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How LeBron James helped Renee Montgomery buy the Atlanta Dream

ryan young
Staff writer
·2 min read

Renee Montgomery, along with two others, officially purchased the Atlanta Dream on Friday — something that couldn’t have been possible without LeBron James and his More Than A Vote campaign.

James and his organization, Montgomery credited, was what connected her to the right people to make her dream of transitioning from the team’s star player to the team’s owner.

LeBron James helped Montgomery buy Atlanta Dream

The WNBA approved the sale of the Dream to a three-member investor group on Friday. Montgomery is joined in that group by Larry Gottesdiener, the chairman of real estate firm Northland, and Suzanne Abair, the president and chief operating officer of Northland.

The sale concludes the multiple controversies brought forward by former co-owner and ex-Senator Kelly Loeffler, who the team and the rest of the league repeatedly pushed back against and even campaigned against for her views on the Black Lives Matter movement, among other things. Loeffler, along with former co-owner Mary Brock, took over the team in 2011.

Amid the growing controversy surrounding Loeffler and the Dream, James said that he wanted to put together an ownership group to buy the team.

While Montgomery had wanted to do this for several months before James’ January tweet, that’s when she decided to make a real move.

“I just reached out to him and said, ‘Hey if you guys are serious, I am as well. If you could like point me in the right direction or if you could help me get to the next step,’ and the next step was Cathy,” Montgomery said Friday.

With the help of James and More Than A Vote, Montgomery was able to meet with commissioner Cathy Engelbert to talk about next steps.

The 34-year-old two-time WNBA champion opted out of the 2020 season to focus on social justice issues, and then retired officially earlier this month — which paved the way for her to buy in with the ownership group.

Without James and More Than A Vote helping her, though, Montgomery knows this wouldn’t have been possible.

“I wouldn’t be talking to you guys if it weren’t for that group,” she said. “They were just very welcoming in a sense of, ‘OK, yes let me see what I can do.’ They constantly were there for me, and that’s what I think community looks like … That’s what it’s all about. They all saw my vision and my passion behind it and they all wanted to help.”

And James, of course, was thrilled to see Montgomery’s vision realized.

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