ATLANTA — Welcome to Basketball Insider, presented by The BIG EAST Conference. I’m Jackie Powell, the host of The IX Sports Podcast women’s basketball edition alongside Howard Megdal and New York Liberty beat reporter for The IX Sports.
Basketball Insider
How brazen would I be to say that the Atlanta Dream might be the most important franchise in the WNBA that hasn’t won a title?
Since I’ve been in Atlanta covering the Liberty’s semifinal series against the Dream, I’ve realized that at this very moment the Dream have succeeded in doing a job that many thought was inconceivable. Since Atlanta was awarded an expansion team in 2007, this franchise literally became a dream deferred.
In the team’s first five years of existence, it changed ownership three separate times. First, Ron Terwilliger bowed out as the team’s principle owner; then Kathy Betty stepped down. I’m sure you all know who came next, the infamous ownership group called Dream Too LLC, run by Mary Brock and Kelly Loeffler, the former U.S. Senator and now 28th administrator of the Small Business Administration.
But the true tipping point for the Dream came five years ago from right about now. Let’s time travel a bit. What was going on in the greater WNBA universe at that time?
Five years ago to this day, Bill Laimbeer’s Las Vegas Aces were about to take on Sandy Brondello’s Phoenix Mercury for Game 5 of the WNBA semifinals. This was the series when Diana Taurasi’s wife Penny Taylor was having the couple’s second child, Brittney Griner looked like the best player in the world and A’ja Wilson had just collapsed on the floor after losing that very Game 5. Laimbeer and his General Manager Dan Padover couldn’t get the Aces back to the WNBA Finals after getting there a year earlier.
Five years ago, a college player named Angel Reese was beginning her sophomore season at Maryland. College seniors Rhyne Howard and Naz Hillmon were preparing for their final years as student athletes. Allisha Gray and Jordin Canada were both on teams that had stars in front of them at their positions. Arike Ogunbowale was the superstar in Dallas for the Wings and Canada was still operating in Sue Bird’s shadow in Seattle.
Five years ago, people were still wearing masks with fears of COVID-19 trickling back into our lifestyles, and the Atlanta Dream had just come off one of their most challenging seasons as a franchise. The Dream had three different head coaches in 2021. First it was Nikki Collen, who saw the writing on the wall after the general manager who hired her was dismissed a week after the draft, and decided to leave Atlanta for Baylor women’s basketball. Then it was Mike Petersen and then Darius Taylor, who both were assistants of Collen.
Help shape what’s next for The IX Sports! Take our short reader survey:
It wasn’t just turbulence on the coaching side, but also when it came to player personnel. Five years ago, the Dream had a season when Chennedy Carter was suspended and when both Courtney Williams and Crystal Bradford were involved in a fight outside of an Atlanta club that eventually went public.
In around 18 days from today, Padover will celebrate his five year anniversary since he was officially announced as the new GM of the Dream.
Padover was hired after all the tumult that came with a new ownership group that was finding its footing in the WNBA after the team was sold by Loeffler and Brock. During the first six months that Larry Gottesdiener, Suzanne Abair and former Dream player Renee Montgomery were at the helm of this franchise, they had under 400 season ticket holders and seven full time employees. Their goal was to bring that chaos to an end.
This process began with Padover; his experience and wealth of WNBA knowledge was going to get a team with a rocky reputation back into a more positive league standing. Padover wanted his players to be able to share via “word of mouth” how much the franchise changed.
“We came in with [Padover], came in with [Montgomery] I think just being able to have the relationship that we have, like you’ve seen [Gottesdiener], at practice. He’s been here for pretty much a lot of practices this year. Just feeding that energy,” Rhyne Howard told The IX Sports. “But I think being able to have people that you can communicate with, not just about basketball, but as people. They buy into our interests just as much as we want to buy into the Dream. So I think having that, especially, has definitely made this feel like a family right here.”
While Padover was known for constructing a large majority of the Aces dynasty team, Padover told The IX Sports how different the circumstances were building a team. Although the vision was similar for both teams: three dynamic guards that can drive and space (Howard, Gray and Canada) and then a versatile forward who is a perennial defensive player of the year candidate (Reese), building the 2026 Dream came with different challenges.
With the exception of Howard and Hillmon, the rest of the Dream’s core mostly came in via trades.
“What is similar was we tried to find the highest end talent that was available and bring them here and bring them here together and build upon that,” Padover explained. “So similar to the core that’s currently in Vegas, those three, and the core that was there when I was there, we’ve tried to keep this group together for a long time.”
Just like in Las Vegas and in New York, keeping a core together has been vital for building the business and allowing fans new and old to really get to know the team’s players in addition to the environment where the team plays.
While Gateway Center arena was small, it was mighty in how loud it got. There was always one fan who cheered so loud I could hear it on the broadcasts. The idea was the atmosphere was supposed to reflect the energy that most Atlantans exude.
But amid how charming Gateway Center arena was to some, it was limiting how much business the Dream could really bring in. As of yesterday those criticisms have been shushed since the Dream announced that the State Farm Arena which seats over 17,000 people will be the Dream’s home in 2027 and beyond.
To be clear, the Dream played here during the Loeffler years, but a lack of investment and a lack of business infrastructure led to seats being empty and the arena not carrying the exuberance that it does right now during this 2026 playoff season.
Reese, the latest piece of the puzzle and someone whose star power has enhanced the Dream’s reputation further, hasn’t just helped the Dream grow on the business side. She’s helped the team reach other levels too. Relatively new teammate DeWanna Bonner has called her the Dream’s engine.
“I’m willing to take risks,” Reese said about how she’s influenced the Dream this season. “I’m willing to bang. I’m willing to bring energy every single day and just try to be consistent as much as I can. I think they figured that playing against me, but obviously they didn’t know what they were getting with me coming into the locker room and just seeing how positive I can be with this group.”
Speaking of risks, by the time that Reese was traded to Atlanta, the Dream weren’t a risk anymore. They were established and known to have some of the best player amenities which includes recovery suites within the team apartments.
The legacy of the Atlanta Dream will be of a franchise that scratched and clawed to be legitimate and valued. But also the Dream are a franchise that showed the league’s leadership, including Cathy Engelbert, what the WNBA needed to represent, and how the league’s fanbase could grow from people who genuinely believe in what an organization like the Dream stood for.
While 2020’s tensions with Loeffler led to darker and messier times for the franchise, it needed to happen. Fans became inspired by the Dream’s history and what its players fought for back during that bubble season. The love for basketball could come later.
But while the Dream are now much more actualized by what their last five years have looked like, there’s something coming in the WNBA’s future that reminds me of what the Dream went through back in 2020.
The Houston Comets are returning to the WNBA, but that comes with a lot of questions. The ownership group that is overseeing the Comets is owned by Tilman Fertitta, President Donald Trump’s current Ambassador to Italy. While it seems as though Fertitta’s son Patrick runs the Rockets and will be most likely running the Comets, I still have concerns about history repeating itself.
While there’s a lot of controversy that came with the Sun sale, this is something not to look away from. The Dream showed what could happen if ownership and the team weren’t aligned.
The only concern I do have for the Dream moving forward is what happens if they do make the WNBA Finals. As of now the State Farm Arena isn’t available. Even if the Dream are deferred again, this most likely will be the last time.
Listen now to The IX Sports Podcast and Women’s Sports Daily
We are excited to announce the launch of TWO new podcasts for all the women’s sports fans out there looking for a daily dose of women’s sports news and analysis. Stream on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or anywhere you listen to podcasts, and make sure to subscribe!
This week in women’s basketball
Caitlin Clark’s name in politics once again, but this time it’s about Eric Schmitt and Jack Smith
Jane Burns’s 6-on-6 all about Iowa women’s basketball, Eric Schmitt, and the GAA
Ben Dolnick writes about Breanna Stewart and has a very funny line in his ninth paragraph
Stewart goes one-on-one with her pal Jason Sudeikis for the Hollywood Reporter
Madeline Kenney writes about Tina Charles’ return to the New York Liberty as an intern
Cassandra Negley wrote about Angel Reese following semifinals game 1 vs. the Liberty
Jane Kenny wrote about Natalie Nakase learning to listen to her body
Jenn Hatfield wrote about what Georgia Amoore’s rookie season looked like for the Mystics
Five at The IX: Allisha Gray misses Game 2 of the semifinals
“Becoming Caitlin Clark“ is out now!
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
Soccer: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer
Tennis: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer
Basketball: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The IX Sports
Softball: Maren Angus-Coombs, @Maren-Angus, The IX Sports
Golf: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX Sports
Hockey: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden
Gymnastics: Jessica Taylor Price, @jesstaylorprice, Freelance Writer
