In celebration of the NBA’s 75th anniversary, Bally Sports – throughout the season — will look back on the standout players, influential figures and memorable moments that helped shape the league. Our Maggie Hendricks talked to NBA analyst Renee Montgomery about her early basketball memories and the sport’s impact on her.

Growing up in West Virginia, Renee Montgomery didn’t have an NBA team nearby to cheer for. The closest team, the Cavaliers, was still at least a three-hour drive away. So from the beginning of her basketball fandom, she was a free agent. She didn’t watch the game to cheer one team or another.

She watched the game to learn.

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Two-time WNBA champion Renee Montgomery has made her mark on the court, and now she’s making history off it.

Montgomery is part of a three-member ownership group that received approval from the WNBA on Friday to purchase the Atlanta Dream. As part of the group, she will become the first former player to be both an owner and executive of a WNBA team. Larry Gottesdiener, chairman of Northland, a national real estate firm, and Northland president and COO Suzanne Abair round out the group.

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Former Atlanta Dream guard Renee Montgomery made history on Friday as part of a three-member investor group that was approved to purchase the team.

The ownership change follows pressure on former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, a Republican who angered WNBA players with her opposition to the league’s racial justice initiatives, to sell her share of the Dream.

Real estate investor Larry Gottesdiener was approved as majority owner of the team. The investor group also includes Montgomery and Suzanne Abair, president of Northland Investment Corp. in Massachusetts, the firm Gottesdiener founded.

Montgomery becomes the first former player to become both an owner and executive of a WNBA franchise. She said she would play an active role with Abair in the leadership of the team.

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Renee Montgomery is part of an ownership group of the Beasts, of the Fan Controlled Football League. FCF is the world’s first fan-run pro sports and entertainment company.

“This league is focused on the fans,” Montgomery said. “I think that’s the main difference from all of the other leagues. It doesn’t matter if all the other leagues play the same (number) of players (or) play a certain type of football. The Fan Controlled Football league, the hashtag is power to the fans for a reason, so I think that’s what’s gonna make it different. Fans are gonna fuel it and drive it.”

Many committed sports fans believe they’d be able to run their favorite team better than the current coaching staff or general manager. In the FCF, fans sign on to support a particular team and then are able to share their opinion on every decision the team makes. Montgomery thinks that’s why the FCF will be successful when other spring football leagues, like the XFL and the AAF, haven’t been.

Team owners will serve as overseers and have final say on decisions, largely so that fans can’t make decisions detrimental to the brand of the team or the health of the league, but the teams’ fans will be involved every step of the way.

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Renee Launches Her Own Podcast – Remotely Renee

Renee Montgomery has launched her own podcast titled Remotely Renee. The podcast can be found on:
YouTube
Spotify
Apple Podcasts
Stitcher
Google Podcast

From sports to entertainment to activism. Tune in to learn how to navigate the new normal of connecting while being Remote.

As protests and demonstrations continue all across the United States following the death of George Floyd, Renee Montgomery has joined the sizable group of high-profile athletes taking action. The 2005 South Charleston High School graduate and 11-year WNBA veteran took a unique approach to help the city of Atlanta.

The ‘Renee Montgomery Foundation’ is supplying water in mass quantities to protesters in downtown Atlanta.

“Standing outside all day, you have to be thirsty. So I knew what I could do to have an impact, I could hand out water to the protesters and make sure everyone stays hydrated. As an athlete, that is a thing we make sure we do,” Montgomery said.

“We reached out to Defiance Fuel and they sent me ten cases right away and the rest was history.”

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Renee Montgomery didn’t ask for this, but now she doesn’t want it to stop. The sudden tidal wave of attention she is facing—interviews, talks with students, TV appearances, being part of LeBron James’s More Than a Vote campaign—is new to her, but she realizes its importance. Last week, Montgomery, an 11-year WNBA veteran who plays for the Atlanta Dream, announced that she would opt out of the 2020 season, which will be played at IMG Academy in Florida.

“There’s work to be done off the court in so many areas in our community,” Montgomery wrote on Twitter. “Social justice reform isn’t going to happen overnight, but I do feel that now is the time.”

“… I wanted to do for social reform that I realized I wasn’t working out or I wasn’t making time for the sport. I think that was the moment where I was like, “You know what? It’s probably better that I don’t go. Just my heart isn’t in it.” That’s how I came to the conclusion. … Let me not go and be a disservice to my team.”

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