Tag: Kelly Loeffler

Renee Montgomery buying a stake in the Atlanta Dream shows how powerful WNBA players are

Kelly Loeffler is out.

Not even a year ago Kelly Loeffler, the former co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, was causing a stir around the WNBA.

She vehemently disapproved of the WNBA allowing its players to honor victims of police violence by wearing warm-up shirts that read “Black Lives Matter” and “Say Her Name.” They were referencing Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot by Louisville police in March of 2020.

Loeffler wrote a letter to the league asking that those slogans be replaced by American flags. The WNBA players decided they wanted her out. Now, months later, she’s gone.

The Atlanta Dream has been sold to a new ownership group. And the best part? Renee Montgomery, a former Dream star, is part of the group. She made it official with a tweet.

This is a huge triumph for the WNBA’s players that opposed Loeffler. It was the ending that they wanted and then some.

First, Loeffler lost the support of the players on her team and from around the league. Then, she also lost her Senate seat after those same players helped push Raphael Warnock to victory in their Senate race last fall.

It isn’t just that Loeffler sold her stake in the team, it’s also the fact that she’s selling the team to Montgomery, a former player. Montgomery was also one of the loudest voices in the WNBA who championed everything Loeffler stood against.

She also set her career aside to do it. She retired from the WNBA last season after electing to sit out of the bubble because she wanted to find ways to impact social change. She wrote an article in The Player’s Tribune about her decision within the context of racism and how her family inspired her to do this.

And now, she’s a part-owner of the Atlanta Dream. She’s also the first former player in WNBA history to become a league owner and executive. All in less than a calendar year. That’s how quickly Montgomery and the WNBA’s players were able to make this all happen.

This just goes to us how powerful they truly are.

Carmelo Anthony says ‘let’s talk bro’ to LeBron about buying Atlanta Dream

Fellow 2003 draftee and Portland Trail Blazers forward Carmelo Anthony wants to join LeBron in pursuit of buying the Atlanta Dream.

One of the most interesting reactions to the results of the recent Georgia runoff elections for the United States Senate was the one from LeBron James in which he called his shot to eventually buy the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, which is currently owned by outgoing Senator Kelly Loeffler. Loeffler publicly questioned why her players should have statements in support of ‘Black Lives Matter,’ among other allegations thrown Loeffler’s way.

The Dream’s demonstration in the WNBA Bubble of wearing “Vote Warnock” shirts in warmups is seen by many as a turning point in Loeffler’s defeat. Following her loss, James tweeted about buying the Dream, turning out many responses from others looking to join him. That list now includes LeBron’s fellow 2003 draftee and Banana Boat friend Carmelo Anthony.

It remains to be seen what ultimately will become of Loeffler’s ownership and what the WNBA can do. The league has yet to take any action on her and while the NBA is a part of the WNBA, the WNBA has worked to become more independent in recent years. However, if LeBron is the potential majority owner, that will definitely change the conversation.

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How the WNBA’s early support helped push Raphael Warnock to a historic Senate victory

The WNBA’s Black, female athletes aren’t just athletes. They’re organizers.

Reverend Raphael Warnock made history on Tuesday night after defeating incumbent Kelly Loeffler in Georgia’s Senate runoff election.

Not only is Warnock the 11th Black senator to be elected to Congress, but he will also the first Black senator from the state of Georgia. On top of that, he’s the first Democrat to be elected as a senator in Georgia since 1996.

While much of the credit for Warnock’s historic victory goes to the grassroots work done by Stacey Abrams and other voter mobilization groups in Georgia, the major push that Warnock got from the Black, female athletes of the WNBA can not be ignored.

The WNBA has long been at he forefront of social justice movements and it was the women of the Atlanta Dream who rallied people behind Warnock at a crucial early stage and gave him their support and encouraged people to vote.

It all started back in August when players from the Atlanta Dream and Phoenix Mercury wore “VOTE WARNOCK” shirts during their pregame walk-ins.

Kelly Loeffler, Warnock’s opponent, is a co-owner of the Dream. She clashed publicly with players over her criticisms of the Black Lives Matter movement and also urged the WNBA not to support players’ on-court protests.

“@WNBAshould stand for and unite around the American Flag — not divisive political movements like BLM that unapologetically seek to defund the police,” she tweeted.

These shirts and the support of Warnock were a response from the Dream and other teams around the W. As a result, they literally altered the course of Warnock’s senate race.

On August 4, Warnock was polling in single digits. Two days later, per USA Today’s Nancy Armour, he’d raised nearly $200,000 and took his first lead in the race.

“Within two days, Warnock’s campaign said it had raised over $183,000. A few weeks later, Warnock began airing ads on TV. By Sept. 30, a Quinnipiac poll showed Warnock had taken his first lead in the race, polling at 31% while Loeffler was at 23% and Collins 22%.”

Athlete activism has been always a theme — particularly, over the last few months with protests rising across sports after the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd. But the WNBA’s Black, female athletes have proven, once again, to be leaders in the space. They aren’t just activists — they’re organizers.

The proof is in the pudding five months later after lending their support to Raphael Warnock. He won his race. The women of the WNBA were a huge part of that victory. They were thrilled with the victory.

It’s hard to overstate the importance of the WNBA in this Senate flip. Their early work drew attention to Warnock at a crucial time, and their continued support shored up the work of organizers and supporters around the state.  Hopefully, Warnock has an orange hoodie on tap for his acceptance speech.

LeBron James tweets about forming Atlanta Dream ownership group after Georgia senate runoff

Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James was talking about buying the Atlanta Dream from sitting U.S. senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia.

LeBron James, like many around the country and the world on Tuesday, had their eyes on Georgia and the two senate runoff elections that would determine the majority in the United States senate. And one of the races has NBA ties, with Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler being the owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, in a runoff against Raphael Warnock.

As of this publishing, Warnock has declared victory with still some votes to be counted and him in the lead of Loeffler. With the election looking like it will go against Loeffler, who has questioned why WNBA players should say “Black Lives Matter,” LeBron James took the occasion as an opportunity to call his shot with trying to get Loeffler out of professional basketball by announcing he wants to organize an ownership group for the Atlanta Dream.

The Dream, because of being owned by Loeffler, were the loudest advocates for Warnock in the lead up to the 2020 election by wearing “Vote Warnock” shirts during their games in the WNBA Bubble in Bradenton, Florida.

Shortly after James tweeted, Renee Montgomery, who plays for the Dream, showed her support.

LeBron’s ‘More Than A Vote’ nonprofit partnered with Lyft during the early voting period for the runoff Georgia to help give voters free rides to the polls.

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The Chicago Sky players take a shot at Atlanta Dream part owner Kelly Loeffler with vote shirts

Kelly isn’t going to like this one.

It’s safe to say that a lot of players around the WNBA are not fans of U.S. Senator and Atlanta Dream owner Kelly Loeffler.

In early July, Loeffler wrote a letter to the WNBA trying to convince the league to block players from sharing political messages on the back of their jerseys.

There were plenty of players who spoke up through the media and through Twitter about what Loeffler said in her letter. Many of them demanded that she sell her stake in the Dream.

Now, some of them are taking it a step further.

The Chicago Sky players dedicated their shirts today to urging people to vote. But they weren’t urging people, generally to vote — instead, they wore shirts that specifically said “vote Warnock.”

The Warnock on the shirt is talking about Raphael Warnock. He’s running for the U.S. Senate seat Kelly Loeffler currently occupies.

Fans absolutely loved this.

Talk about petty. You absolutely love to see it. Well played by the Sky.

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Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Georgia senator …

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler, a close ally of Trump and co-owner of the WNBA’s Atlanta Dream, thinks players seeking social justice may put off some fans, which is a bottom-line analysis rather than a passion to do the right thing. Loeffler reads from the same dog-eared playbook of most racists-in-denial pontificating from their plantation porch. She first claims she’s not racist, then delivers massively inaccurate justifications for being selectively racist: “There’s no room for racism in this country, and we have to root it out where it exists. But there’s a political organization called Black Lives Matter that I think is very important to make the distinction between their aim and where we are as a country at this moment. The Black Lives Matter political organization advocates things like defunding and abolishing the police, abolishing our military, emptying our prisons, destroying the nuclear family. It promotes violence and antisemitism. To me, this is not what our league stands for.”

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: It’s disturbing …

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: It’s disturbing that she doesn’t know (or does know and prefers lying) that Black Lives Matter is not a monolithic organization but an affiliation of activist groups. She chooses to spout fear-inducing lies to rally racists: Abolish police? Abolish military? Empty prisons? Destroy the nuclear family? Being truth-challenged is one reason the WNBA players’ association has asked the commissioner to remove Loeffler as a co-owner. If we were to “root it out where it exists”, we would start with Loeffler, Dan Snyder and Woody Johnson. Which brings up the question of what to do with racists who own sports teams. Loeffler insists, “They can’t push me out for my views. I intend to own the team. I am not going.” I agree that owners shouldn’t be pushed out for their views, but for their behavior if that behavior promotes hate toward marginalized groups, because we know that such hate often leads to violence against them. Even when it doesn’t directly lead to violence, it perpetuates the lies and prejudices that allow people to ignore the inequities in education, health, voting and jobs that these people face. Which is why we need to call them out publicly and relentlessly, if not to change their minds, then to change their public behavior.

The WNBA will not make Sen. Kelly …

The WNBA will not make Sen. Kelly Loeffler sell her stake of the Atlanta Dream after anti-Black Lives Matter comments in the past weeks, commissioner Cathy Engelbert said Thursday on CNN. “We are not going to force her to sell her ownership,” Engelbert after being pressed about the issue in a segment with CNN’s Poppy Harlow. “She is not a current governor. She is not involved in the day-to-day and we are aware there are interested parties who want to purchase the team.”

She said they are “aware there are …

She said they are “aware there are interested parties that want to purchase the team” and it’s being worked on. Most importantly, the league is focused on standing by the causes, in this case social and racial justice issues, that matter most to its players, she said. “We believe the WNBA platform. What the players want to focus on — and I know some of them have spoken out — but they want to focus on getting owners in who otherwise are supporting what they stand for. And that’s what we’re working on.”

WNBA players are trying to oust Atlanta …

WNBA players are trying to oust Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler, a Republican Georgia U.S. Senator, because she holds political stances they disagree with and is advocating against the league supporting Black Lives Matter. Asked by Laura Ingraham on Fox News whether there was any chance she’d sell her share of the team, Loeffler said “No.”