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.”

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?”

Elizabeth Williams is opening up about her free agency journey, penning an op-ed in The Players’ Tribune.

The 28-year-old was selected fourth overall by Connecticut in the 2015 WNBA Draft before being traded to Atlanta the following season, where she spent the last six years of her career.

Williams is now heading to the Washington Mystics, with the team announcing the center-forward’s signing on Tuesday.

“I’m so excited for this new journey in Washington, but I wouldn’t be in the position I am now without my Dream teammates and everything that we built in Atlanta,” Williams writes, “From my first conversation with Coach Thibault, I knew D.C. had so much that I was looking for. Championship contenders. Incredible staff. Amazing reputation. An impassioned city.”

The decision wasn’t an easy one for Williams, despite the Mystics’ sterling reputation, with Atlanta considered home for the WNBA star.

Williams remembers the team’s efforts to elect now-senator Raphael Warnock, ousting then-Dream owner Kelly Loeffler from her seat and effectively the team.

“I grew in ways I never thought I would, using my voice and my platform in some of the most stressful moments possible,” recalls Williams.

Though she had proud moments on and off the court in Atlanta, it became evident to Williams after the team’s 8-24 record at the end of the 2021 season that she needed to make a change.

“Then that feeling hit me, and I had to ask myself a really hard question, ‘Was my best basketball behind me?’” writes Williams, “Eventually, I came to my answer… I have A LOT more basketball in me.”

Williams will join a Washington Mystics roster that includes Elena Delle Donne, Natasha Cloud, Alysha Clark and Ariel Atkins. The team narrowly missed the WNBA playoffs last season, ending the year with a 12-20 record.

“At the end of the day I knew it was time for a change. Free agency wasn’t about choosing a team, it was about choosing me.”

Nneka Ogwumike and Elizabeth Williams will not be going to Tokyo. 

The two basketball player’s appeals to the Court of Arbitration for Sport were rejected Monday, maintaining FIBA’s initial ruling. Due to both players’ previous participation in USA Basketball, they were subsequently denied their petition to play for Nigeria in the Olympics even with USA Basketball’s approval. 

“FIBA acknowledges today’s decision of the Court Arbitration of Sport (CAS) to reject the request for provisional measures,” the basketball organization posted on its website.

Additionally, according to FIBA, the pair were not on Nigeria’s roster submitted for the Tokyo Games. 

They had appealed under the motion that their involvement would help grow the game of basketball in Nigeria, something which is within the best interests of FIBA.

“Allow them the opportunity to help grow the game,” Nigerian coach Otis Hughley Jr. said on Sunday. “That continent would just be turned on its head for basketball, in a good way. You have no idea how many lives would be impacted and changed for the ages.”

Ogwumike’s sister, Chiney, had also appealed to have her status changed from a naturalized player to Nigerian. That appeal was also denied by the CAS.

The WNBA is officially fully vaccinated.

To celebrate the milestone, the WNBPA has released a “FULLY VAXXED” T-shirt, with a portion of proceeds going to Black Girls Do STEM.

The WNBPA told Just Women’s Sports that the players credit Elizabeth Williams for the success of the league’s vaccination effort, which included educational zoom sessions with physicians, mental health professionals and epidemiologists.

Williams’ research and commitment to understanding vaccine science has earned her the unofficial moniker “Chief Health Officer” of the WNBPA.

Williams comes from a family of doctors and reportedly plans to go to medical school when she’s done playing hoops.