NBA star Lebron James is offering the WNBA the opportunity to solve a tough public relations problem. They still have an undesirable owner
in their midst, one who neither the players on her team, nor the rest of the league, wants to be part of things. That person is former Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler, who is also a co-owner of the Atlanta Dream. Loeffler has long been a thorn in the league’s side, someone openly at odds with their image of progressivism. She’s now also an individual out of a job after losing her Senate runoff race to Democrat Rev. Raphael Warnock.
James last week said “Think I’m going to put together an ownership group for The Dream. Whose In?” Those words were part of a tweet. he made expressing his interest. Loeffler purchased the team along with Mary Brock in 2011. Since then she’s repeatedly alienated team members and league officials with her comments and actions. She’s been a vocal supporter of Donald Trump, though after last week’s riot at the Capitol by his supporters she denounced him, then withdrew her support for opposition to the electors from Georgia who had certified Joe Biden’s victory.
However what riled WNBA players more than her support of Trump was the constant criticism of the Black Lives Matter Movement. Loeffler called them “Marxist” and “Anti-American.” Over the summer one of her players Elizabeth Williams told the New York Times how the team felt about Loeffler. “When we realized what our owner was doing and how she was kind of using us and the Black Lives Matter movement for her political gain, we felt like we didn’t want to feel kind of lost as the pawns in this,” Williams said.
In August various WNBA players wore T-shirts with the phrase “vote Warnock” on them. At one point he was badly trailing Loeffler, but the WNBA helped rally support for him throughout the state, in particular around the Atlanta area. As a result, Loeffler is now an ex-Senator, but has previously said she had no desire or plans to sell.
It will be interesting to see if she changes her mind. Meanwhile the NBA as a whole demonstrated its feelings last week about both the riot at the Capitol and the controversial decision by a prosecutor in Kenosha, Wisconsin not to prosecute the officer who shot Jacob Blake seven times in the back.
At various NBA games on Wednesday and Thursday, players on both teams locked hands in a circle of unity and knelt during the playing of the national anthem. The gestures were short, but heartfelt, and offered their protests against both the decision and the lunacy unleashed during the Capitol rioting.
Hopefully Loeffler will take advantage of the out being offered her by James. It would not only give the WNBA Black team ownership, but would eliminate a personality who is nothing but a liability to a league that has enough problems attracting fans and staying viable.
