The scheduling debacle that is Game 6 of the WNBA Finals is as much because of Adam Silver’s indifference as it is Cathy Engelbert’s ineptitude.

Engelbert, the WNBA commissioner, has demonstrated time and again she was not up to the task of running a league experiencing an explosion in growth unprecedented in modern sports. Playing Game 6, a game that could decide this year’s title, before much of the West Coast has had its second cup of coffee, is on brand until the very end for her.

The Atlanta Dream said it raised potential schedule conflicts with games it would host in the WNBA Finals as early as September. And kept raising it the more it looked like a looming disaster, err, reality.

Even if they hadn’t, Engelbert, or someone in her office, ought to have known how to read a schedule and seen they had a colossal headache brewing.

Which is where Silver, the NBA commissioner, comes in.

David Stern was champion of WNBA, Adam Silver is not

Engelbert cannot tell NBA teams what to do. She cannot cajole their owners to do the right thing. She cannot paint the big picture so people who think there is nothing in it for them can see there is.

But Silver, the NBA’s commissioner, can. That he didn’t, or didn’t do it forcefully enough, continues a pattern of apathy toward the WNBA that likely would have made his predecessor fume.

The NBA owns 42% of the WNBA, which was created and championed by David Stern, the previous NBA commissioner.

Stern recognized that not only was it the right thing for women to have their own league, there were long-term financial gains to be had with the W. Even as owners groused about having to bankroll the WNBA, Stern held firm in his support, knowing there would be an eventual payday for the NBA.

That day is finally here, yet Silver doesn’t seem to recognize it. Or care.

The WNBA is now a $5.5 billion league – that’s billion, with a b – and its growth potential is rocket fueled. Even without Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson or Breanna Stewart, these Finals have drawn record ratings. All five games so far have been sellouts. Merchandise sales are booming.

Sponsors continue to clamor for a piece of the action, and the number of purpose-built practice facilities and arenas coming will offer additional revenue streams.

WNBA's success good for NBA, too

All this is good for the WNBA. But it’s good for the NBA, too. Its stake in the W, once considered an albatross, is fast becoming a golden goose. While that is particularly true for the owners who have both NBA and WNBA teams, it applies to all owners.

Including Tony Ressler and Jami Gertz, owners of the Atlanta Hawks.

It is understandable why the Hawks wouldn’t want to move their scheduled game with the Cleveland Cavaliers from Thursday night to accommodate Game 6 between the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream. Ressler and Gertz don’t own the Dream, and moving the Hawks game is an inconvenience with no upside.

In the short term.

Opportunity missed for WNBA, Atlanta Hawks

In the long term, moving the Cavaliers-Hawks to another day and allowing the Valkyries and Dream to play Game 6 in an NBA arena, in primetime, would have given the Hawks twice the bang for their buck.

They’d still get the revenue from their rescheduled game. But consider how much bigger the payoff would have been for a Valkyries-Dream game in primetime instead of one that’s being played at 12:30 p.m. The cheapest tickets for Game 3 were $257; the cheapest for Game 6, tipping off at 12:30 p.m. ET, on a Thursday, were less than $30.

As both the primary tenant of State Farm Arena and a part-owner of the WNBA, that's a win-win for the Hawks.

But someone had to make that case to Ressler and Gertz, and that someone had to be Silver.

Why couldn't Cavs-Hawks be moved to Oct. 30?

Games in every professional league, the NBA included, have had to be rescheduled for any number of reasons, and everyone has adapted.

Had this been a Hawks playoff game, or even a game that determined seeding for the playoffs or draft, this would be a different conversation. But the NBA season is all of a week old, and this would have been a fairly easy shift.

The Oct. 29 game is the second of a back-to-back for both the Cavaliers and the Hawks. The teams then have off days Oct. 30 before playing a third game in four days Oct. 31, the Cavaliers in Milwaukee and the Hawks in New Orleans. Both teams are off again Nov. 1.

So move the game to Oct. 30. It wouldn’t have materially changed the schedule for either team, and neither team has a long flight to the site of their Oct. 31 games.

Instead, insanity (or apathy) prevailed, and Game 6 of the Finals will be the equivalent of a WNBA “camp game.” It’s a horrible look for the WNBA, but it's a bad business decision for the NBA, too.

The WNBA survived to its 30th season in large part because of the NBA's support. Now that the W is thriving, the NBA can't be the one to stand in its way.