The Atlanta Dream are about to have something in common with United States Senate: Kelly Loeffler will no longer be affiliated with either. According to report from Chris Vivlamore of the Atlanta Journal Constitution, Atlanta’s WNBA team, which is owned by a group that includes the now-former member of the Senate from the state of Georgia, is on the verge of being sold.
Details are sparse about, well, all of this sale. In a statement to the AJC, a WNBA spokesperson said, “As it relates to the Atlanta Dream, we understand a sale of the franchise is close to being finalized. Once the sale negotiation is concluded, additional information will be provided.”
Loeffler’s group Dream Too LLC purchased the franchise in 2011, and in recent months, her ownership of the franchise came under intense scrutiny. During her tenure as an appointed member of the Senate, Loeffler, a Republican, bashed the players and the league for its support of the Black Lives Matter movement over the summer. The comments backfired considerably: Players, both from the Dream and across the league, responded by openly supporting a challenger for her Senate seat, Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Democrat, in Georgia’s sizable primary. While he was polling at just nine percent at the time, he rode this wave of attention to a first-place finish in the state’s run-off election and eventually beat Loeffler in January’s race for her seat by nearly 90,000 votes.
Throughout the campaign cycle, calls came from various corners of the basketball world for Loeffler to no longer be affiliated with the franchise, although WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert made clear that Loeffler would not be forced to sell. Baron Davis expressed interest in purchasing the team, and following her loss to Warnock, LeBron James tweeted his desire to form a group to purchase the Dream, although it is unclear if either has anything to do with the group in negotiations.