NEW YORK ― WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert addressed a litany of subjects ahead of the 2026 WNBA Draft, including the future of her job.An hour before the top prospects in women's college basketball were set to walk the stage at The Shed in New York, Engelbert gave her annual pre-draft press conference, where she spoke about offseason activities like the new CBA agreement, expansion teams and the league's growth.However, a question about her future seemed to bother the commissioner, who ultimately sidestepped the inquiry before pondering if it would have been asked of a man. Engelbert eventually said there was "nothing else to report" and denied that there was any "story" about her future.

"I do crack up how everybody's focused on me, and you should be focused on the hundreds of amazing women and thousands of women who run this league outside of myself," Engelerbert said. "I appreciate that you're focused on me as well. I wonder if you would ask that of a man, by the way, but I realize as women we get asked different questions than men do."The commissioner did answer other questions about the state of the league, the CBA and lessons learned from the process.

Here are some of the key takeaways from Engelbert's press conference:Engelbert admits housing was surprise sticking point during CBAHousing became a key sticking point during the marathon CBA negotiations ahead of the 2026 season. However, Engelbert appeared surprised by a strong push from players to continue housing. The league has provided housing since the first CBA in 1999."I didn't know how important and emotional that was for them because I just assume ― having two children in their 20s ― that, you know, pay for their own housing, that once they were making these much increased salaries, that that wasn't something they would need or want, but they made it very clear, it was very important to them," Engelbert said.Engelbert says league, players learned lessons in CBA bargainingEngelbert says that when the next CBA rolls around in 2032, the league and players will likely approach things differently.

The commissioner noted that the process could be reviewed ahead of negotiations to make things easier, and she wouldn't recommend marathon negotiations to get the deal over the line.However, she says that she's pleased with the outcome:"The interesting thing is, we all wanted the same thing for the players. So we all had our list. They all matched," Engelbert said, "Ultimately, we wanted to kind of strike this great balance between significant increases in player salaries and benefits with the economic sustainability of the league because women's sports is very fragile and can be very fragile. We wanted to make sure we were setting the league up not just for the next six, seven years under the CBA, but for the next CBA."This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Cathy Engelbert talks CBA lessons, sidesteps question about her future