Gabby Thomas reacts to Ari Chambers’ take on Napheesa Collier calling out the leadership of the WNBA

American athlete Gabby Thomas shared her reaction to Ari Chambers' take on Mapheesa Collier's statement regarding the leadership of the WNBA. Collier, a power forward for Lunar Owls, called out the WNBA's leadership table a few days ago and defined the leadership of the league as the worst.

She had also hit out at the low pay of the players in the league and their habit of issuing fines on frequent occasions. Following this statement, Ari Chambers, who is a commentator for ESPN, reacted to Collier's statement and hailed praise on the latter for speaking out against the league's leadership.

Chambers remarked that Collier's interview was a brave move and a jab at the league's leaders to make changes to these disparities. Thomas reacted to the post and agreed with Chambers' take on Mapheesa Collier's statement regarding the leadership quotient of the WNBA. She quoted the exact words that Chambers said in the video, stating:

"With change there has to be disruption"

Screenshot of Thomas' story (Image via: @gabbythomas on IG)

Notably, Gabby Thomas faced a setback in her 2025 track season, where she had to skip the World Athletics Championships due to an injury.

Gabby Thomas opens up about the impact of Athlos on the track and field circuit in the United States

Gabby Thomas made her feelings known on the impact that Alexis Ohanian's Athlos has brought to the track and field circuit in the United States. Notably, the second season of Athlos is scheduled to take place on October 10 and will feature several top athletes, such as Tara Davis-Woodhall.

Speaking in an interview, Thomas stated that the main objective of Ohanian's Athlos is to bring more eyeballs to the sport in the United States, similar to other places around the world. She said (via Unfiltered Waters, 29:35 onwards):

"So excited about Athlos. Athlos is definitely like one of my babies. I mean everyone knows, every four years, people love the Olympics, and swimming and gymnastics are one of the sports that people tune in and they're so excited to watch, same with track and field."

"So, if we can get that attention every four years, it's we're just wondering why we can't get it every year, and one thing about track and field is, it's very popular overseas, like most of our season is done at the Diamond League, which is primarily in Europe, Asia, and Africa, and people love it there. How can we get that in America? So, that's what Athlos is about."

Gabby Thomas also remarked that the Athlos is based on the objective of making sure that enough competition is present in the sport.

About the author

Soumik is a journalist at Sportskeeda who covers US Olympics. Currently an Honors student of Journalism and Mass Communication, he has also worked for other firms as a tennis and football content writer.

Soumik’s favorite Olympian is Michael Phelps and he believes that the eight-time Olympic gold medal-winning swimmer has revolutionized the spectrum of Swimming. Nonetheless, the adrenaline rush that Track & Field sports offer interests him the most; and Neeraj Chopra’s historic gold-medal victory at the 2020 Tokyo Games is his favorite moment from past Olympics.

Soumik sources data and facts from credible sources like BBC and NBC for accurate and relevant reporting, and keeps up with updates on social media and news media platforms.

He feels that covering collegiate tournaments, similar to what is done in the United States can be a good way to cover the bridge the coverage gap during the Olympics off season.

When not reporting on the latest Olympics news stories, Soumik likes to play cricket and watch movies.

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Edited by Soumik Bhattacharya