Original subtitles

[male reporter] Welcome back to SportsCenter.

Three WNBA games postponed last night as the players filed suit with the NBA.

And decided not to play in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake Sunday

and the ongoing protests in Kenosha.

[Holly] Okay, so they'll throw it to us live.

We are here with the WNBA Executive Committee.

These woman have negotiated one of the most profitable CBA agreements in history.

They've negotiated the return of the bubble,

and here, today, they are talking about

the protest that happened last night and how they move forward from here.

Yeah, yeah, perfect.

Now we can discuss what you guys want to talk about.

So each person tell me what you are passionate about sharing today.

I mean, mental health is a huge one.

- [Sue] I think voting for me. - [Holly] Okay, I'll set you up on voting.

[Nneka] We're a league full of women who understand what's most important.

This was a moment where it's bigger than basketball.

[Sue] It's just, like, in our fabric

to see an injustice and wanna step up for it.

And this moment was no different.

Atlanta Dream co-owner, Kelly Loeffler,

is not in favor of the WNBA social justice plans.

People who, literally, look like me are being murdered.

[Elizabeth] This isn't something you ignore.

Especially an election year.

- [crowd] Black lives matter! - No peace!

[Sue] Players are pissed. Like, people are mad.

How can you redirect that energy?

...control of the US Senate. So, right now,

two Georgia seats today are going to decide this.

The anger then fueled the "Fuck her, we're gonna take her senate seat."

[Angel] Our voices were more powerful than we ever imagined.

2020, we made a lot of noise.

["Goddess" by Krewella & NERVO playing]

♪ Yes, I'm high, I'm mighty, righteous I'm an all-black, fair trade diamond ♪

♪ Might fuck around And buy myself an island ♪

♪ Flippin' the script, so, let's go Got my own damn swag, no stylist ♪

♪ Thirty thousand, I'm still climbing ♪

♪ Getting high on all this flyness Don't need to flex, I lay low ♪

♪ Oh-na-na-na, hold it down ♪

♪ You got the crown, baby Don't give it up now ♪

♪ Oh-na-na-na, say it loud ♪

♪ Runnin' that shit like a goddess ♪

♪ Oh-na-na-na, hold it down ♪

♪ You got the crown, baby Don't give it up now ♪

♪ Oh-na-na-na, say it loud ♪

♪ Runnin' that shit like a goddess ♪

♪ Runnin' that shit like a goddess ♪

[buzzer sounding]

[Angel] I remember I was about eight years old,

I was very athletic, you know, at that age.

I was quicker than everyone.

And could do acrobatic things that most girls couldn't do.

[Nneka] Initially, my mom had signed us up for gymnast classes,

but my gymnast instructor told me that I was too tall.

And from there, I ended up playing basketball.

Basketball was always my first love for sport.

I don't remember necessarily that moment I picked up the ball.

Pretty young, I always had a basketball in my hands.

[Elizabeth] I started playing when I was about nine.

And I just fell in love with it.

I feel like I came out of the womb ready to play sports.

Classic tomboy.

This was probably in fifth or sixth grade,

my local CYO team got asked to play at halftime of a college game.

As we were leaving later that day,

a security guard came up to me and my parents

and was like, can I get your daughter's autograph,

'cause I feel it's gonna be worth something one day.

I was like, what?

[Angel] I love the sweat. I love the sound of the ball bouncing.

I love the crowd cheering.

I love that there's this atmosphere where you have a sisterhood.

I love those things.

I play for the bus rides.

And really close interpersonal relationships

that basketball brings, is really what I play for.

[Layshia] I love the competition.

I love shit talking.

I love being physical with people, like beating them up.

I love grabbing their jerseys.

[Elizabeth] Honestly, my favorite thing about the game is

there's just this certain level of chemistry and camaraderie

that comes with competing side by side with someone,

and fighting for something with them.

[Sue] I'm of a generation that didn't grow up with the WNBA.

So I never had dreams of playing professional basketball.

And then, around my sophomore, junior year of high school,

the WNBA started.

The NBA is bankrolling a new hoop league for women.

♪ Oh, oh, there she go, she is so unstoppable ♪

♪ Oh, oh, there she go ♪

[male presenter] The start of the WNBA,

the Woman's National Basketball Association,

is off to a great start.

The crowd was into it, they were cheering loud.

We made history.

These girls had an unbelievable game.

[Angel] I was around ten or 11, and I remember, um,

some guys at the basketball court were like, hey,

there's this thing called the WNBA. You should watch it.

I was like, what's that? They're like, the NBA, but for girls.

NBA, but for the girls?

That's when I started watching women that really just looked like me.

They were tall and they had big feet.

I didn't have to squish my feet into small shoes anymore

to fit in at school, you know?

- [commentator shouting] - ♪ Oh, oh, there she go ♪

♪ She is so unstoppable ♪

♪ Oh, oh, there she go ♪

[commentator] For the first time in WNBA history

someone has dunked.

[Nneka] I was planning to go to medical school.

And my sister said, hey,

that can come later. You should enter the draft.

With the first pick in the 2012 WNBA draft,

Los Angeles Sparks

select Nnemkadi Ogwumike from Stanford University.

[Sue] To do something and get paid for it that you love to do,

you know, that's gotta be everyone's dream, you know.

I now was choosing a college,

knowing that this was an option.

[buzzer rings]

With the first pick of the 2002 WNBA draft,

the Seattle Storm select

Sue Bird from the University of Connecticut.

[Layshia] I remember getting the phone call,

you've been invited to the draft. And my mind just like, you know, exploded.

With the ninth pick in the 2013 WNBA draft,

the Indiana Fever select Layshia Clarendon

from the University of California, Berkeley.

[Angel] To hear my name announced, it was, like, surreal.

With the first pick in the 2009 WNBA draft,

the Atlanta Dream select Angel McCoughtry

from Louisville.

[Elizabeth] You know, senior year rolls around,

and I knew there's a chance that I'd be drafted.

And can play in the W.

With the fourth pick in the 2015 WNBA draft,

the Connecticut Sun select Elizabeth Williams

from Duke University.

[cheering and applause]

The WNBA has been one of the greatest success stories in women's history.

Not just sports history, women's history in general.

Because women have been empowered by this league.

Women have grown with this league.

Salaries have changed.

Teams have changed. Franchises.

And the sports culture has changed because of the WNBA.

I think the activism that you see in the WNBA

inherently started the moment the first WNBA game was played.

[Katie Couric] Three leagues have tried and failed.

What's different in 1997?

We think the timing couldn't be better

and we have very high hopes for the future of the sport.

[male reporter] The NBA admits it'll be an uphill battle.

It stands a good chance because it's got the NBA muscle behind it.

It definitely does. But the real question's gonna be

when does the novelty wear off?

[Renee] We wanted everyone to see we are so intense

we're not sissies playing the game.

We're woman athletes playing the game.

[Nneka] You're talking about female athletes

who have always had to fight for respect.

The WNBA officials expanded to ten teams this week,

adding franchises in Detroit and Washington DC.

Before you get too excited about the new additions,

remember, all of the players are still women.

[audience laughing]

We've always been shorted when it came to funding.

When it came to media coverage.

So they were used to battling.

[female reporter] The woman make an average of $30,000 a year,

compared to 2.3 million for male players.

[male reporter] No matter how much money the NBA puts into the new league,

the question remains, will hardcore sports fans, especially men,

turn out for the games?

There was all this momentum to launch.

And it was like, positive, positive, positive.

And then it just quickly hit this low of

their gay, people don't wanna support the gay women.

You know, they don't look feminine.

All the misogyny starts coming out.

[Jemele] So you have a lot of openly gay players in the WNBA.

And the league went through this awkward, if not cowardly, period

where they tried to deny that this is a part of,

not just their league from a player standpoint,

but their fan base too.

And that's what made them bond stronger together in their locker room.

They're gonna use this against all of us.

So we have no choice but to fight it together.

[male reporter] Starting this week,

the WNBA will become the first professional sports league

to have a marketing campaign

specifically targeting the LGBT community.

[Jemele] In the WNBA they can see the parallel struggles between

race, gender, class, sexuality. They can see them all

and understand the layers and nuance to them

in a way that's very different from other professional leagues.

[Elizabeth] As a league of predominantly Black women,

we have always understood the value of

supporting the people that surround us.

For the women of the WNBA, in particular as Black women,

as many queer women,

as people who represent a gender fluidity,

a representation that, you know, perhaps has not always been embraced.

Each one of those players wakes up every day

and is inherently political.

[Nneka] There are things that are so much bigger than us

that require our attention and require our advocacy and activism,

because we have the platforms to do so.

I believe, after almost 30 years of covering this league,

that the moment that changed this league forever

was in 2016.

[crowd chanting]

2016 was a rough year for this country.

Being a presidential year, and given the fact

that we had a very polarizing candidate in Donald Trump.

It was a very tumultuous, uncomfortable time for this country.

Then you had a summer in 2016

where, while we certainly were not new to seeing

state sanctioned violence against Black people,

this was different.

[male reporter] Protests growing louder in Baton Rouge

after the police shooting death of Alton Sterling.

[male anchor] After Tuesday's killing in Baton Rouge,

local and federal officials are now contending with the case

of a 32-year-old Minnesota man also gunned down by police.

[Jemele] When Philando Castile was murdered on Facebook live,

that his girlfriend at the time captured on video,

and you have a little girl in the back watching all of this.

[woman sobs]

[Jemele] That put us on a way different course.

It's bleeding over into sports in a major way.

'Cause you had athletes who were speaking out against what they were seeing.

Leading that charge were the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA.

[male reporter] Lynx players Saturday unveiled new warm-up shirts

reading "Change starts with us, justice and accountability."

And on the back, "Philando Castile,"

"Alton Sterling," and "Black lives matter."

[female reporter] The logo of the Dallas Police Department also there,

symbolizing the five officers gunned down during a Black Lives Matter rally.

We have decided it is important to take a stand and raise our voices.

Racial profiling is a problem.

We, as a nation, can decide to stand up for what is right,

no matter your race, background, or social status.

The Minnesota Lynx, they're at the peak of dynasty, right?

This is the best team in the league,

they've won four championships in seven years.

And they take a stand.

When you look Maya Moore, she's the best player.

She has nothing to prove.

Everything to lose.

And yet, she did not mind being the face, the voice, her and her teammates,

of this particular protest.

There's something about that that is so historic,

that I don't think that people really understand

the full context of that.

[Sue] When the Minnesota Lynx wore the T-shirts that they wore

after Philando Castile was murdered,

what struck me the most was, um, just the passion behind it.

These were woman that were directly impacted by this.

These were women whose families have been directly impacted by this.

So for me, especially as a white player, it was definitely a learning lesson.

[reporter] The police union says four off-duty cops were offended.

They asked team officials to have the players remove the jerseys.

The team refused and the security detail walked off the job.

To have police officers walk out,

that showed exactly where we were.

They're wading into waters they shouldn't be in to begin with.

They're professional athletes.

Stick with playing ball.

[Jemela] When they decided they were gonna speak out

about what happened with Philando Castile,

that put them as an immediate adversary against the Minneapolis police department.

Which, oh, by the way, years later, George Floyd.

[reporter] These are the woman of the New York Liberty team.

On Sunday, as a team, they also wore T-shirts

supporting Black Lives Matter and the Dallas Five.

There was definitely push back.

The WNBA actually tried to fine players for wearing shirts,

saying they violated the uniform code.

[reporter] The WNBA has fined the Fever, Liberty, and Mercury.

Each team was fined $5,000 and the players 500.

I started in this role in 2016.

And what I learned, very quickly,

was that our members are very tuned in, very keyed in,

to the issues that affect their communities.

Violating the uniform policy, previously,

wearing another sportswear company's wristband or headband or bra,

meant that you'd get fined $200.

I had seen the $200 uniform policy fines.

This fine...

was $500.

And if felt...

like a muzzle.

[Sue] What I always thought was interesting was,

you know, we have Pride Month.

And we all get to wear T-shirts for Pride Month.

We weren't getting fined for those T-shirts.

ESPN wasn't covering us about those T-shirts.

It was like a tectonic shock went across the country

through the NBA once those fines were levied.

And we suffered, I think, two weeks, at least, of backlash.

I think it's very disappointing on the part of the WNBA.

Athletes have a platform that most people do not.

And these are a number of young, very talented women

who utilized their platform...

And if there is a moment that can effect social change, this is it.

And now they're getting financially punished for it?

Fines matter. Fines matter.

[Angel] I'm the number one draft pick in 2009.

And I'm getting $44,000.

That was my salary in 2009 as number one pick.

For us, a $500 fine is a third of someone's paycheck.

I mean, if I'm making 50, 60, $70,000 a year,

I ain't risking shit, okay? All right?

I'm risking nothing. Because what can I risk, you know?

But what was extraordinary about that

is that knowing what was at risk, what was at stake...

These women do not get paid the same as Lebron James.

And they did it anyway.

That, to me, is a protest.

Veteran players are talking to their young, you know, teammates,

their rookie teammates, and saying, "I got you.

If we get fined, I got you."

And when I was seeing things like that, I thought this is a union, they get it.

There were times when players felt uncomfortable

because they understood the repercussions of standing out publicly,

and, ultimately, politically.

[Layshia] The 2016 season,

I'm three years into the league. I play for the Atlanta Dream.

We were trying to organize, as a league, at that time,

to get everybody to, kind of, protest.

And I just remember how upset I was

that we didn't all end up doing it together.

[Elizabeth] For me, I was really nervous about it.

Do we want to be in defiance and be rebellious and do this?

I understood the value of the issues,

but I still was hesitant in, like, getting my voice out there.

I think I was afraid of how, not only how I would look,

but the league.

I think it always feels like we're in a fight or a battle,

and do we wanna make another thing

for people to not like us about, when we're trying to grow.

What a lot of people don't realize, it's before Colin Kaepernick ever knelt.

And I understand why, in terms of the covers that Colin got.

But because of women like that,

because of that team and that time,

I think it's much easier to participate in activism.

So that's what makes what they did that much more impressive.

[Lisa] Two weeks into this

I remember picking up the phone and calling Adam,

the commissioner of the NBA.

And I said I'm going to rescind the fines.

Today the WNBA has rescinded that fine. This is obviously a hot button issue.

I recognized it was not the right thing to do

and we reversed the fines. Adam and I did it together.

[Jemele] I think the election,

it made people understand the serious situation this country was in.

And it got everybody activated, saying uh-oh,

look what happened when we weren't minding the store.

[protesters chanting]

[men shouting]

There's been a shift of the way white supremacy in our country

has been empowered in the last few years.

That has changed my feelings around safety.

And has made me question how much I wanna speak out.

Which is the point, right, of white supremacy.

[Holly] Tameka Catchings told me that after she knelt for the national anthem,

she had death threats.

In 2017 the LA Sparks, we chose not to be out for the anthem.

When we ran out we were booed by all of the Minnesota fans.

[Jemele] As we came into this much more tumultuous political time,

the sense of urgency changed.

Because sports is not in a separate universe, all right.

It's not happening on a different planet that is politic free, racism free,

in some Utopia that we don't know about.

It's happening here.

[male reporter] Minnesota Lynx forward Maya Moore says

she'll sit out the rest of the year.

[female reporter] She's putting down the ball indefinitely

to answer another call.

Citing, what she calls, wrongful convictions.

We need to be mindful of our platforms.

And making sure that we are using them to give helpful narratives.

[reporter] Georgia Governor, Brian Kemp, has officially tapped Kelly Loeffler

to replace Senator Johnny Isakson when he retires at the end of the year.

[Lisa] Kelly Loeffler, owner of the Atlanta Dream,

became an appointed senator in 2019.

And it appeared to me that she moved politically

based on the opportunity that was presented to her.

That wasn't the person that I knew.

But remember, in 2011, there were no politics.

It was only basketball.

I played basketball in high school

and if you knew me back then, I was shy, braces, glasses, scrawny.

You know, I lived on a farm.

Athletics were a way for me to have a view into a bigger world.

I really liked her. Thought she was a great person.

I loved playing for the Atlanta Dream

and that we had two female owners was a really cool thing

that I took a lot of pride in.

[Angel] I think when she got into the political space,

it was a different Kelly I saw.

I'm a lifelong conservative.

Pro second amendment.

Pro Trump.

Pro military. And pro wall.

[upbeat music]

[crowd cheering]

[female reporter] Nneka Ogwumike, she is power forward for the LA Sparks

and president of the WNBA Player's Association.

We were deep in the throes of negotiating

the collective bargain agreement.

And so many intense conversations, so many hard conversations

that really helped us land where we wanted,

which was a new agreement

that truly touched every player of the league.

[female reporter] It is a historic day for the future of women's basketball

in the United States.

[male reporter] This is a landmark day for all women.

The WNBA reached an agreement with the players

on a new collective bargaining agreement.

[Holly] During the negotiation for the 2020 CBA,

a lot of us were holding our breath.

Because you have this older generation of players

who know how fragile the league can be, and the financial status of the league.

It's fragile.

If you start demanding, demanding, you could put the league out of business.

That's just the reality, financially, for some of the ownership groups.

Then you have the young players who come up, like,

no, we need to be treated like this.

And I was like, yes, you do, I'm glad you're asking for this.

[Terri] Nneka Ogwumike is the voice of the players.

What is very key to her is making sure

that everybody is a part of the conversation and feels valued.

And then she will, kind of, sift through all the conversations

and be able to pull together consensus.

That's what makes Nneka Ogwumike such a powerful leader.

You helped secure, what is described as one of the most progressive

collective bargaining agreements in women's sports.

A nearly 83% pay raise and paid maternity leave

for all the players.

We're happy to come together with the WNBA with a lot of innovative ideas.

- Paid maternity leave. - Yeah.

- Tell us about that. - Okay. Full pay.

Full pay, childcare stipend,

family planning benefits,

it's gonna include a tripling of the top players' pay.

The league was growing, um, in popularity.

Ownership models were changing.

They understood that for the league to grow

the players had to be protected a lot more.

Um, and they needed to make more money.

We have women's soccer, we have women's hockey,

that are looking up to what we are looking to do.

We're really hoping that it can set the tone

and really create that legacy for women in sports moving forward.

[Nneka] We were feeling on top of the world.

We're looking forward to, you know,

a fully engaged free agency,

right after, you know, signing the agreement,

and the pandemic happened.

[female reporter] Tonight, US cases of coronavirus more than doubling.

[male reporter] US health authorities, tonight,

say there's no doubt we'll see more of this,

Americans sick with the coronavirus.

[Elizabeth] Early 2020, I was playing overseas. I was in Turkey.

People were freaking out, like we gotta get outta here.

We don't wanna get stranded in Turkey.

People were like, okay, let's find our way back to the States.

[male reporter] Tonight, more than 1,300 people sick in the US.

At least 39 have died.

It just kept growing and getting bigger and getting bigger.

This, this astounding and unprecedented story

continues to evolve.

The NBA is suspending the season.

[Jemele] When the NBA decided to cancel their season

that's when people were like, oh, shit just got real.

That was when it was slowly starting to set in for all of us.

That our season was gonna be canceled, postponed, something.

Sports had just stopped.

The uncertainty was really paralyzing.

And we didn't know anything about W season.

Like, if it was even possible.

[female reporter] The WNBA has officially postponed the start of its season

because of the coronavirus pandemic.

[Angel] Then there was this question of, like, whoa,

did we just lose our jobs? We can't afford to not have a season.

We need to pay our bills.

We had just negotiated this 2020 CBA

that was changing the business model of our sport.

And here we were, confronted with a true global health crisis.

You know, here we are, a global pandemic, so everybody's inside.

Not much to do but watch TV. Not much to do but watch the news.

And then George Floyd gets murdered in front of everybody.

[female reporter] Tonight, in city after city,

calls for justice continue to fill the streets.

[protesters chanting]

[Angel] People were just screaming in outrage.

Enough, enough, enough.

Take your knee off his neck.

- [leader] Black lives matter! - [crowd] No peace!

- [leader] Black lives matter! - [crowd] No peace!

- [leader] Black lives matter! - [crowd] No peace!

- [leader] I can't breathe. - [man] Oh, no!

- [leader] I can't breathe. - [man] Oh, no!

[Angel] And then, here in Georgia,

an innocent person lost his life for jogging.

[female reporter] Arbery was gunned down by a father and son,

and still no arrests have been made in that case.

[protesters chanting]

[Nneka] And then, of course, Breonna Taylor.

[male reporter] Another night of unrest after the grand jury's decision

not to charge officers with causing Breonna Taylor's death.

[female reporter] Taylor was shot and killed by police in her own home.

- [leader] No justice! - [crowd] No peace!

[Elizabeth] When 2020 happened

and everything happened with Breonna Taylor,

it was like something switched. Like, now I understood how Lay felt.

And I understood the value of hearing Black women's voices.

And amplifying those voices.

We could see ourselves so clearly in her story, who she is as a Black woman.

[protesters chanting]

[Layshia] Even within our own Black communities people are,

they're very quick to show up for Black men,

but there's really a lack of media coverage and storytelling

around, like, Black women.

- Say her name! - [crowd] Breonna Taylor!

- Say her name! - [crowd] Breonna Taylor!

[Nneka] That brought heart-wrenching conversation amongst the players,

as we were trying to figure out where we stood.

How we felt about all of this and what we could do, collectively.

We had a moment. We have a moment.

[Lindsay] It wasn't so clear

that the right thing to do was to go have a season

in the middle of a pandemic.

[male reporter] 482,000 lives lost.

121,000 of those right here in the US.

People were dying.

Was it worth the risk to go play basketball?

[Elizabeth] Conversations started happening, talking to players, like,

what do you need, what do you want.

If we were to play, what would you need.

Do players even wanna play in a bubble? How safe will this be?

How are people gonna feel mentally with all the unrest that's happening.

All in the middle of a pandemic

that nobody really has any answers for.

I think, ultimately, at stake is, you know, our jobs.

Our livelihoods. Our health insurance.

Our safety.

What we were hearing from the league is like,

we can't afford to go an entire cycle without a WNBA season.

[Sue] I do remember there was this one day

where the league presented to our executive committee options.

Option one, if we can get 20 games off, and we'll pay you 70% of your salaries.

If we can get 15 games off, we'll pay you 60.

If we can get this many games, this percent.

It was like three or four options of x amount of games

and percentage of your salary.

And it didn't sit well.

It didn't sit well.

We didn't negotiate as hard as we did for this new CBA

to now, somehow, lose the gains that we had fought so hard for.

And we talked about how this pandemic was affecting...

not just Black and Brown people,

but women and families.

And we said here's an opportunity

for the league and the teams

to demonstrate how to show up for your employees,

when they are showing up for you.

Again, this is what happens when you're dealing with women

who are used to being in this position.

There's just certain shit that ain't gonna fly with them.

They're gonna draw their line in the sand, together.

[Nneka] After weeks of conversation,

there were two conditions that came up time and time again.

And one was getting 100% of our salary.

The second was dedicating the season to "Say Her Name" in Black Lives Matter.

If those weren't met,

you know, there was no guarantee that players would come.

[female reporter] Renee Montgomery of the Atlanta Dream says

she has decided to sit out the 2020 WNBA season

to focus on fighting for social justice reform.

If we can keep the conversation going to November, that's a win for me.

[female reporter] Natasha Cloud, one of the league's star players

from the defending champion, Washington Mystics,

says she is sitting this season out.

[Natasha] This is bigger than basketball.

We're not only athletes.

When we take that uniform off, we are Black men and women.

We don't get to take our skin color off

and walk around the streets and have that privilege.

We don't have a choice.

So, uh, when we're talking about the game of basketball,

uh, today, right now, I could care less.

[Sue] As a league made up of women, made up of a majority of women of color,

our voices are very unique in this fight.

There is something special about the platform that athletes have.

So, we understood

that if the WNBA put the season on, this is the only way we're gonna be heard.

I think the moment was too important

to not talk about Breonna Taylor.

We didn't want any of that to get lost or forgotten.

The players were doing so much in their communities,

they, they didn't want it to end there because they had to show up for work.

So, how could we make it so that they could still be doing that work.

They could still be the advocates and the activists that they were

for their, for their communities.

So Angel McCoughtry put out on social media

that we should put Breonna Taylor's name on the back of our jerseys.

I remember someone said, well,

you putting Breonna Taylor's name on your jersey, what is that gonna do?

It's not gonna change anything.

I said you know what?

I believe that, you know, you plant a seed and watch it grow.

We ended up partnering with the "Say Her Name" campaign,

which Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw helped coin and created.

Then that also sparked that connection with Breonna Taylor's mom, Tamika Palmer,

to say this is something we wanna do, how do you feel about it?

She was just honored.

She was, uh, just loving and caring and hardworking.

She loved family. She loved...

She loved to uplift people around her.

I wanna say to you, Ms. Palmer, everything that we're doing,

we're planting these seeds because justice will happen.

Ms. Palmer, we will, we will not stop.

We will go, we will go hard for Breonna,

and just know that we're gonna scream her name.

I'm so proud to have her name on my jersey.

We are dedicated and committed to this because we could be Breonna.

[Elizabeth] Being on that call and hearing the emotion

and the gratitude that she had for us was, like, crazy.

I think we often politicize a situation

when in reality it's, like, this was somebody's world.

And it was destroyed.

That was motivation for me

to be, like, of course I can speak out about an issue.

Of course I can wear a shirt.

You know, it just seems so small,

compared to how their lives were turned upside down.

And I think it also, honestly, would help ground everyone

in the bubble and not feel like they're just playing for nothing.

In what was probably one of the hardest phone calls

that I've ever had to make,

was sitting there, talking to the board of governors,

owners of our league,

and telling them that in a heavily abbreviated season,

that we still wanted to get 100% of our pay.

In a pandemic,

in which Black and Brown women are disproportionately affected.

Secondly,

you know, I think that we all understood that we've been using our platform

to impact our communities and to make a difference.

And we absolutely want to dedicate our season to "Say Her Name",

namely Breonna Taylor.

And, of course, Black Lives Matter.

And do what we can, um, with our games being on TV,

with everyone being at home, to really make the impact that we can.

[Sue] I've always felt what we learned the most in 2016,

was the power of numbers.

Now, we're going through these months of negotiations,

we start to sense, like, oh, this is like another opportunity

where, if we're doing this together,

it's gonna just have, it's gonna have greater power,

it's gonna go further, all the things.

After that, it was almost, kind of, a matter of fact,

like, yeah, okay, we agree.

We totally believe you should be getting paid 100% of your money.

And we too wanna see what we can do with using our platforms

and what we're experiencing in this country.

I think, having that mentality kind of trickled into the bubble.

You know, not being satisfied with how things have been done

and wanting to make sure we can change things for the better,

and not do things the same way we've done in the past.

We...

We wanted to cry and celebrate,

- but we just had to keep our... - [man shouts in background]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, of course. Sure.

We knew, we, we just wanted to let you know.

Huge news for women's basketball is the WNBA has announced a plan

to return in late July.

[male reporter] The league plans to play a 22 game schedule

with all teams in one location.

That looks to be the IMG Academy down in Bradenton, Florida.

[male reporter] The league this week announced

the 2020 season is being dedicated to social justice.

Players can have the names of women on their jerseys

who died in cases of police brutality.

I remember just being on, just on call.

I got a call at eight o'clock in the morning from my boss,

she said can you report to the bubble tonight.

And it was on.

[Monique] I'm headed to the bubble today. I have so much stuff.

I don't know what to expect,

but I'm looking forward to it, so.

It's time to go.

[female reporter] The WNBA is one league that has set up a bubble for its teams.

This is obviously the effort to keep players and staff safe.

[female reporter] While the NBA is at Walt Disney World,

the WNBA is just down the road at IMG Academy in Bradenton.

[Sue] It was crazy walking into that bubble.

One part of me walked into that experience proud that we pulled it off.

Nneka and I are on calls talking to the chef,

asking him what the food is gonna be.

There's just so many details.

You know, we're testing every day.

Um, just all those little things.

[upbeat music playing]

This is my local commute.

[happy shouting]

My wife was pregnant at the time,

so here I am, my first child,

leaving my partner after the first trimester,

going into God-knows-what in Florida.

Do you like my pajama pants?

[Layshia laughs]

I want Portland Lakers.

VC, who you got?

We had the tightest bubble in all of professional sports.

I remember Sue Bird saying, look, nobody can leave the bubble.

We have to have a tight bubble. If you leave the bubble,

keep on going home.

Because there can't be all this in and out.

[trainer] Good work. Soon as you get ten, we'll switch sides.

Good job, Jaylyn.

[Jaylyn] My senior year COVID hits

and I get the notification that the NCA tournament has been canceled.

So I drive home, cry to my parents, like, so upset.

So it's just, there's a waiting game, there's so many unknowns.

We're not sure if there's gonna be a season, a draft.

Then the WNBA says they're gonna do a virtual draft.

[excited shouts]

- [man] You're gonna miss this. - You guys.

Whoo!

[Jaylyn] I got drafted the Mystics, and they ended up having to waive me.

And then I got a call from coach Nicki Collen

and she was, like, what do you think about joining the Dream this summer?

And I was, like, absolutely.

I think I had, like, a three day window

to, kind of, get everything together

and head down to Atlanta before we ended up going to the bubble.

[Elizabeth] It was especially tough for rookies in that season.

You know, I was hoping that Jaylyn could feel a little, like,

a little sense of comfort and security with us, with the Dream.

The team was very different

because Renee decided to not play and focus on social justice.

Tiffany Hayes also did the same.

So I was really, kind of,

the longest-standing member that was playing.

[Jaylyn] As a rookie, I just wanted to enjoy it.

Because of everything that had happened with COVID

I didn't get to finish my college career.

It was so hard to not be a fangirl with all the amazing players we have.

["Like Woah" by Vanacore Music playing]

♪ Bang, bang, hit that frame ♪

♪ Let me see you do your thing ♪

- ♪ Like woah ♪ - ♪ Like woah ♪

- ♪ Like woah ♪ - ♪ Like woah ♪

♪ Ha, ha, beat don't stop ♪

♪ Let me see you pop and drop ♪

♪ Like woah, like woah ♪

- ♪ Like woah ♪ - ♪ Like woah ♪

♪ Let's go ♪

The community we were able to have in that moment, together,

was something really special and hard to recreate.

'Cause you're typically 12 teams in 12 markets.

You see each other when you travel, but now you're just hanging out.

Touchdown!

- I'm not done yet. - Nneka's naps.

- Nneka's Naps salon. - Nneka's naps.

That's my salon, Nneka's Naps.

I'm almost done.

She gave me Bantu Knots

when she was supposed to be retwisting me.

I did not give you Bantu Knots.

It's about 55 degrees. We got about 55.

I guess I'll show you what's in our fridge. Everyone wants to know.

I just went, uh, grocery shopping. Actually, they had to deliver it

because we can't go grocery shopping.

Gatorades, water, the O, Simply Lemonade.

We're just weathering the storm.

Ba-duh ch! [laughs]

Yo, this is insane.

This is redonk.

Got our boots.

Our boots are toweled up.

In WNBA news, Atlanta Dream co-owner, Kelly Loeffler,

is not in favor of the WNBA's social justice plans.

And Loeffler has sent a letter to commissioner Cathy Engelbert

objecting to the league's initiatives to honor the Black Lives Matter movement.

She asked the commissioner to scrap plans for players to wear warm-up jerseys

reading "Black Lives Matter" and "Say Her Name".

And she, instead, said

they should put an American flag on all uniforms and apparel.

[Elizabeth] When Kelly made her statement

it was very disheartening knowing her role within the team

and owning a sports team that is predominantly Black women

in a league that is predominantly Black women.

It just, it makes you think twice about the face that people show you.

It was hurtful. And I felt it very personally.

[Angel] For you to denounce Black Lives Matter,

and you have a team full of Black women,

you love me scoring on a basketball court.

But if my brother here is dying in an unjust cause,

you're denouncing that.

And that's where I felt like, uh,

Kelly had, kind of, lost the respect of us and the girls.

When we heard about the letter we were pissed the fuck off.

We had finally gotten to the bubble.

We had finally exhaled 'cause we had done the hard work.

Only to have this letter drop like a bomb.

That's what it felt like.

It just took the wind out of all of our sails.

All the work that we had done

to negotiate coming back for this season...

All the work that we had done to make sure that history truly reflects

their advocacy as professional athletes, because they have never shied away

from that responsibility.

That letter...

looked to undo that.

That's why it felt like the ultimate betrayal.

Such a high level too.

No one has asked politics to come into sports.

I'm not gonna let a political movement,

which is what the Black Lives Matter movement truly is,

tear our country apart.

[protesters chanting]

[Layshia] To hear the things she was saying, I was like, oh, wow.

I've sat across from you and shared a meal with you.

And, like, is that how you felt the whole time?

That's still how you feel in the midst of people who look like me

who are being murdered. Like...

That, for me, was like the particular, like, twist in the back, was like, damn.

And you're gonna use us as your political pawn?

Like, not only do you feel this way,

you're gonna use us to try and get your own political gain.

And that shit hurt.

You know, keeping politics outside of basketball,

it's hard to when you're an owner

and you're in politics. It affects us.

As female athletes,

all we are are judged based on everything except the game we're playing.

We're being judged because we're women.

We're being judged because we're gay. We're being judged because we're Black.

All of these political things are being brought to us

it's never just been about basketball.

[Sue] There's the emotional phase, where everybody has just, like, reactions.

Fuck her. This is stupid. What the fuck. It's racist.

You know, like, just these blurts, snap reactions.

And then, once that calms a little bit...

By the way, as a white player, it's probably gonna calm for me quicker.

So once that calmed a little bit,

it was like, okay, what can I do?

What's a solution? What's action-based?

Does it mean we can kick her out?

'Cause in the moment, it felt like we could do that.

They're not afraid. They're definitely not afraid of a fight with a senator.

As crazy as that may sound, right?

And when she started attacking the Black Lives Matter movement,

and saying other disparaging things about the league and the players

and the stance they were taking,

I was like, man, she picked the wrong one.

She doesn't know what she has done.

The are calls for US Senator Kelly Loeffler

to step away from the Atlanta Dream.

If the WNBA goes against everything you stand for,

if the WNBA support a movement that you think is harmful,

if the WNBA has 80% minority

and it has a large percentage in the LGBT community,

why do you want to be a part of it?

When she came out with that letter I was shocked.

It wasn't just a ripple around the WNBA, it was a tidal wave.

We aired our grievances to the league about the situation.

You're in a tough position, Cathy,

this is your first year as commissioner. Do you personally think

Kelly Loeffler should maintain her co-ownership of the Atlanta Dream?

The senator has not served as a governor, we have a board of governors,

she's not served since she became a senator.

Since October of 2019

she's no longer involved in the day-to-day business of the team.

[male reporter] WNBA seemingly attempting to distance itself from Loeffler,

but the league may feel pressure to do more.

Especially when there are so many players speaking out.

The determination by the women in the league

very much seem to be we're gonna get her out.

Are you against racism or not?

Because the movement stands against racism.

[Natasha] For her to come out and say that we're divisive

and Black Lives Matter's movement is a divisive organization,

um, I call her BS on that.

That's not who should have the privilege

of being a part of this league,

that's so progressive, that's so inclusive.

There's no way that a owner like Kelly Loeffler

is gonna work in the WNBA. It's not gonna work.

Especially not in Atlanta.

I'm like, that's definitely not gonna work there.

She didn't read the room.

Having a name like the Dream,

was a nod to Dr. Martin Luther King, our native son.

So to fly in the face of that,

the players were mad. They felt betrayed.

We can say anything we want, but legally, what does it look like?

We've never dealt with this situation before.

We've never had a person running for senator be an owner.

The league is, kind of, in control of, you know, who's owners.

We as players don't really have a say in that.

So we can't just call for her head. We can't just get her kicked out.

Um, so it was really frustrating.

Players and staff, we had a Zoom call.

And we said, okay, we gotta figure something out here.

We gotta have a conversation. We gotta talk about what was said

and address it head on.

So let's start with a statement.

So we just put out a statement re-emphasizing that all the work

and all of the focus of the W season was on Black Lives Matter.

Black bodies, Black humans are dying at a rate that they shouldn't.

Then it was like, okay, now what?

[male reporter] Welcome to ESPN's presentation

of the WNBA tip off.

This historic 2020 season...

[female reporter] Expect powerful statements all season long

from the women of the WNBA.

This is nothing new for these women.

They have been proactive when it comes to speaking out

on social injustices for the life of the WNBA.

We are dedicating this season to Breonna Taylor,

an outstanding EMT who was murdered over 130 days ago in her home.

We are also dedicating this season to "Say Her Name" campaign.

A campaign committed to saying the names and fighting for justice for Black women.

Sandra Bland.

Atatiana Jefferson.

Dominique Rem'mie Fells.

And Breonna Taylor.

We will be a voice for the voiceless.

[Breanna] And now we will observe a moment of recognition

for Breonna Taylor for 26 seconds, the age she was when she was killed.

[Sue] As the bubble season went on,

we still have to play a season. We still have to do that hard work.

[Angel] So many exhausting things around us,

but, at least, I can have basketball as an outlet.

Away from all the craziness of the world.

[Layshia] We played every other day in the bubble.

The schedule was grueling. I remember waking up, like, Groundhog Day,

being in a panic sometimes that we had a game.

Because I was so exhausted. Then my body would calm down

'cause I'd remember we don't play today.

I was like, fuck, okay. I'll go get breakfast.

I just have practice today.

[Holly] It was just starting to creep up on people, a fatigue.

The stress is, kind of, starting to creep in.

And then there is another police shooting.

And everything just, kind of, fell apart.

[male reporter] Twenty-nine-year-old Jacob Blake, on Sunday,

shot, as far as we can tell from listening to the video,

seven times in the back by a Kenosha police officer.

[male reporter] The family says the 29-year-old's spinal cord

is severed and that he's paralyzed from the waist down.

Exactly three months after the death of George Floyd,

Blake's shooting is the latest flash point over race and policing.

We're like, seriously, like, another shooting?

In the midst of all of this, right?

In the midst of the moment when eyes are on the police.

Like, people are literally watching you, recording you,

and then this happens.

It was hard.

I remember we were supposed to play the Mystics,

and it was actually supposed to be a nationally televised game.

We knew that the significance of us playing in this bubble

and having more of these nationally televised games was that

we could continue to talk about these issues that were important.

And so, the conversation was like, do we play, do we not play.

How do we still amplify all that we've, all the work that we've already done

and still acknowledge that the shooting with Jacob Blake is not okay.

[female reporter] Bradenton, Florida, was supposed to be the scene

of three WNBA games tonight.

There you see the Atlanta Dream and the Washington Mystics arriving.

[Holly] They had on these white T-shirts that had bullet holes painted on the back.

And it was this very visceral visual thing.

They wanted people to see this is what you're doing to people.

[female reporter] Both teams walked out onto the court

and the question was should they play tonight?

So literally, we're on the court,

us and the Mystics having a conversation. Talking about this.

We're all trying to figure out what do we do, what happens now.

What is the NBA doing?

[male reporter] The NBA paused the playoffs.

This empty court speaking volumes

as the Milwaukee Bucks players refuse to take the court

against the Orlando Magic.

The league's strongest statement on social injustice

on one of its biggest nights.

[Jaylyn] We all sat and talked for an hour.

Those thoughts do go through your mind that we have a TV contract now.

That's money towards the league, money towards our salaries.

What will be the effects of us not playing.

Could I lose my job? I could lose my job for these things.

But in the moment it's, what are you gonna do, fire all of us?

You're gonna fire the entire league?

The league and the coaches, you know,

kind of understood, like, this thing is still a little fragile.

If you guys stop playing, and protest,

we might not have a bubble. It might fall apart

and everybody's gonna go home, they're not gonna play.

So it wasn't just a decision of we're not gonna play tonight,

are we gonna play ever?

[Elizabeth] Ultimately, we decided it was more important to not play.

I was drafting up a statement on my phone.

'Cause something had to be said if we weren't gonna play.

[female reporter] We're now looking at a live shot in Bradenton.

All four teams that are in the arena

that were supposed to play tonight are there.

The consensus is to not play in tonight's slate of games.

And to kneel, lock arms, and raise fists during the national anthem.

What we have seen over the last few months

and most recently with the brutal police shooting of Jacob Blake

is overwhelming.

While we hurt for Jacob and his community,

we also have an opportunity to keep the focus on the issues

and demand change.

These moments are why it's important for our fans to stay focused,

hear our voices, know our hearts,

and connect the dots from what we say to what we do.

[Holly] Those women that night were in pain.

And...

You know, when Elizabeth Williams is reading that statement,

she is so composed.

I'm just, you know, I've known her since she was 18 years old,

I'm looking up at her, I'm just so proud of you

and impressed with you in this moment.

Because this is hard.

[Layshia] It feels like we're on the teetering of hope and despair.

Any given moment, there's so much change.

And then it's the constant reminder that nothing's happened.

So I just wanna read this from, you know, the late, great Maya, um,

and remind us of how much power we have.

"You may write me down in history

with your bitter, twisted lies.

You may trod me in the very dirt,

but still, like dust, I rise.

Just like hopes springing high,

still, I rise.

Did you want to see me broken?

You may shoot me with your words.

You may cut me with your eyes.

You may kill me with your hatefulness.

But still, like air, I rise."

[Holly] After that vigil,

they go back to have a meeting.

And it's players only.

It's every player in the WNBA goes back in this room to have a meeting.

Breonna Taylor died.

And George Floyd died.

And we still can't decide to dribble a basketball.

That's the decision that we made as whole.

To me, this shit hit so hard and home, I didn't wanna come here.

But I came because people eat off of me.

We gotta come up with something. It seems like we're talking in circles.

I'm not willing to give up my chair. That's the only reason why I'm here.

There were plenty of people in similar situations

that just didn't share.

That they're taking care of people back home.

That there are people that literally depend on them.

That's really significant.

Um, and, and those are things that have to be considered.

[Nneka] I hear what Courtney's saying. We can't just treat this as a day off.

There are people that are dying on their days off.

We have to figure out what we can do as a whole.

We agree that we want to do something unified tomorrow.

You always hear people say I wanna use my platform for good.

Playing on national TV, that's the platform.

If you give that up, what platform do you have

to protest or make these points or say what you want?

And so, they basically wanted to know if we don't play tomorrow,

will ESPN give us a platform?

And it, it's like 11 o'clock at night.

It's midnight and I'm calling my bosses and we're getting people out of bed,

what can we promise the players?

What can we provide as a company that they will still have a platform?

Okay.

- [Sue] Great job last night. - [Elizabeth] Thank you.

It was just, it was not a fun conversation.

[Holly] No.

- 'Cause there's not wrong answer. - No.

- [Layshia] Yeah. - No, exactly.

[Nneka] I think the biggest issue from yesterday

was that decisions, there were no concrete decisions.

But there was somewhat, like, concrete communication

before decisions were actually made.

Because you guys had made it clear that you were kneeling together.

When we got there, you were warming up.

- And I was like what is happening? - Yeah.

[Sue] It's also that kind of decision to not play doesn't, um,

it's not about the right or wrong, but it impacts the whole league.

- [Nneka] Exactly. - To do that with one team,

again, it's not right or wrong, it's just, you have to...

- [Nneka] Right. - It's gotta be...

- [Nneka] And it's also... Yeah. - You gotta take it into account.

It's kind of like, we're not playing, and then we're like, well, we are.

[talking over each other and laughing]

You know what? LA and Atlanta are just gonna play later.

[Layshia] I was like, we can play you guys, great.

What have you come together on will there be games tonight?

We also decided today to take off.

Um, of which, I hope, can be elaborated upon

in a statement that we've prepared.

Following yesterday's decision to stand in solidarity with NBA players

and Black and Brown communities in Wisconsin and around the country,

we will continue demonstrating our solidarity by not playing today.

This is affirmatively a day of reflection.

A day of informed action and mobilization.

We are doubling down on our previous calls to action

to contact your local officials and demand reform.

Register to vote, and show up on election day.

We wanna make sure that in addition to having the passion

and the voices out there,

we're strategic and we're intentional about how we move forward.

So, if you wanna create that change,

and you want people, officials in office, that represent your values,

you have to go out and vote.

I mean, that might go down as some of the most political,

politicized, um, sports commentary

that's ever happened on American television.

I don't if people have really appreciated or thought about it.

They can disagree behind closed doors, but outwardly facing,

the WNBA was standing arm-in-arm and standing together.

And that was the most powerful message in sports.

[female reporter] The race to fill the remainder

of Senator Johnny Isakson's term

is quickly becoming one of the hottest races in the country.

Understanding just how we were able to communicate

and organize and galvanize,

that energy was very much still alive.

A lot of ideas were swirling around taking action.

Those conversations birthed the awareness of

this owner's also running for senate.

Maybe we can have some type of impact on that?

What do our sisters at the Dream want, how do they feel,

you know, what were their thoughts? Did they wanna do something?

She is a sitting senator in a seat that she wasn't elected into.

She just got it.

And we are in this election year and then the ideas started coming.

[female reporter] Loeffler now facing five other Republicans,

eight Democrats,

and six smaller-party or no-party candidates.

[male reporter] Candidates will have to compete

in what is called a "jungle" primary,

where all candidates can run regardless of party.

The top two vote getters make the runoff.

My dad, Herschel Bird,

he was basically explaining to me what a runoff was.

And how the senate seat in Georgia was gonna play out.

Literally, just from, like, a election, politics standpoint.

He's like, all Kelly Loeffler really needs to do

is get to the runoff.

And all she needs to do to do that

is be more Trumpy than the other Republican.

I'm the conservative that has a proven, trusted record.

President Trump told the governor of Georgia

on at least three different occasions that he wanted me in this seat.

She's not been endorsed by the President at all.

You know, the WNBA has embraced

the Black Lives Matter political organization.

This is a very divisive organization based on Marxist principles.

I am fighting for freedom of speech. And not to be canceled when you speak...

[Sue] The more oxygen that we gave Kelly Loeffler

to go and speak on this,

we're actually helping her.

So the only way to actually "beat her", for lack of a better...

is to not talk about her.

Obviously, there's so much irony in the fact that

we went to the bubble to say her name.

And now, we're gonna tell 144 players do not say this person's name.

It's gonna be hard to not say her name. 'Cause players are pissed.

Like, people are mad.

How can you redirect that energy?

Then we started figuring stuff out, like, okay,

there's this guy, Raphael Warnock, and he's running in her seat.

Kelly Loeffler, it's your turn to ask a question of one of your opponents.

My question is for Raphael Warnock.

You've called police officers thugs, bullies, and gangsters.

Will you apologize to our hard-working men and women in law enforcement?

So, I support law enforcement.

I think it's possible

to appreciate the work that law enforcement members do

and at the same time hold them accountable.

From there, we learned about Reverend Warnock.

Reverend Raphael Warnock is criticizing Senator Kelly Loeffler

for not supporting the Black Lives Matter movement in the WNBA.

People are literally dying on the streets.

And she's playing politics.

The WNBA are all trying to find themselves on the right side of history.

She's finding herself on the wrong side of history.

Oh, we support Warnock.

It was a really cool solution

to a very annoying problem.

Now Reverend Warnock already has some big support in his corner.

Former Georgia gubernatorial candidate, Stacey Abrams,

has announced she is backing his campaign.

He graduated from Morehouse and grew up in the housing projects of Savannah.

And is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity,

the 100 Black Men of Atlanta, and the NAACP.

[Sue] Once we kind of realized this could be the strategy,

it had to be done right.

We knew Kelly Loeffler was trash.

Starting looking into him, started researching him.

Because we know we don't mess with her, but what do you stand for?

I'm not gonna just vote for Raphael Warnock because he's Black.

You have to do your research.

Started to find out, okay, he's a pastor.

Pastor of what church?

A Baptist church.

Which is Martin King's church.

That's okay.

We gotta check this guy out, what he got going on.

And it seems to be illegal to walk while Black.

To be in the park while Black. To barbecue while Black.

Be in your own home, playing with your own nephew while Black.

[congregation applauding]

It may not affect everybody, but everybody ought to be concerned.

I was raising money for Senator Warnock.

I was deep in his camp, having know him for 20 years.

The next thing I know, I'm getting a call from Sue Bird.

Sue wanted to get her homework done.

Like she always does. It's like a scouting report.

It was really important that we got to know him.

That we hear him talk about these issues.

Boom, we contact Lisa, we get connected to Reverend Warnock.

Yeah, Lisa's a friend. And somebody I respect a lot.

She reached out to me and said these women want to meet with me.

I can tell you, I had a little bit of experience with basketball growing up,

but I was never good enough to be on the team.

I had the ugliest jump shot in the neighborhood.

But it used to go in.

But anyway, we had a meeting and we got together on Zoom.

But I was just thinking that these were some really brave young women.

And very smart.

And, um, they were laying it all on the line.

Their careers.

Uh, to stand up for what they think matters.

I came to the meeting with a great deal of respect for them.

I think we learned in the midst of the conversation

that we had a lot in common.

This was organized.

They didn't just jump into supporting Raphael Warnock.

They vetted him.

And he had to prove himself to the women of the WNBA

that he was a worthy candidate to get behind.

I asked him where he stood on, like, women's rights, abortion, LGBT rights,

especially as a reverend and someone who was in the Black church and community.

I've been fighting for, uh, reproductive rights

and reproductive health care for years.

How is it that you can say you're pro-life before the baby is born,

but you won't support child health care after the baby is here.

I've stood up for the LGBTQ+ community.

Their dignity, their human rights.

I argue that, at it's best, the Christian faith is about freedom.

It's about justice. It's about liberation.

The attack on Saturday night

against the Pulse nightclub was a hate crime.

Everybody needs a sanctuary.

Everybody needs a safe place.

And our message tonight is clear. We are one.

And certainly just standing up for women.

The fact that women are still struggling for equal pay, for equal work,

is a scandal and a scar on the soul of America.

You better stop standing up for people you don't even know,

while ignoring the pain of your daughters who are living in your own house.

If you're there, standing up for somebody just because they're an R&B singer,

standing up for somebody just because he's up for the Supreme Court,

your daughter won't speak up because if you don't believe them,

you won't believe her.

He ended up aligning so beautifully. We're like...

We kinda like this guy.

The next step was going to be presenting Reverend Warnock to our league.

We're in a bubble, we're in one place, we're not going anywhere.

So engagement was through the roof when it came to the WNBA players.

[Jaylyn] I remember the link Zoom call, they had done a lot of research.

And kinda gave us an idea of who he was and what he stood for.

[Sue] Right around that call I turned on the TV, put on the news,

and it happens to be John Lewis's funeral. And who steps up?

In a moment when there is so much political cynicism

and narcissism that masquerades as patriotism,

here lies a true American patriot

who risked his life and limb for the hope and the promise

of democracy.

[Sue] And I text the group chat that had all the player reps.

And it was like, put the news on. This is the guy.

I did not know what was going to happen after that.

[Elizabeth] I think the biggest initial fear was just

I mean, she writes our checks.

Do we not get paid, like...

Does our season just end? Is our team not playing games?

But I think, in general, we're all ready for whatever, at that point.

Organizing is, hey, texting, talking about coming out, staying in...

Organizing is, like, hard effing work.

There's a reason people don't sign up to be organizers.

And that, I'm starting to see, through the CBA,

through the second CBA,

getting us to the bubble and then through this council...

Add that to your Twitter bio.

- We're all organizing. - That's on my resume.

What I recall the most for us strategizing out of that, was, like,

players can wear whatever they wanna wear.

So when a player walks in their tunnel moment,

getting off the bus, walking into that arena, like,

their photo's gonna be taken.

From there, the ideas around T-shirts started happening.

[Layshia] I was in a group chat, talking back and forth,

how are we gonna get the shirts, who's gonna print them,

how do we get them in the bubble.

And one of us just being like,

Sue, you need to do it. Like, it's too much for me.

This is a great idea, I'd love to do these,

but I can't carry the burden of this.

And Sue being like, great, let's go.

[Sue] I had to have a constant awareness

of knowing when I needed to take a step back.

And knowing when I was needed to, kind of, take the reins.

And just really trying to, kind of, do that dance.

And this wasn't a league decision.

Every individual player had the choice to wear the T-shirt or not.

Every individual player had the choice to post on social media or not.

Organizing 144 women,

I mean, good luck organizing 20 women.

And here they are, Nneka and Sue Bird and everybody organizing 144 women.

[Jaylyn] I remember getting the shirts

and they said tomorrow could be crazy, we're gonna make a statement.

And it's gonna be awesome.

And I remember walking in and someone posted a picture

and then it kinda spread like wildfire.

[female reporter] Players on the Chicago Sky, Phoenix Mercury,

and Dream wearing "Vote Warnock" shirts on Tuesday night

in support of voting against the Dream's co-owner,

Senator Kelly Loeffler.

[female reporter] Today we saw both teams arrive to the arena.

Many of the players wearing a shirt that said "Vote Warnock".

There were certain games that Atlanta was playing on TV.

Ensuring that those T-shirts were worn by them first.

And then other teams, following that, started wearing the shirts.

[Jemele] When I saw them wearing the T-shirts,

it was like, oh, oh, they're going there.

[Warnock] People calling me on my phone.

And, all of a sudden, you just see black T-shirts.

With white letters.

Except it said "Vote Warnock".

They're coming out, not just against the owner,

they're coming out for her opponent.

You gotta be worrying about am I gonna get my next paycheck.

Am I going to have a job? Are they gonna cut me?

Think of what retribution could've happened to this team.

That takes guts.

Elizabeth, your team really making a statement

as you came into the arena tonight. What was that statement?

[Elizabeth] He's running for US Senate right now

and he supports everything that all the players in the WNBA supports, so,

we wanted to make a statement and be really vocal about that.

[Holly] It just blew up.

You couldn't watch TV the next couple of days

without seeing a WNBA player on a major platform.

We wanted to be strategic. We wanted to be intentional.

We wanted to make sure

that all of the ideas we've been focused on weren't lost.

And we also wanted to make sure that this was completely player led

and it was completely optional.

We just wanted to support someone whose beliefs were in line with ours.

[Sue] I think this is just a great way to connect those dots

between social justice and getting out and voting.

We decided to wear it because he's for Black Lives Matter.

He supports the league and the movement and we support him.

We're vote for Warnock, so...

He was poling at, like, 9%. No one knew who he was.

That was an important moment.

Because then people began to ask, well, who is this Warnock guy?

You saw Warnock's visibility climbing.

[Warnock] It meant that the race was then being discussed

in arenas that were not expressly political.

Once we started wearing those shirts, his campaign shot to the roof.

So it was definitely a turning point in my campaign.

[female reporter] In a tweet, Warnock said I am honored and humbled

by the overwhelming support from the WNBA players.

I am extremely proud of the women of the WNBA.

They are standing up at a defining moment in American history.

Kelly does not know what she got herself into.

[interviewer] What's your response to all this?

I thought it was about winning games, now it's about winning senate seats.

It really proves my point, this isn't about playing basketball,

it's about playing politics.

[male reporter] "This is just more proof that the out-of-control cancel culture

wants to shut out everyone.

Anyone who disagrees with them.

It's clear that the league is more concerned with playing politics

than basketball,

and I stand by what I wrote in June."

I gotta admit, throughout this whole process with Warnock,

there was a lot of uncertainty around it.

It was hard and it was uncomfortable.

And, you know, we're now taking the league

into the world of politics.

And, like, we're not politicians.

You know, and that's a very tricky world where one misstep

and it could blow up in your face.

So it's really tricky. And I think we're all feeling that.

It's a lot of responsibility.

We got a lot of support from Stacey Abrams.

Continue to use your platforms and your beautiful voices.

If you ever ask me who I ever fangirl over,

it's not, like, a movie star or someone, it's Stacey Abrams.

[Nneka] We got an educational session from Michelle Obama.

[female reporter] Michelle Obama took time

to speak with NBA and WNBA players on the importance of voting.

[Sue] She was like, yeah, everybody talks about the presidential election,

but then everybody forgot to turn out for the midterms.

So President Obama had to fight

and he couldn't get as much done as he would've liked.

And the minute she said that, everything seemed to fall into place,

like we were doing the right thing.

Not that is was gonna be easy, not that it wasn't gonna be uncomfortable,

but we are definitely doing the right thing.

[commentator] Utter and complete domination!

[sports reporter] Confetti and a title.

[male reporter] Seattle Storm, 2020 WNBA champions.

After being in the bubble and all that was going on,

the moment's earned and enjoyed.

[Warnock] When young people tell me my vote doesn't make a difference,

I tell you, of course it makes a difference.

If it didn't make a difference,

they wouldn't work so hard to keep you from voting.

Vote Warnock!

[Warnock] We're ready for change and we want change now!

This was the first time I had run for public office.

I felt like we had run a good race, but I had 20 opponents.

Both Democrats and Republicans. Twenty.

Breaking news, Joe Biden has been elected

the 46th President of the United States.

Joe Biden has won the American presidential election.

We know Democrats are gonna have the White House.

We know Democrats are gonna have control of the House of Representatives.

This is the remaining unfinished piece of business.

Control of the US Senate.

It is these two Georgia seats that are going to decide this.

[male reporter] Georgians will have to vote again in January

to settle the state's other senate seat.

Incumbent Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler

and Democratic challenger Reverend Raphael Warnock

heading to a runoff.

Neither candidate received enough of the vote for an outright win.

[Elizabeth] I was like, okay.

Of course this is a runoff. It can't just happen.

Him moving on to the runoff,

there was some success in that, but we knew the job wasn't done.

I tell everyone the highlight for me

was definitely walking in with those "Vote Warnock" shirts.

And seeing, seeing the impact that it had,

we wanna know what you think we can do to, you know, continue the fight.

We got these two senate races going on in Georgia.

You were very much a part of it.

So I just wanna flag that for somebody

who's thinking about stepping up and standing up, that's the pastor in me,

I wanna encourage you to step up.

Because you don't know the ripple effect

that your voice can have.

I just wanna say thank you. for everything you're doing.

I know it's definitely not easy.

I'm deeply honored by the support that I've gotten from the WNBA.

Some people stand up just to be counted, but other stand up to be where it counts.

Please continue to vote. Vote early or vote on January 5th.

[moderator] This is the runoff debate for US Senate

to fill the seat currently held by Georgia Senator Kelly Loeffler.

You've called the Black Lives Matter movement fascist.

You've alienated members of your own basketball team

by talking about that stance, or taking that stance, rather.

Is that still your view tonight after seeing and hearing

how it hits home with so many people personally.

Well, the life of every African-American is important

and there is no place for racism in this country.

But there are organizations whose number one goal

is to defund the police.

Elections are about choices.

I wanted people to see the contrast between me and her.

Um, and that's the vision I tried to articulate.

A Georgia that embraces all of us.

Where people's rights are respected,

uh, and not diminished.

We saw that, this summer, a multi-racial coalition of conscience

pouring out into American streets,

after the tragic deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor.

And Ahmaud Arbery and so many others.

And what did Kelly Loeffler do? She used her enormous privilege and power

as a United States senator to pick a fight.

With the Black women on her team,

who know what it's like to grow up in a community

where you have to have two talks with your children.

One about the birds and the bees.

The birds and the bees and the other about

what happens if you're pulled over by police officers.

You know, that election night couldn't come fast enough

because this senate seat was going to flip the senate.

[female reporter] Republican senators David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler

trying to fight off challenges from Democrats Jon Ossof

and Raphael Warnock.

[Ted Cruz] These two elections on Tuesday

may well be the single most important elections

in the senate of our lifetimes.

[female reporter] The races, which polls show are virtually tied,

will not only determine senate control,

but President-elect Joe Biden's ability to push through policy,

including another COVID relief package.

[Kamala Harris] Thank you on behalf of Joe and myself

for what you did in November.

And I'm here to ask you to do it again.

[female reporter] Vice President-elect Kamala Harris

setting the stage for a pair of election eve rallies,

with both President-elect Biden and President Trump arriving later today.

Georgia's early voting numbers are already record shattering.

Three million ballots cast.

The highest by far for a runoff election in the state.

More than 100,000 voters who did not participate in November

are voting in this election have already cast their ballot.

And they are disproportionately voters of color

and disproportionately young voters.

[female reporter] It is election day and the stakes are high

with control of the US Senate in the balance.

[Elizabeth] By that point I was overseas

and I woke up that day,

and I think I saw it on Twitter when I woke up, that he had won.

[male reporter] This is breaking news.

NBC News now projects Raphael Warnock as the winner

in the special Georgia Senate election tonight.

This is a major victory for Democrats here in Georgia.

Reverend Raphael Warnock will be the first Black senator

in the state's history.

So I come before you tonight as a man

who knows that the improbable journey that led me to this place

in this historic moment in America

could only happen here.

We were told that we couldn't win this election.

But tonight

we proved that with hope, hard work,

and the people by our side,

anything is possible.

The day he got elected, us, kind of being like, we did it!

We got a fucking senator elected! You know?

Holy shit, did that just happen?

This guy really won.

This guy that had, like, 7% of the vote, or whatever,

and we wore his shirt.

Um, yeah, it was just nuts.

And then later on, we find out he's thanking the WNBA.

I'm like, oh, my God!

We did have an impact in helping him win.

And when he thanked us, it was like, this surreal moment, like,

wow.

You never heard a senator or politician thank the WNBA.

And Warnock did.

That proved that women had the power to make a difference.

And if we stand collectively, we're even stronger.

It could be argued that the WNBA played a significant role in the result here.

We haven't really seen an entire league band together like this before

behind one unified political cause.

That level of communication and organization

is just something we haven't seen before in professional sports.

The women of the WNBA flipped the senate.

Like, flipped it.

So if anybody wanna say that, uh,

the WNBA ain't doing nothing, oh, we did something during that time.

[female reporter] Voters also sending our first Jewish senator to Washington,

Jon Ossof projected to defeat Republican incumbent, David Perdue.

For the first time in six years,

Democrats will operate a majority in the United States Senate.

This was a political earthquake in Georgia.

This was one of the greatest checkmates I've ever seen.

And from a political standpoint,

from an activist movement, especially in sports,

it's one of the greatest acts of activism that we've seen.

Georgia's blue now because of these women.

That's huge.

I can't even put that into words.

They gave America a civics lesson.

When Raphael Warnock was born,

both of Georgia's senators were segregationists.

Yesterday,

Georgia just elected its first African-American

to the United States Senate.

It was so cool to be a part of something that changed,

literally, our nation's history.

It's a really, like, surreal feeling to know you're making history

and then to, like, watch it happen.

It's wild.

[female reporter] A developing story, Atlanta's WNBA team

could soon have new ownership.

Outgoing senator, Kelly Loeffler, is co-owner of the Atlanta Dream,

but it appears not for much longer.

[male reporter] After losing the runoff to Warnock,

she'd become so toxic with the WNBA player community

that it was going to best for her and the franchise

to go their separate ways.

I'm glad she revealed herself so we could weed her out of our league.

And out of the senate. Ha, ha-ha.

[Sue] I think we knew on January 6th how important that was.

But sitting here now, years later, it's like,

holy fuck.

That was the most important senate seat.

Flipping that was the most important thing.

Yeah, we kinda saved democracy.

We kinda saved democracy. It's pretty wild.

Because I, along with my comrade in the fight, Jon Ossof,

uh, flipped the senate,

we were able to confirm Ketanji Brown Jackson.

The first Black woman to the United States Supreme Court.

First Black woman to the United States Supreme Court

sits where she sits in part because of the courage

of the Black women and other women,

uh, in the WNBA.

On this vote, the yeas are 53, the nays are 47.

And this nomination is confirmed.

[Warnock] That day that we confirmed her,

I was standing there

along with my friend and colleague, Cory Booker,

we were talking to the Vice President.

First Black woman to be sitting where she's sitting.

She said, you know, guys, this is quite a moment.

And we agreed, yes, it is quite a moment.

She said, you know what?

You guys ought to take this moment

and write a letter

to somebody who comes to your mind.

She offered that as a suggestion.

The way the Black women in my life make suggestions.

And, uh, after she did that, she handed us each a sheet of paper.

It was the letterhead

of the Vice President of the United States.

And I sat down at my desk that day and I wrote a letter to my daughter.

I said, dear Chloé,

today we confirmed to the United States Supreme Court

Ketanji Brown Jackson.

In the long history of our nation

she is the first Supreme Court Justice who looks like you.

With hair like yours.

I am pleased to welcome Justice Jackson to the court and to our common calling.

[Warnock] I simply write to say that in America

you can be and you can become anything you set your mind and heart to do.

I hope she'll grow up and be brave like the women of the WNBA.

And maybe occupy a seat on the Supreme Court.

Why not the White House?

[Lindsay] I don't think WNBA players are done fighting.

It's just about what's next.

[Nneka] It was truly a beautiful demonstration of advocacy

and empowerment.

I'm really grateful to have been a part of it.

[Layshia] Believing you can change the world

with people around you, is like, so powerful.

[Elizabeth] It was, kind of, a, like a reassurance

that my voice is to be shared and not suppressed.

We've seen now the impact can be so massive.

[Angel] All odds are against you. How do you find a way to win?

And we won.

Dang, I just see how you all gonna edit that one.

You see how you about to edit that?

That's about to be so dope.

Sorry, I had to throw that in there.

["Girls Like Me" by Roro playing]