown] show the wnba is. Worst run league in the world,” Portnoy said in a post on X.
Clearly, he’s not going to waste an opportunity to call out the league when he deems it necessary.
The post ‘Worst run league in the world’: Dave Portnoy does not hold back on WNBA appeared first on The Comeback: Today’s Top Sports Stories & Reactions.
