Dan Patrick condemns WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert for no-showing interview

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert agreed to join The Dan Patrick Show for an interview, and then abruptly reneged on the appearance.

Patrick and crew are in Lake Tahoe to cover the American Century Championship celebrity golf tournament. Engelbert is among the celebrities taking part in the tournament, making it a seemingly perfect opportunity for the WNBA commissioner to join Patrick’s show for a sort of state-of-the-union.

The interview was scheduled and promoted, but when it came time for Engelbert to appear, she never arrived on set.

“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.

“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.”

Instead of doing Patrick’s show, Engelbert went on Sports Radio 810 WHB in Kansas City. According to Patrick, she only spoke about expansion during that interview.

“We’re just trying to be a journalist here, that’s all. We’re just trying to ask questions,” Patrick continued. “But don’t say yes. And then all of a sudden, somebody probably said, ‘Oh, maybe we shouldn’t do this.’ Well, at some point you have to do this!”

Engelbert may have been asked “tough” questions if she joined Patrick’s show, but it would have been a fair interview. Patrick isn’t a “gotcha” type of interviewer; he also isn’t someone who attempts to manufacture bad-faith conversations around Caitlin Clark or the WNBA. Even if turning down an interview request from Patrick may have been the right PR move, making them wait two hours before no-showing was definitely the wrong one.