Three days after one of the league’s players publicly called her out, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert admitted that she and the league need to improve.

On Tuesday, the season-long tension between the league and its players came to a head as Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier went scorched earth in her end-of-season press conference. In a lengthy, scathing statement, Collier accused the WNBA front office of being “the worst leadership in the world” — and quickly received support from players across the league and beyond.

In a press conference before Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Friday, Engelbert said that she was “disheartened” by Collier’s comments, but that she welcomed “difficult but necessary conversations.”

“I was disheartened to hear that some players feel the league and me personally do not care about them or listen to them. And if the players in the W don’t feel appreciated and valued by the league, then we have to do better and I have to do better,” Engelbert said. “No one should ever doubt how deeply I feel about this league, this game and every single player who make the WNBA what it is.”

Engelbert said Friday that it’s been difficult for her in the wake of Collier’s comments, which directly pointed to Engelbert at the center of the problem.

“I’m a human too, I have a family, I have two kids who are devastated by these comments,” Engelbert said. “It’s obviously been a tough week.”

She added that she has spoken to Collier, and that she plans to sit down with her at some point next week after the start of the Finals, though she admitted that they had not set up any specific details of the meeting.

Engelbert did not directly debunk many of the claims that Collier made, which included accusations that the WNBA front office does not care about its players, and that Engelbert allegedly told Collier that players should be “grateful” for what the league has given them.

The commissioner mentioned “inaccuracy” and “clickbait,” pointing to social media and reporting rather than Collier’s comments. Engelbert added that it was “not productive” to go through and counter every comment Collier made.

However, one comment Engelbert did actively deny was Collier’s claim that the commissioner told her that Caitlin Clark “should be grateful” for her off-court pay “because without the platform that the WNBA gives her, she wouldn’t make anything.”

“Obviously, I did not make those comments,” Engelbert said, calling Clark “a transformational player” for the league.

Collier’s statement came at the end of a very uneasy year between the league and its players, as the two sides negotiate a new collective bargaining agreement. Another sticking point has been inconsistent officiating, which has plagued the league throughout the season and, players allege, led to a number of brutal and avoidable injuries.

Engelbert touched on both issues in Friday’s press conference. In terms of referees, she acknowledged that there was a disconnect between what she called “good aggressive play” and dangerous play, and that she and the league would work to “calibrate the line” this offseason.

“Referees and their work serve the game,” Engelbert said. “I think it’s pretty clear we’re misaligned on what our stakeholders want … (and) there are no greater stakeholders than our players.”

Engelbert said that the the league’s competition committee will take a look at officiating once the season is over, as usual, but also announced a new task force to address concerns about the state of the game.

As for the CBA: Multiple players, including Collier, have addressed the stalemate between the two sides, saying that the league has continued to point to “sustainability” as an issue when it comes to giving the players more money. Engelbert hit a variation of that buzzword on Friday, saying that the W plans to balance what she called “substantial” pay increases and revenue-sharing agreements with the “long-term viability of the league.”

“We want what the players want,” Engelbert said multiple times in the press conference.

There’s a deadline of October 31 for the negotiations after the WNBA players association (WNBPA) opted out of the current CBA last fall. On Friday, Engelbert said that while both sides are “working really hard” ahead of that deadline, she pointed to an extension as a possibility.

“We have extended deadlines in the past,” Engelbert said, referencing the current CBA, which was agreed on just six months into her tenure as commissioner.

Moving forward, Engelbert said that she planned to work to retain a good relationship with the players in the league, saying that she has already spoken with several this week.

“(I’ve) never been a quitter, never shied away … if there are things we need to fix, we’re gonna fix them,” Engelbert said. “There’s so many things that we can do together and I hope that the players see that.

“I feel confident that we can repair any loss of trust.”