Five years ago, the idea of the Atlanta Dream competing for a WNBA championship seemed unthinkable. Last week, they finished one victory short of the title, losing Game 7 of the Finals as Golden State celebrated. 'It's remarkable, really,' coach Karl Smesko said.
In 2021, the Dream went 8-24, second to last in the league, and used three coaches, including one who resigned just before the season for a college job. Chennedy Carter, their 2020 lottery pick, was suspended that July and never returned. The team moved into 3,500-seat Gateway Center Arena, the WNBA's smallest venue, because so much of the 17,608-seat State Farm Arena sat empty. Their most notable moment was a viral video of two players throwing punches by a food truck outside an Atlanta nightclub.
The decline ran deeper. A 2008 expansion team, Atlanta reached the Finals in 2010, 2011 and 2013 behind 2009 No. 1 pick Angel McCoughtry but was swept each time, then missed the playoffs in six of the next nine years. Home crowds averaged 4,270 in 2019, and McCoughtry left for Las Vegas after the 2020 bubble season in Bradenton, Florida.
The bubble also brought the lowest off-court moment: co-owner Kelly Loeffler wrote to commissioner Cathy Engelbert opposing the 'Black Lives Matter' logos on the courts, arguing that sports needed less politics, not more. Loeffler was campaigning to keep her U.S. Senate seat, and players across the league campaigned for her opponent, Raphael Warnock. Jordin Canada, then with the Seattle Storm, recalled that 'everybody was rallying around them.'
In February 2021, the team was sold to a group led by real estate investor Larry Gottesdiener that included former player Renee Montgomery. 'I believed the WNBA was an extraordinary opportunity, not just to grow the game of basketball,' Gottesdiener said, 'but to demonstrate what's possible when you invest in women.' That October, Dan Padover became general manager. A New York Liberty video coordinator in 2012 who later helped build the Las Vegas Aces, he cited a lesson from mentor Bill Laimbeer: get organized, take care of players and become a respected franchise.
Padover, now a three-time executive of the year, sent the Nos. 3 and 14 picks in the 2022 draft and a 2023 pick swap to Washington for the No. 1 pick and selected Rhyne Howard, who became Rookie of the Year and a four-time All-Star. He also landed second-round steal Naz Hillmon, then traded for Allisha Gray in 2023 and Canada in 2024. 'One of the things that I definitely took from Bill was not to be skittish to give up things in trades,' he said.
In 2025, Padover hired Smesko after 17 years at Florida Gulf Coast, and Atlanta went 30-14 before a first-round playoff exit. The final piece arrived April 6, when the Dream acquired Angel Reese from the Chicago Sky for future draft picks. Reese, disillusioned with Chicago's direction, believed in Atlanta's vision. 'When I play with joy and I'm surrounded by people that just genuinely make me happy, I think I'm at my best,' she said.
Apart from a five-game skid from June 24 to July 4, the Dream, who added veteran DeWanna Bonner late in the season, finished 30-14 again behind Reese's career-best 16.4 points and 12.1 rebounds per game. Arena conflicts moved one Finals game up a day and another to a 12:30 p.m. Thursday tip, but fans still packed a must-win Game 6. Gray played every Finals game despite a shooting-hand injury from the semifinals.
After Game 7, the Dream sounded dissatisfied but not devastated. 'They changed my life,' Reese said, 'and I'm just so grateful for them.' She added: 'Just because we didn't win today doesn't mean that we won't be champions in the future.' Next season, Atlanta returns to State Farm Arena full time for all 25 home games, and every starter is signed to return.
