The Unrivaled playoffs have arrived, with Sunday’s 3×3 basketball action determining the two teams who will compete for the grand prize in Monday night’s final.
The inaugural league's two-day postseason will open with Sunday's semifinals. No. 3-seed Laces BC will first face-off against No. 2 Rose BC, with the No. 1 Lunar Owls taking on No. 4 Vinyl BC in the nightcap.
The winners will then go head-to-head on Monday, battling it out in the championship with a $50,000-per-player payday on the line.
"It’s money on the line," Lunar Owls guard Courtney Williams said earlier this week. "Anytime money is on the line, I think everybody has to up the ante."
After blasting through the regular-season with five more wins than any other club, Unrivaled co-founder Napheesa Collier's Lunar Owls are the heavy favorites to hoist hardware, particularly if Rose BC — the only team to defeat the Lunar Owls all season — is without 22-year-old star Angel Reese, who exited the regular-season finale after seemingly re-aggravating her surgically repaired left wrist.
Top athletes earn first-ever All-Unrivaled honors
While teams prep for postseason action, the offseason league handed out end-of-season awards on Thursday, minting its debut All-Unrivaled First and Second Teams.
After tallying ballots from players, coaches, and media members, top scorer Collier earned a first-team nod, alongside the league's next two most prolific points-getters, Laces wing Kayla McBride and Rose guard Chelsea Gray.
Lunar Owls guard Skylar Diggins-Smith, Vinyl wing Rhyne Howard, and the aforementioned Reese landed on the second team after excelling in assists, three-pointers, and rebounds, respectively.
All six All-Unrivaled players will feature on this weekend's court, with Sunday's lineup offering a final opportunity to see some of the sport’s biggest stars in what’s been a wildly successful debut for the league.
How to watch the 2025 Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball playoffs
Unrivaled’s first-ever playoffs tip off with Sunday's semifinals, starting with the Laces vs. Rose at 7:30 PM ET before the Vinyl's battle with the Lunar Owls at 8:30 PM ET.
The victors will then clash in Monday's championship game at 7:30 PM ET.
All three Unrivaled playoff games will air live on TNT.
Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball's 1v1 tournament is fast approaching, with the offseason league dropping the competition's official bracket on Wednesday.
The head-to-head showdown tips off on Monday, February 10th, with the semifinals and three-game final series all tipping off on Friday, February 14th.
Fan votes determined the seeding for the debut league's first-ever in-season tournament. Those ballots gave the Mist's Jewell Loyd and Vinyl's Arike Ogunbowale first-round byes, moving them straight into Tuesday's quarterfinal round.
Meanwhile, the other 28 competitors have four rounds to overcome to claim the trophy — not to mention $200,000 in prize money.
Breaking down the Unrivaled 1v1 bracket
Some early battles will be tougher than others, as Unrivaled co-founder and current scoring leader Napheesa Collier takes on fellow UConn alum Katie Lou Samuelson. The winner of that matchup then faces either Jackie Young or Rickea Jackson.
Collier's fellow co-founder Breanna Stewart — also a UConn product — drew 2024 UConn standout Aaliyah Edwards in Monday's first round. The winner subsequently earns a second-round date against either Marina Mabrey or Kate Martin.
Despite her first-round bye, Ogunbowale's bracket quadrant appears to be a gauntlet.
The guard will first battle either fellow Notre Dame alum Skylar Diggins-Smith, who has four game-winners under her belt so far this season, or Vinyl teammate Dearica Hamby.
The Olympic 3×3 bronze medalist trails only Collier and Laces star Kayla McBride on Unrivaled's score sheet, averaging 21.2 points per game. Additionally, Hamby's 10.4 rebounding average has her sitting fourth in the league.
Should they advance, either McBride or Satou Sabally will await Ogunbowale in the quarterfinals.
Ultimately, every matchup is stacked considering the star-studded league's depth.
"I just want the top dawgs to knock each other out," joked Courtney Williams ahead of her own first-round clash with Tiffany Hayes, with the winner set to square off against either Rhyne Howard or Lexie Hull.
"[If] your shot's falling, really anyone can win 1v1," she continued. "It's all about who figured it out in that moment."
How to watch next week's Unrivaled 1v1 tournament
The inaugural contest's first round tips off at 2 PM ET on Monday, with live coverage on truTV. The evening session begins at 7 PM ET on TNT.
Both the second round and quarterfinals will air on truTV starting at 7 PM ET on Tuesday, with the semifinals and finals taking over both truTV and TNT on Friday beginning at 7:30 PM ET.
After trailing by as many as 18 points in the first half, the Minnesota Lynx stormed back to a 95-93 overtime win in Brooklyn on Thursday to steal Game 1 of the WNBA finals on the road. Minnesota's return from 18 points down ties the greatest comeback in WNBA history, ironically first set by the Liberty in Game 2 of the 1999 finals.
The Liberty came out swinging early in front of a raucous Barclays Center crowd, scoring 32 points in the first quarter as the Lynx suddenly found themselves in danger of becoming overwhelmed. But Minnesota kept chipping away at the lead, reducing New York's advantage to single digits at halftime.
As the teams traded runs in the second half, it appeared as if New York would to be able to hold off a late charge by the Lynx, leading by 15 points with 5:20 remaining in the game. But once again, Minnesota remained calm and went on a run of their own.
"I think it defines our team in terms of being able to get through difficult times," Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said after the game. "That's what we are talking about: You have to be mentally tough and resilient."
Guard Courtney Williams made the four-point play to give Minnesota an unlikely one-point lead with seconds remaining, and Breanna Stewart split two free throws to send the game into overtime.
After a slow start to the overtime period, Lynx star Napheesa Collier's final midrange jumper proved to be the difference, sending Minnesota into Game 2 with a 1-0 advantage. The Lynx are the first team in WNBA postseason history to win a game after trailing by 15+ points in the final five minutes of regulation in 184 games.
New York center Jonquel Jones led all scorers with 24 points, but Minnesota got the most out of the trio of Collier (21 points), Williams (23 points), and Kayla McBride (22 points).
New York's chance to bounce back
The Liberty are now 0-6 in Game 1 of the WNBA finals, and will try to bounce back in Game 2 on Sunday at 3pm ET (ABC). "This is a series, and we wanted to really win for home court [advantage]. But the beauty is we have another game on Sunday and we'll be ready," Stewart said after the game.
For the Liberty, the pressure will be on. No WNBA team has ever come back from a 2-0 deficit in a best-of-five playoff series, something New York knows well. The Liberty sent two-time defending champion Las Vegas home in the semifinals after building a similar insurmountable advantage.
"We're disappointed," Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said. "We have to be better. We're a better team than what we showed today."
After missing the free throw that would have sealed the game for New York, and missing a key layup in overtime, Stewart is also prepping for a personal bounce back. "I feel like knowing my teammates, and that everyone has confidence in me is important," she said. "It's kind of like, on to the next, and still making sure I'm aggressive any time on the court. Obviously as a player, it's very frustrating."
Following Sunday's matchup, the series will head to Minnesota for Game 3 and a possible Game 4. New York will be very motivated to stretch the series as long as possible.
"We can't play to not lose, and I think we started to play [like that] a little bit," said Sabrina Ionescu.
WNBA announces draft, postseason infrastructure for 2025
Prior to Game 1, league commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced plans for the 2025 college draft, as well as a new structure for the postseason. The 2025 draft lottery will take place on Nov. 17, as the LA Sparks, Dallas Wings, Washington Mystics and Chicago Sky find out who will hold the No. 1 pick in the 2025 draft.
Expansion side the Golden State Valkyries will officially pick fifth in all three rounds of the 2025 draft, Engelbert also announced on Thursday. The Valkyries made their own bit of splashy news earlier in the day, announcing Aces assistant Natalie Nakase as the team's inaugural head coach.
The WNBA will also be making changes to the postseason starting in 2025, in reaction to the growing appetite for more games in more home markets.
The league will be expanding the finals to a best-of-seven series instead of a best-of-five starting in 2025. The first round will also go from a home-home-away cadence for the higher seed to a 1-1-1 structure, meaning all playoff teams will be guaranteed a postseason home game next year.
Two games into the best-of-five 2024 WNBA semifinals, and the back-to-back defending champion Aces are staring down elimination while the Lynx evened the score last night.
With Friday's Game 3 offering a venue change, Las Vegas will need every ounce of their home-court advantage to continue their playoff run, while Minnesota's aim will be to silence the Connecticut crowd.
Aces on the brink of elimination after Game 2 loss
Tuesday's second-straight loss, an 88-84 defeat by the No. 1 seed Liberty in Brooklyn, has No. 4 seed Las Vegas on the brink of playoff elimination. The Aces are now the first reigning champions to ever fall to a 0-2 deficit in a WNBA playoff series.
Las Vegas has yet to conquer the Liberty this season, falling a franchise record-tying five straight times to same opponent, all after defeating New York in the 2023 WNBA Finals.
New York's Sabrina Ionescu and Las Vegas's A'ja Wilson led their teams in scoring with 24 points each, while Liberty guard Courtney Vandersloot provided a crucial spark off the bench.
Should Las Vegas turn things around when the series moves back to Nevada on Friday, they'd become the first team to ever bounce back from 0-2 to reach the WNBA Finals.
Aces guard Chelsea Gray put a positive spin on the challenge, saying "I love being in the history books, so might as well try to start there. That's going to be our mentality."
Lynx level up with Game 2 semifinal win in Minnesota
No. 2 seed Minnesota evened their semifinal score with No. 3 seed Connecticut on Tuesday, earning a 77-70 win in Minneapolis to send the series back East at one victory apiece.
Courtney Williams led the Lynx in scoring with 17 points, while a physical Minnesota defense held the Sun to less than 40% shooting from the field.
In the loss, Sun forward DeWanna Bonner became the third all-time leading scorer in WNBA postseason history. She also inked her name into the league record books as the player with the most appearances in playoff history at 83 games and counting.
Friday kicks off a guaranteed two-game run in Connecticut, with the home side on a mission to reach the Finals for the first time since 2022.
How to watch Game 3 of the WNBA semifinals
Las Vegas and Minnesota will look to pick up critical wins in Friday's Game 3, with the Aces facing a must-win scenario in front of what promises to be a rocking home crowd.
The Lynx will travel to Connecticut for a 7:30 PM ET tip off on Friday, October 4th, followed by a Liberty vs. Aces showdown in Las Vegas at 9:30 PM ET. Both games are scheduled to air on ESPN2.
Washington Mystics guard Natasha Cloud had a bone to pick with the WNBA defensive award selections, and she set off a chain reaction of grievances from coaches and players across the league.
Cloud took exception to WNBA awards voting after being shut out for the Defensive Player of the Year award and the all-defensive team selections.
“Voting for this league is a joke,” Cloud wrote on social media in a now-deleted post, before alluding to awards voting boiling down to politics in another post.
Mystics head coach Eric Thibault also weighed in, calling Cloud’s absence “hard to understand.”
“Removing positions for the All-Defense teams is mostly to blame,” he wrote. “Stats are how people largely vote on/explain these awards, and that means steals, blocks, and rebounds. Two of those three immediately skew towards bigs.
Los Angeles Sparks guard Lexie Brown had a similar thought, asking on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter: “What do guards need to do more to be considered elite defenders?”
Chicago Sky guard Courtney Williams proposed a change to the voting pool. A national panel of 60 sportswriters and broadcasters voted on the Defensive Player of the Year award and the all-defensive teams, but Williams would prefer voters from within the league itself.
“Yeah they should let players and coaches vote on these awards,” Williams wrote on X. “It’s just different having to scout and play against it night in and night out.”
After the kerfuffle over the defensive awards, Chicago Sky forward Isabelle Harrison looked forward to the announcement of the 2023 WNBA MVP, which is set for Tuesday. Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas, New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart and Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson are the front-runners for the award.
“Before MVP is announced, trust me when I say, if (Alyssa Thomas) doesn’t win IMO, the credibility of this award tremendously drops,” she wrote on X. “Obviously no disrespect to others considered for it but plz plz plzzzz respect the year she’s having.”
Broadcasters made “unacceptable” comments about Courtney Williams during Sunday’s Chicago Sky game, center Elizabeth Williams said Tuesday.
During Chicago’s 104-96 win over the Dallas Wings, Sky guard Dana Evans and Wings guard Odyssey Sims got into a verbal altercation. Courtney Williams left the bench but was stopped by an assistant coach before becoming involved.
Yet the broadcast singled out Williams during the altercation, both with a tight camera shot and in the discussion from the commentators. After seeing clips of the broadcast, Elizabeth Williams called out the commentators for “profiling” her teammate. Williams was suspended for two games by the WNBA in 2021 for her involvement in a fight outside of an Atlanta club.
“I wanted to verbalize that there should never be a situation where [Courtney’s] character is misinterpreted or anything involving the past is brought up in a situation that she had nothing to do with,” she said.
The commentators discussed Williams but did not mention her Sky teammate Ruthy Hebard, who left the bench and then became involved in the altercation between Evans and Sims, until three minutes later. Hebard was ejected from the game and received a one-game suspension from the WNBA, while Williams received a fine for leaving the bench.
“She’s a rider,” commentator Raegan Pebley said on the broadcast. “She’s going to have her teammates’ and her coaches’ back.”
Elizabeth Williams took the time Tuesday to defend her teammate.
“I don’t think in a situation like that, with Courtney or anyone else, we should deal with that type of profiling,” she said. “I think I am confident in saying, whether this is racial or based on her reputation, that Courtney should never be put in that position where cameras are zooming in on her when she has nothing to do with any of that.”
Elizabeth Williams started today’s PC by addressing the exchange between Dana Evans & Odyssey Sims which led to Ruthy Hebard’s one game suspension & a fine for Courtney Williams.
— Annie Costabile (@AnnieCostabile) August 8, 2023
Elizabeth & EV both expressed displeasure with the singling out of Courtney during the broadcast. pic.twitter.com/eky2xbdWzF
Also on the broadcast, Courtney Williams could be seen expressing her frustration with teammate Taylor Soule.
“There, you can see them pushing [Courtney Williams] away [from the altercation],” commentator Ron Thulin said.
But Courtney Williams offered up a different perspective on the situation, noting that Soule had “grabbed me.”
“I don’t know if people didn’t see the other angle or what happened before that, but that was because Taylor grabbed me,” she said. “I was going off on Taylor like, ‘Why are you grabbing me? I’m not doing anything.’”
Williams said Tuesday that it has been difficult to “rebrand and reinvent” herself. Being depicted as she was Sunday was “draining,” particularly given that the broadcast focused primarily on her.
“It’s just draining, not only being myself, but I’m the one that has to get on Twitter and see everybody calling me a hoodlum and saying I should have gotten ejected, too,” she said. “Why am I a scapegoat? Why is that not being said about anyone else that got off the bench?”
Sky interim coach and general manager Emre Vatansever told the Sun Times that the team has sent a letter to the WNBA to contest Williams’ fine.
“There’s nothing going on with Courtney other than her stepping on the floor and the whole camera for a couple of minutes is just focusing on her, and everybody is talking about Courtney,” Vatansever said. “Why? I’m questioning, why?”
LAS VEGAS — Orange is definitely Courtney Williams’ color.
From the moment she put it on in 2016, her Connecticut Sun jersey felt like a second skin. Her team was her home, which is why when she was traded to the Atlanta Dream after the 2019 season, Williams felt betrayed.
In 2019, she had started every game, played nearly 30 minutes per contest and averaged 13.2 points per game for the Sun– all career highs.
She didn’t understand why the organization she loved so much didn’t seem to love her back.
“I was too emotional,” she said. “I was just feeling like, ‘Where’s the loyalty?’ But there ain’t no loyalty in business. Business is business, numbers is numbers. That’s something that I learned in that process.”
Soon, though, she realized that her trade had nothing to do with the way Sun players and coaches felt about her. That allowed her to get excited about the new opportunity.
Nicki Collen, currently the head women’s basketball coach at Baylor, worked as an assistant on the Sun staff from 2015-19 before taking over as head coach of the Dream in 2018.
Williams was comfortable with Collen – after all, she’d been part of her Sun family – so the move started to feel like it could be a perfect fit.
“It was lowkey kind of a no-brainer for me since she was over there,” Williams said.
Collen coached Williams in Atlanta for just one season. She departed a week before the 2021 slate of games began to take the head coaching job at Baylor.
But even after Collen’s exit, Williams thrived. Her minutes increased, and so did her points, assists, rebounds – everything.
In 2021 she played 34.4 minutes per game in her second season with the Dream, averaging 16.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4 assists and 1.1 steals per game. The South Florida alum was making her mark on her new organization, and the basketball world took notice. Her play earned Williams an All-Star nod – the first of her career.
But the situation soured after that.
In October, Williams posted a video on YouTube of her and teammate Crystal Bradford getting involved in an altercation near a food truck outside an Atlanta club. The 39-minute video was deleted, but footage of the fight circulated on Twitter, leading to the Dream’s decision not to re-sign Williams for the 2022 season.
“The behavior in the video is unacceptable and does not align with our values as an organization,” the Dream said in a statement released the next day. “We are taking this matter very seriously and working with the league to gather more information and determine next steps.”
Williams apologized on Twitter for making light of the situation in the YouTube video, but her agent Marcus Crenshaw claimed the Atlanta Dream had known about the altercation for months and expressed frustration with the organization only choosing to address it when the video emerged and went viral on social media.
“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,” Crenshaw said on a Girls Talk Sports TV Instagram Live.
Whatever the circumstances, one thing became clear: Courtney Williams would no longer be a part of the Atlanta Dream.
Before the incident, Williams said she expected nothing but good things in Atlanta.
“Obviously that’s not how it played out,” she said. “So that kind of ended up hitting me in the mouth. But I mean, overall, I think any experience that you go through that helps you grow. It molded me into who I am now.”
Now, Williams understands the business of basketball. She’s also learned from the mistakes she made in Atlanta.
And while she was away, the Sun came to a realization as well: They needed Courtney Williams in Connecticut.
Without her, in 2020 and 2021, the Sun lost in the WNBA semifinals – to Las Vegas, and then to Chicago.
Williams provides both skill and spark to the roster.
“She’s on a roll right now,” teammate Natisha Hiedeman said after Williams scored 12 points in the Sun’s Game 5 win over the Sky in the WNBA semifinals. “And that’s what we need from her. That’s definitely what’s expected from her, and she just has that mindset where she’s never too high or never too low. Like her energy is the same all the time. She deserves to play good because she’s just a great teammate all the time.”
For Williams, the love she gets from her fellow Sun players is enough to melt away the negative impact of her exit from Atlanta.
She hates the way it went down, but the end result was worth it. It was a blessing in disguise, she said, because it brought her home.
“Everything happens for a reason, right? The good, the bad, the ugly,” she said. “It molds us and it also shows you who really for you. It’s easy to rock with somebody when it’s all roses and sunshine, but it’s like, ‘Who’s rocking with me when it’s not?’ Connecticut did.”
After her breakup with Atlanta, Williams got calls from Sun stars DeWanna Bonner, Jonquel Jones and Alyssa Thomas. They were all rocking with her, and they wanted her back in a Sun uniform.
Turns out there is some loyalty in business. The Sun showed Williams that when they re-signed her before the 2022 season.
After two years away, returning to Connecticut felt like she’d never even left, Williams said.
Now, she wants to repay her squad with a WNBA Championship.
Sporting a purple half-moon bruise under her left eye – an injury sustained during her iconic jump-ball battle with Kahleah Copper during the semifinals series – Williams looked out over the Aces court Monday as her team put up shots.
They mean everything to her.
And Williams doesn’t care that her team has been overlooked throughout this postseason. They rock with her and she rocks with them. Forget the haters.
“We already know what it is and what it ain’t,” she said. “We don’t even trip on none of that. Them folks want to be where we at. So, I’ll tell them to sit down, grab they popcorn and watch us do what we do.”
Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.
The WNBA has suspended former Atlanta Dream players Courtney Williams and Crystal Bradford for their roles in an altercation outside of an Atlanta day club in May.
The suspension, per a WNBA release, is due to the players’ violations of the league’s health and safety protocol. Williams will be suspended for two games and Bradford for one.
“The suspensions will be served with the first regular season game that each player is eligible to play following the signing of a new Standard Player Contract,” read the release.
Video of the fight surfaced in October. Following the incident, the Dream informed the players’ agent, Marcus Crenshaw, that they did not intend to bring back either player. That was later confirmed by newly-hired general manager Dan Padover.
Both Williams and Bradford are free agents this offseason. Williams was one of 10 players to sign with Athletes Unlimited for their inaugural basketball season in January.
On Tuesday, the guard commented on the suspension on Twitter.
To all my ppl,
— Courtney Williams (@CourtMWilliams) November 23, 2021
I wanted you all to hear it from me personally. I’ll be missing the 1st 2 games of the upcoming WNBA Season due to the altercation that transpired months ago. It was a terribly unfortunate incident, I know that and I sincerely regret my part in it.
“I wanted you all to hear it from me personally,” she wrote. “I’ll be missing the 1st 2 games of the upcoming WNBA Season due to the altercation that transpired months ago. It was a terribly unfortunate incident, I know that and I sincerely regret my part in it.”
In a subsequent tweet, Williams said the incident was “a learning life lesson.”
“As I said before, I have a-lot more growing to do,” she wrote. “And I’m committed to doing just that! I love y’all fr fr and we only UP from here!”
I want to thank everyone who reached out and poured love into me.
— Courtney Williams (@CourtMWilliams) November 23, 2021
Man… I needed it! Definitely was a learning life lesson! As I said before, I have a-lot more growing to do, and I’m committed to doing just that! I love y’all fr fr and we only UP from here! 🤞🏽🙏🏽
Athletes Unlimited announced the addition of 10 players to its roster for the league’s inaugural basketball season. That group includes five current WNBA players with a combined 47 seasons of experience in Jantel Lavender, Tianna Hawkins, Odyssey Sims, Courtney Williams and Mikiah Herbert Harrigan.
“Athletes Unlimited provides American players an additional opportunity to play in the United States, an opportunity we have always hoped for,” said Indiana Fever forward Lavender, a 10-year WNBA veteran who won the 2016 WNBA championship with the Los Angeles Sparks. “Staying in the U.S. allows us to spend more time with our families while earning money and not putting as much wear and tear on our bodies, so that we can put out the best product.”
Lavender said she is looking forward to Athletes Unlimited’s unique format, which awards individual points to players based on stats. Every week during the season, the top four players serve as captains and select new teams.
Hawkins, the Atlanta Dream forward who will enter her ninth WNBA season in 2022, won a WNBA title with the Washington Mystics in 2019. She’ll be joined by Sims and Williams, her teammates with the Dream in 2021.
Williams made headlines in October after a video surfaced showing an altercation outside of an Atlanta club in May that involved Williams and teammate Crystal Bradford. The Dream later said they would not be re-signing either player.
“I would never want to represent myself or the organization in a negative way,” Williams wrote on Twitter in a now-deleted tweet. “I’m learning everyday so I ask for grace as I’m growing. Again I apologize to all attached, and I will be better moving forward.”
New Dream general manager Dan Padover later confirmed that the players — free agents in 2022 — would not return to Atlanta.
Seattle Storm forward Mikiah Herbert Harrigan, who took time off last season to give birth, will also join the league along with 2016 WNBA champion and 13-year WNBA veteran Essence Carson. Kirby Burkholder, Tyce Knox, Jessica Kuster and Laurin Mincy, who have spent significant amounts of time playing overseas, round out the group.
The season will run from Jan. 26 to Feb. 26, 2022 in Las Vegas.
“Ever since the announcement about Athletes Unlimited basketball, the feedback has been nothing but positive which is great,” said Sydney Colson, the first player to sign on for the season. “Knowing that we’ll be playing in Las Vegas took it up a few more notches! The Vegas fan base was so incredible when I played there and I can’t wait to see familiar faces as well as new fans in the stands at all of our games!”
Athletes Unlimited will hold open tryouts from Dec. 11-12 in Atlanta, where at least one roster spot will be offered to an athlete who attends.
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.”
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.”