What Cathy Engelbert’s successor owes WNBA players

The photograph dwells in the memory of a time we'd like to forget. During the pandemic-addled summer of 2020, women locked arms and stood in matching black shirts, all bearing the same demand in white letters: "Arrest The Cops Who Killed Breonna Taylor." It was the most powerful demonstration of a brief period of widespread activism throughout sports, these WNBA players taking command with more audacity and clarity than anyone else.

The commissioner didn't inspire them to gather. They didn't ask the league to authorize their dissent. The players convened themselves, inside a bubble in Bradenton, Fla. — cut off from their families and their cities but not their empathy — and decided what the moment required of them.