A day after Atlanta Dream owner and Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler said that she opposes the WNBA’s support of the Black Lives Matter movement, the team’s players tweeted out a letter from the official Dream account detailing their support of the movement. This public stance against their owner’s words is the most explicit message of opposition against Loeffler in a week full of them across the league.
Glory Johnson’s signature was incorrectly left off of this statement. She contributed to it, stands by it and her signature should also be at the end of it. pic.twitter.com/BMUcHj8sRH
— Atlanta Dream (@AtlantaDream) July 11, 2020
In addition to the team’s letter, guard Renee Montgomery — who has opted out of the next WNBA season in order to work on social justice causes — also wrote a letter addressed directly to Loeffler, telling her that she is “on the wrong side of history if [she] can’t see that Black Lives Matter.” Montgomery also signed the Dream’s letter, despite not being a part of the team at the moment.
After criticizing the WNBA’s choice to publicly support the Black Lives Matter movement on Monday, Loeffler doubled down on her stance after a week of sharing it across TV and social media, and also said in an editorial for conservative website Daily caller that she has no intention to sell the team to an owner more aligned with the WNBA’s values:
But this is America and I’m not going to bow down to the woke mob. I’m not going to give up on the team because of my personal or political views.
Her words have come under fire not just from her own players, but from players around the league. Most notably, Los Angeles Sparks star Candace Parker said on TNT that there is “no place in the league for her.”
Whether the WNBA can force the issue of Loeffler’s ownership or not remains to be seen, though the league did send out a statement that mentioned that Loeffler has not been involved in the day-to-day operations of the team since October of last year.
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