The sentence “Black History Month is over” feels wrong. There should not be a month, it should be an equally year-round interest. I mean, the statement just feels wrong.
Kelly Loeffler’s ownership of the Atlanta Dream felt wrong. Thankfully, that nightmare of a situation is now over for those players, the league, and the sport in general. Sadly, Loeffler is a former Senator who will not learn a thing from this lesson so her brand of ill-disguised disgust will remain on the fringes of our society.
On April 10, 1960, Martin Luther King Jr. gave an address in Atlanta to Spelman College. The speech was titled “Keep Moving From This Mountain” and touched on “four symbolic mountains” that must be overcome. They were “relativism, materialism, segregation, and violence.”
Now 61 years later, the outspoken players have overcome those four mountains in this situation by forcing out a toxic owner. Loeffler proved with her words she was the epitome of those four mountains. The players actively campaigned against her reelection bid for a Georgia Senate seat after Loeffler ridiculed the Black Lives Matter movement. They petitioned the WNBA to find new ownership. The investment group that formed in response was historic and a Dream come true.
Former Dream superstar Renee Montgomery leads a group supported by real estate mogul Larry Gottesdiener and company COO Suzanne Abair. Montgomery said, “My Dream has come true. Breaking barriers for minorities and women by being the first former WNBA player to have both a stake in ownership and a leadership role with the team is an opportunity that I take very seriously.”
Montgomery did not play in the last WNBA season. She sat out to focus her time on social activism and awareness.
On September 16, 1962, Martin Luther King Jr. went back to Atlanta to deliver the sermon “Levels of Love.” Just months before “I Have A Dream” was taking shape and spoken to the world, he told the congregation that love cannot have conditions such as loving a people only when segregated.
Loeffler thought her position and privileges through life made her exempt from and more deserving than those she employed, did business with, and represented as a politician. She and her discriminatory levels of love were no longer acceptable as a steward of the league, team, or elected office.
Kelly Loeffler’s ownership now over.
The WNBA, Atlanta, and all efforts to make the world are in a better place now in numerous ways.
Renee Montgomery made history in acquiring Atlanta and fulfilling her Dream.
