Curry inspired by WNBA team’s ownership change
Stephen Curry on Tuesday applauded the Atlanta Dream’s new ownership in the WNBA and said he eventually might get into leadership of a basketball franchise once his playing days are completed.
“I don’t have a specific plan, but I follow a lot of the conversations and some of the ways that former players have approached those opportunities,” Curry said. “It’s definitely interesting. It’s enticing. But there’s a long way to go.”
The Warriors could “at some point” include Curry in their longrunning bid for a WNBA franchise, but that can’t happen until the point guard retires, per NBA and WNBA collective bargaining agreements.
In the meantime, the Warriors say they continue to be interested in acquiring a WNBA team. But with moving to a new arena amid a global pandemic, this isn’t the time, according to the franchise.
“But, it will probably happen at some point,” a Warriors source said.
Curry mentioned Grant Hill, Shaquille O’Neal, and, of course, Michael Jordan among the former players whom he has followed in postcareer franchise ownership.
Hill, a seventime NBA All
Star, is a minority owner of the Atlanta Hawks, and O’Neal, a 15time AllStar, has a stake in the Sacramento Kings. Jordan, whom Curry called “the ultimate example,” is the principal owner and chairman of the Charlotte Hornets.
But perhaps no former player has been more impressive in moving from the court to executive offices than former Dream player Renee Montgomery.
Montgomery declined to play last season, citing systemic racism and coronavirus concerns, and the twotime champion instead went to work on prying the Atlanta Dream from Kelly Loeffler.
Loeffler, the former U.S. senator from Georgia, has been a staunch supporter of Donald Trump and took a stance against the Black Lives Matter movement.
Along with coowner Mary Brock, Loeffler sold the franchise to a threemember investor group that includes Montgomery; Larry Gottesdiener, chairman of Northland Investment Corporation, a realestate firm near Boston; and Suzanne Abair, president and chief operating officer of Northland.
With the Board of Governors’ unanimous vote to approve the sale Friday, Montgomery became the first former WNBA player to own a portion of a professional team.
“It’s amazing, and it really just speaks for itself, in terms of how you flip a situation and a misrepresentation of what the WNBA is about on its head,” Curry said. “For Renee and that group to come in, it’s just awesome to see. It’s very inspirational in terms of where we’re all headed, in terms of turning these conversations into actual action, opportunity and accomplishment.”