WRepublican Senator Kelly Loeffler, who is co-owner of the Atlanta Dream WNBA team, is being protested by her own players after she spoke out against Black Lives Matter.
“WNBA players are wearing ‘Vote Warnock’ T-shirts to games this week to support Rev. Raphael Warnock, who is challenging Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.) for her Senate seat,” ESPN reported Tuesday. “Last month Loeffler wrote a letter to WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert objecting to the league’s promotion of Black Lives Matter — which is painted on the courts at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, where the league is holding its return — and instead advocating for teams to add American flags to jerseys.”
Loeffler, who is up for reelection this year, is being challenged by Rev. Raphael Warnock, a paster at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.
ESPN interviewed Atlanta Dream forward Elizabeth Williams.
“I think when all this stuff started happening with her, we didn’t want to feel like we were pawns,” Williams said. “We can only control so much about what the league does [in regard to Sen. Loeffler], and so for us, we wanted it to be bigger than that.”
“That’s kind of been the theme of this season. So we wanted to make sure we could still keep the focus on our social justice movement, and funny enough, Reverend Warnock is somebody who supports everything that we support and just happens to be running in that seat. So it just worked out really well,” Williams explained.
Both the @AtlantaDream and @PhoenixMercury players arrived wearing “VOTE WARNOCK” shirts to their game tonight. For more here is story from @ramonashelburne https://t.co/th5gtsfEtv pic.twitter.com/2oLdvn3kyJ
— Holly Rowe (@sportsiren) August 4, 2020
Stacey Abrams took to Twitter to praise the women for their protest.
I am proud of these players. Thank you for connecting the dots between social justice & voting. @ReverendWarnock is one of the bright stars vying to for U.S. Senate in Georgia – he’s got this. https://t.co/w6nAFG0p6K
— Stacey Abrams (@staceyabrams) August 4, 2020
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