'100% Deserves It,' 'She Earned It' — WNBA Fans React as Cathy Engelbert Is Booed During Valkyries' Championship Ceremony Mohamed Rizvi Sun, November 1, 2026 at 4:36 PM UTC · 3 min read About Our Ads Advertisement Advertisement Advertisement The Golden State Valkyries won the WNBA championship on Saturday night. They beat the Atlanta Dream 68-63 at Chase Center in the first Game 7 in Finals history. During the trophy ceremony that followed, the home crowd booed WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert as she spoke.
Fans online were quick to react as clips of the moment spread. One of them answered with a three-word verdict that sided with the crowd.
Time expired with players racing across the court and confetti raining down from above, and the sold-out crowd erupted in delirium. The jeers did not arrive until later, when Engelbert spoke to the fans at the last WNBA Finals before her retirement at the end of 2026.
Game 7 fell on Halloween, and the arena known as Ballhalla had become Boohalla for the night. Gabby Williams scored 30 points and took home the MVP trophy as the Valkyries won a title in only their second season.
Valkyries co-owner Joe Lacob used the same ceremony to holler "Ballhalla!" and thank a fan base that has made every Valkyries game at Chase Center a sellout since the franchise began.
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The clip that fan answered had been shared minutes earlier by another fan.
Another fan posted a clip of the same moment that played on the night's Boohalla name.
One fan's clip turned the attention to Valkyries forward Janelle Salaün, who did not play in Game 7.
"Also the WNBA fans make sure Cathy Engelbert knows how they feel about her!"
Saturday was not the first time Engelbert heard it from a WNBA crowd. At the 2025 All-Star Game in Indianapolis, fans chanted "pay them" as she tried to deliver her postgame speech. She was heckled again during the trophy ceremony at the 2025 Finals.
Earlier this season, at the 2026 Commissioner's Cup championship at Barclays Center, her voice was almost entirely drowned out when she took the microphone after New York beat Las Vegas.
The reaction carried into Sunday. One fan, posting that morning, went further:
"She 100% deserves it. She might be a nice person I have no idea but she is in so far over her head trying to run the league it is sad."
The league has described Engelbert's tenure in different terms. Announcing her retirement on September 4, NBA commissioner Adam Silver said she "has presided over the WNBA through the most significant period of growth in the league's 30-year history."
The announcement credited her with steep gains in viewership, attendance, and franchise valuations, both reaching historic highs, as well as a program of charter flights for teams. She played a part, it said, in negotiating the agreements reached through collective bargaining, deals that produced pay raises of historic size for players.
She also oversaw the league's largest expansion to date, growing it to 18 teams by 2030, up from 12. That growth includes the Valkyries, awarded to the Bay Area three years ago.
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Engelbert was appointed the league's first commissioner in 2019. In the same announcement, she said, "After more than seven years at the WNBA and more than 40 total years in business, I have made the decision to retire as WNBA Commissioner." She added, "I retire knowing we have built something bigger, stronger and more enduring than we could have imagined."
The NBA has hired Excel Search & Advisory, Excel Sports Management's executive search firm, to lead the search for her successor, and Silver will choose her replacement together with the WNBA Board of Governors.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network .
Source: Sports
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