The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
Sports world reacts to Capitol attack
For many of the women in the WNBA, it was a dizzying 48 hours.
On Tuesday, Democrat Raphael Warnock defeated incumbent Republican Kelly Loeffler in Georgia’s U.S. Senate runoff. Players visibly and vocally supported Warnock over the conservative Loeffler, co-owner of the Atlanta Dream.
But the sense of accomplishment was tempered the next day, when a mob of Donald Trump loyalists stormed the U.S. Capitol building. At least one brandished a confederate flag.
“One breath, you want to celebrate … But then you can’t,” said Connecticut Sun veteran DeWanna Bonner. “What happened in Washington DC and all the killings (of Black Americans) ... My head is kind of all over the place.”
Bonner, a Black woman from Alabama, saw race at the center of the Capitol events. She’s not alone.
The visuals of a mostly white crowd overwhelming police to storm the legislative building contrasted with images of Black Lives Matter protesters greeted with armed forced. Activist have noted a double standard in how the groups were treated by security.
The reaction from the sports world?
“We live in two Americas,” LeBron James said.
Philadelphia 76ers coach Doc Rivers said, “Could you imagine today, if those were all Black people storming the Capitol, and what would have happened?”
The sentiments are echoed throughout Connecticut, too — from high school coaches to college athletes to the professional basketball players at Mohegan Sun.
WNBA LEADING TO CHANGE
The WNBA has long been at the front of social causes, but the league’s players raised their activism to another level while competing in the Bradenton, Fla. bubble last summer. Players spoke out after the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, standing firmly behind the Black Lives Matter movement.
Loeffler, Atlanta’s coowner since 2011, is a strong Trump supporter. In July, she expressed concern with the league’s support of BLM in a letter to league commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
The response from the players? They began wearing “Vote Warnock” shirts at games and raised money for his campaign. Players across the league donned
the shirts and Warnock’s poll numbers steadily climbed.
Warnock wound up prevailing in a runoff, which helped tip the power in the Senate as Democrat Jon Ossoff defeated incumbent Republican David Perdue in Georgia’s other runoff.
“It was such a happy moment for him and for our league, as well,” Bonner said. “We did a great job of speaking out when we heard about what was going on in the race. We knew immediately who we wanted to support. Everybody wore those shirts on game days — there were some big games that week and we wanted to make sure that people saw us.
“We stand by what we believe in and it showed the powerful impact that we can make.”
Players celebrated the victory on social media. UConn’s Renee Montgomery, who played with Atlanta but opted out of the 2020 season as she focused on social justice reform, tweeted: “In 2019, I didn’t know what to call @ReverendWarnock because he was a Dr and a Pastor. Now I gotta add Senator to the list. Congrats to Dr Pastor Senator Warnock!”
James tweeted, “Think I’m gone put together an ownership group for the The Dream. Whose in?” and Montgomery responded, “I’m ready when you are.”
And it’s worth noting that James’ tweet received a long list of responses, including an emphatic “In” from former tennis great and Fairfield product James Blake. Meanwhile, Montgomery told TMZ she’s serious about an ownership bid — although there is no indication Loeffler is selling.
The WNBA is being cited for its impact on the election, but the support for Warnock — and rejection of Loeffler — is just another example of the league’s players using their platform. Independent of the Georgia race, players were leading the sports world in speaking out about racial injustice last year.
“Just more recognition for the work that they’re doing,” said Connecticut Sun vice president Amber Cox, who has worked in the league for 13 years. “If you think back to the Pride platform and the support of the LGBTQ community, the WNBA was really the first to do that. It’s been happening. But the result of being in a bubble situation where you had all the players together, allowed them to come together and it was obviously just a defining moment in our history … all things kind of culminated.
“These women are so courageous and smart and, obviously, strategic the way they go about things. It’s been wonderful to see them get the recognition for all the work that they have been doing.”
New Haven native Bria Holmes said the season was dedicated to making voices heard.
“And clearly they were heard,” she said. “Just voicing our opinion on things that haven’t been going well, I think it opened people’s eyes to a lot of things. … Women are a huge part of the world. With our voices, we can do a lot. It’s not just the men. We can continue to do great things.”
Said Bonner, “People are listening. Women’s basketball has an opportunity to be at the forefront of sports. … Last summer, we spoke up and spoke out about our true feelings. We’re outspoken. We don’t hold our tongues for anything. People are learning more about us as women, about our culture, and what we believe in, and that we’re more than just basketball players.”
Yet Bonner, an 11-year veteran, said she was shook by what she witnessed Wednesday. The joy of Warnock’s victory quickly evaporated.
“It’s a scary time,” she said. “It’s kind of like, let me make sure my family is home and safe because you never know what can happen right now. It’s just such a sad time for us, especially for Blacks in this world right now.”
Holmes said she was at a loss for words to describe how she felt Wednesday. But she does believe the “outcome would’ve been totally different” had a majority of the protesters been Black.
‘PUSHING FOR UNITY’
UConn freshman Paige Bueckers figures to have a future in the WNBA, yet she has already used her voice — she marched in her home state of Minnesota after Floyd’s death.
Asked Friday about the WNBA and the state of the country, Bueckers said she is impressed that the league and the players use their platform to spread their message.
“Everything that they do, they’re trying to make this world a better and more equal place,” Bueckers said. “That’s what we need right now — equality and justice, equal treatment for everybody regarding race. It’s just sad to see the inequalities in the world.
“If we just treated each other how we wanted to be treated, it would be a much better place. It’s just sad to see the stuff that’s going on in the world, the hate and the division that we have. The WNBA is just pushing for unity and togetherness. I just think that’s really big and what the world needs right now.”
Buecker is white, but her younger brother Drew is Black and she spoke over the summer about their conversations pertaining to his race.
“I’m scared for him,” she said over the summer. “I’m scared for myself because that’s my little brother. He’s my best friend, really. I’m really close to him. Having that fear, that one wrong judgment and his life could be on the line, it’s super scary and it’s something I want to help change.”
UConn junior Christyn Williams, another player with WNBA aspirations, expressed her support for Black Lives Matter on her social media accounts last summer.
“I’m definitely excited to be a part of the WNBA one day because they represent something bigger than themselves,” she said. “We’re people too. They show that as an example every time something happens or just in general. I think they’re doing a great job with that.”
CONNECTICUT REACTION
The events at the Capitol were jarring for athletes and coaches across the state.
Wilbur Cross basketball coach Kevin Walton conducts a weekly Zoom call with his players, his opportunity to check on his team while the season remains paused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
On Wednesday night, Walton asked his players about the events that unfolded at the Capitol.
“One of the players said one of the differences (from the Black Lives Matter protests) was they were treated differently because they were white, but he was reluctant to say it at first,” Walton said. “I told him you can always say what you feel. We want the kids to formulate their own opinions.”
Walton, a community activist who participated in protests after the killing of Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer in May, said he was “appalled” by the way Capitol police and law enforcement reacted to the mob that stormed the legislative building.
“It sends a message that they didn’t take these white nationalists and terrorists to be as scary or as threatening as the Black Lives Matter protests,” Walton said.
Hillhouse football coach Reggie Lytle, who stayed up until 4 a.m. Thursday watching news coverage of the events, retired in 2013 as a lieutenant after a 25year career in the state Department of Corrections.
Like Walton, he was stunned by the lack of security at the Capitol. Lytle contrasted what took place Wednesday with his own experience at the Million Man March on the National Mall in 1995. He estimates there were thousands of law enforcement at the march, “and you turn on the TV (Wednesday) and see only 500 Capitol Police?”
Lytle also said he felt “real sick” upon learning that a Capitol police officer was killed in the incident. He experienced riots during his time in the corrections department.
“To lose a officer to a beat down makes me feel I didn’t do my job,” he said. “It angers me even more to learn the President of the United States provoked this action. This invokes hate and invokes retaliation. I am old enough to know to fall to my knees and pray. This is what (Colin) Kapernick was doing.”
Lytle said he encountered racism as a member of Hillhouse’s 1985 state championship team and he sees his players faced with the same now. “Not much as changed,” he said.
His view of what happened at the Capitol?
“I’m not surprised at all,” Lytle said. “Especially since they announced they were going to do it. We have a saying: There it goes again. When we say that, in our community, we all know what that means. It’s white privilege. There’s no other way to look at it. White privilege.
“…My kids know. They could simply stand on the corner waiting for their girlfriend, and then the cops roll up and they get grilled. Meanwhile, you have people going to the Capitol and nobody’s stopping them.”
Walton, too, was not surprised.
“When President-elect (Joe) Biden comes on and says, ‘This isn’t America’ … this is exactly what America is,” Walton said. “Storming the Capitol building, acting in a violent manner, that is exactly who we are. … What bothered me the most is the people acting out were every-day people. There weren’t any billionaires out there (Wednesday). Those were people waiting for their stimulus checks, people who need Obamacare.”
This discussions between players and coaches unfolded at all levels last week.
At Quinnipiac, men’s basketball coach Baker Dunleavy said his team talked about the insurrection on Thursday.
“I think in general young people are very socially aware,” Dunleavy said. “They’re educated. They pay attention. They read. They’ve got social media at their fingertips. The players shared some of their individual thoughts and opinions.
“When we look at that day in our history, we’ll look back on a very dark day, an unfortunate and really embarrassing day in our country. We talked a little bit that there are some people out there who are similar to those we saw on camera and feel the way they feel. For a lot of people, it’s convenient for them to pretend that doesn’t exist. We have less ability to look the other way, that that sentiment isn’t something that existed just back in the 1960s.”