As the swag surf commenced throughout Gateway Center Arena @ College Park, it was evident a new era of Atlanta basketball has arrived.
The Atlanta Dream is in midst of a complete rebuild from the ownership down. Last season, the team’s leading scorer, Chennedy Carter, was benched and ultimately suspended for the remainder of the season for conduct detrimental to the team. In the off-season, the Dream traded Carter to the Los Angeles Sparks for guard Erica Wheeler, officially moving on to the next chapter. Shortly before the 2022 WNBA Draft, the Dream traded up to the No. 1 overall pick, the franchise’s first since selecting the greatest player in franchise history, Angel McCoughtry, in 2009.
With the pick, Atlanta took Rhyne Howard, the star 6-foot-2 guard out of Kentucky. The direction of Atlanta’s franchise came full circle on May 11 when Howard emphatically blocked Carter as the Sparks’ guard drove to the basket to attempt a layup near the rim. Howard finished the night with a game-leading 21 points and eight rebounds. Carter, on the other hand, had arguably the worst offensive game of her professional career, as she shot 0-for-7 from the field and finished with zero points. Carter said the potential emotions tied to coming back to the city that drafted her had nothing to do with the performance.
“Not at all,” she told rolling out after the game. “Not at all. I was not phased. I’m not worried about stats, not worried about the score too much. Good game, they won, on to the next. Me and my team, we’ll still be one of the top teams in the league at the end of the season, so there’s that.”
Omerettà The Great dominated in-game entertainment for the night. Every fan got a free “L.A. is not Atlanta” T-shirt, Omerettà’s “Sorry Not Sorry” Atlanta Dream remix debuted during the team’s introduction video and she performed the viral hit at halftime. Fans and reporters in the sold-out venue said it was the best environment the College Park Arena had hosted.
“This atmosphere was great, it reminds me a lot of Chicago,” said Sparks guard Lexie Brown, who went to high school in metro Atlanta’s Gwinnett County. “As far as the people, the music and the DJ. It’s a fun atmosphere. WNBA games are fun to be at, and I hope that they can sustain this throughout the season because Atlanta needs some championships, they need a good basketball team. I think this is a really exciting moment for the city, and I’m really happy for them.”
The Dream hope to keep the entertaining home atmosphere going on May 13, as they host the Las Vegas Aces, led by South Carolina’s A’ja Wilson and Marietta, Georgia, native Dearica Hamby.
“We have to protect our floor,” Dream coach Tanisha Wright said. “We want these fans to come back.”
