The Atlanta Dream, the WNBA team co-owned by outgoing Georgia senator Kelly Loeffler, is about to be sold, the league confirmed to CBS News on Tuesday. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution first reported on the possible sale.
“As for the Atlanta Dream, we believe the sale of the franchise is near,” a WNBA spokesman told CBS News. “Once the sale negotiation is completed, additional information will be provided.”
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The news of a prospective agreement comes on the same day as Loeffler, a Republican, is busy with her term as senator.
The WNBA and the Dream made headlines with their league-wide support of Black Lives Matter during the summer with BLM warm-up outfits and jerseys. But Loeffler objected to the practice in June and asked WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert to put an end to it.
In a statement that executed the protest in August, Loeffler called the players’ shirts a sign of cancellation culture. “It’s just another proof that culture out of control cancels out the desire to shut down anyone who disagrees with them,” she said. “Obviously the league is more concerned with politics than basketball, and I stand by what I wrote in June.”
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In response, the Atlanta Dream and other members of the WNBA endorsed one of its Senate opponents, Democrat Raphael Warnock, and went so far as to wear ‘Vote Warnock’ shirts during their games. Just two days after players wore the shirts, the campaign raised more than $ 185,000 online, added 3,500 grassroots donors and expanded Warnock’s Twitter account with nearly 3,500 followers, a campaign official told CBS News said.
Loeffler was defeated by Warnock in a January 5 by-election in which both of Georgia’s current Republican senators lost to Democratic challengers, shifting the balance of power in the Senate.
While the players’ protest also called for Loeffler to be removed, neither she nor co-owner Mary Brock said the Dream was for sale in public before the WNBA statement. The potential buyer is not yet known, but LeBron James, the Los Angeles Lakers star, threw his hat into the ring on January 6th. proposal on Twitter that he wants to form an “ownership group” to buy the team.
CBS News reaches out to the Dream for comment, but does not hear right away.
Zoe Christen Jones reported.