The Atlanta Dream will not bring back Courtney Williams and Crystal Bradford after they were involved in a fight in May, according to WNBA agent Marcus Crenshaw.
“I talked to them, and they told me they didn’t want to bring both back,” Crenshaw, CEO of The Fam Sports Agency, told Girls Talk Sports TV during an Instagram Live on Tuesday.
He said the Dream were aware of the incident when it happened but chose not to discipline the players then. Williams apologized for her role in the fight Monday, a day after the video surfaced showing Williams and Bradford getting into a skirmish next to a food truck. Williams also addressed the incident Sunday night in a YouTube video with her girlfriend but has since deleted the post.
“The team knew about the situation months ago,” Crenshaw said. “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.”
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Crenshaw said the Dream have been aware of the fight since May. Both the team and the WNBA, however, said on Monday that they were still gathering more information.
“The behavior in the video is unacceptable and does not align with our values as an organization,” the Dream said in a statement. “We are taking this matter very seriously and working with the league to gather more information and determine next steps.”
Williams and Bradford will both be unrestricted free agents this offseason.
It’s been a tumultuous couple of months for the Dream. Second-year guard Chennedy Carter continued to hint at her frustration with the team on Sunday after she was suspended indefinitely in July for “conduct detrimental to the team.” Carter has since broken her silence twice — once at the end of the season and once on Sunday.
Williams, the Dream’s lone All-Star this season, led Atlanta with 16.5 points and 6.8 rebounds per game. The guard’s season ended in August due to a foot injury.
Dream co-owner Renee Montgomery addressed the situation on Twitter on Tuesday. “As a franchise,” she wrote, “we have to take the good with the bad, it’s part of the game.”