The WNBA commissioner's New York-themed dress at Game 5 is the dumbest controversy

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 20: WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert reacts during the trophy ceremony after Game Five of the WNBA Finals at Barclays Center on October 20, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 776223056 ORIG FILE ID: 2179886442
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 20: WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert reacts during the trophy ceremony after Game Five of the WNBA Finals at Barclays Center on October 20, 2024 in New York City. (Photo by Elsa/Getty Images) ORG XMIT: 776223056 ORIG FILE ID: 2179886442

Cathy Engelbert has certainly had some bad moments in what has been a wild year for the WNBA in 2024.

This time? It's not the worst controversy, but it could have been avoided.

The WNBA commissioner was there for the New York Liberty's Game 5 WNBA Finals win over the Minnesota Lynx, and she was wearing a very New York dress that featured a depiction of the Empire State Building.

Now there are people around social media who are using that as proof that the Finals were rigged in favor of the Liberty.

That part is ridiculous. There's no way that really happened, even if this is the franchise's first title ever.

But Engelbert needs to know not to wear the dress to invite that kind of thinking in. It's just a bad look! Why is it that Angel Reese's outfit was more appropriate?

Just wear a neutral dress! It's that simple. Instead of the audience your league has built buzzing about how awesome that series and final game was -- despite some bad officiating -- all the focus is on you and the dress.

And now we've got a deleted tweet from the league that invokes the Streisand Effect and it's a mess.

This is all so dumb and could have been very easily avoided.

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This article originally appeared on For The Win: The WNBA commissioner's New York-themed dress at Game 5 is the dumbest controversy