The WNBA Is Already Facing Public Criticism For Its Officiating Changes

We're not even a full week into the 2026 WNBA season, but it's fair to say the league has an officiating problem on its hands.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert talked about wanting to make officiating changes during All-Star Weekend last July. Her plan was to address the inconsistent calls and excessive physicality that teams were complaining about.

Well, the WNBA's officiating crews might be going overboard this season when it comes to penalizing physical teams. Amber Harding pointed out that teams are averaging 22.3 fouls per game.

Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve had no problem sounding off on the league's officiating.

"What I'm confused about, being on the task force, we talked about unnecessary physicality. We didn't say we want to call marginal fouls. We never brought that up," Reeve said. "It takes a little bit of time for sure to calibrate, both them and us. … Obviously, we'll continue to work with the league on getting right because we're not the only team sitting here wondering why everything is a foul."

Players are hoping for immediate changes.

New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart recnetly voiced her displeasure with the way games are being officiated.

"It disrupts everyone's flow," Stewart said after last Sunday's overtime win over the Washington Mystics. "This game was 2 hours and 41 minutes long. That's insane… I know it's going to take time of, like, figuring out what's the standard of what's going to be called, but there's calls that are being called that are unnecessary on both sides, and then there's no flow."

There's no question the WNBA wants to cut down on excessive contact during games, but it shouldn't come at the risk of damaging the product.

We'll see if the WNBA can find a middle ground sooner rather than later.

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This story was originally published May 13, 2026 at 1:29 PM.