U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler, co-owner of the Atlanta Dream, insists that forcing Black Lives Matter themes in women’s basketball will make some fans “feel excluded.”
“I think a lot of people feel that they may not have a place,” Loeffler told ESPN. “They may feel excluded from this sport, and other sports that make them feel like American values aren’t at the core of what we’re doing here.”
The conservative U.S. Senator from Georgia has been embroiled in controversy as players rose up to oppose her attempt to cajole Women’s Soccer into allowing pro-America slogans on jerseys along with the social justice messages.
“The statement, ‘Black lives matter,’ is very different than the organization Black Lives Matter,” Loeffler continued in the ESPN interview. “I think we all agree the life of every African American is important. There’s no room for racism in this country, and we have to root it out where it exists. But there’s a political organization called Black Lives Matter that I think is very important to make the distinction between their aim and where we are as a country at this moment.
“The Black Lives Matter political organization advocates things like defunding and abolishing the police, abolishing our military, emptying our prisons, destroying the nuclear family. It promotes violence and antisemitism. To me, this is not what our league stands for,” she said.
Early this month, the senator raised the ire of woke players when she sent an open letter to WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert taking the league to task for pushing the BLM political agenda, but baring slogans supportive of the police, the military, and the nation.
“I adamantly oppose the Black Lives Matter political movement, which has advocated for the defunding of police, called for the removal of Jesus from churches and the disruption of the nuclear family structure, harbored anti-Semitic views, and promoted violence and destruction across the country,” Loeffler said in the letter.
“I believe it is totally misaligned with the values and goals of the WNBA and the Atlanta Dream, where we support tolerance and inclusion,” she added.
Despite Loeffler’s comments and her opposition to the extreme, left-wing agenda the league is instituting, Commissioner Engelbert said that she won’t try and force Loeffler to sell her stake in the team despite the players’ braying for the senator’s head on a platter.
Loeffler also insisted that she has no intention of fleeing from the WNBA and selling her stake in the team.
“I’ve always been supportive of my team, though I know we may have different views,” she told ESPN. “But the best way that we can have a common understanding is by working together on it, not shutting someone out.”
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