Atlanta Dream guard Crystal Bradford addressed her role in a May altercation in tweets Tuesday that have since been deleted.
The Dream and the WNBA have said they are gathering more information on the video that surfaced Sunday showing Bradford and teammate Courtney Williams getting into a fight outside of an Atlanta club.
“Never did I glorify that altercation,” Bradford wrote on Twitter. “It made me sick to my stomach and having to relive it due to a video makes it more tough for me.”
Crystal’s perspective is interesting. Hope she’s doing okay 💙 pic.twitter.com/nFK394grC6— project patti labelle (@theeluvvbelow) October 5, 2021
Crystal’s perspective is interesting. Hope she’s doing okay 💙 pic.twitter.com/nFK394grC6
“If a teammate or a friend is outnumbered my thoughts will be to help them,” she continued.
The fight, which happened in May, was reportedly dealt with internally. Williams, who appeared to make light of the altercation in a now-deleted YouTube video, has since apologized for her role in the fight. The players’ agent, Marcus Crenshaw, has said the team has opted not to re-sign either player.
“The team knew about the situation months ago,” Crenshaw said on Wednesday. “Right now, the team is trying to act like they have the morals, and [they’re] making [the players] some sort of scapegoats by saying they got put off the Dream because of the altercation.”
Also on Wednesday, co-owner Renee Montgomery said during an ESPN broadcast that the team did not realize the extent of the incident until they watched the video in its entirety.
“We saw a clip in May that was 10 to 15 seconds long, with no context,” said Montgomery, who is working as a studio analyst for ESPN during the WNBA playoffs. “And Coach [Mike] Petersen, he talked to the players involved, and they told us that, they assured us that it was in self-defense. So we wanted to believe our players. And so we chose to believe our players, and ultimately didn’t have any disciplinary actions.
“We only understood the magnitude of the situation when we saw that the fuller clip was posted [over the weekend].”