Renee Montgomery First WNBA Player to Opt Out of Playing in 2020
It was a positive week off the court for fans of basketball, which was a refreshing piece of news given the way things have gone in other sports during the COVID-19 pandemic. The WNBA announced earlier this week that they will open up their regular season slate on July 24. Under their plan, the league will play a 22-game regular season schedule with a full-blown playoff slate to follow. In addition, the players will also receive 100 percent of their salaries despite playing only about 65 percent of their typical regular season schedule.
When the regular season gets underway for the league on July 24, there will be at least one fairly well-known name that won’t be taking the floor.
Renee Montgomery, who has played the last two years of her 11-year career with the Atlanta Dream, is going to sit out the season, she announced Thursday. Instead, Montgomery will work on off-court initiatives as part of social justice reform. On her Twitter Thursday morning, she said: "There's work to be done off the court in so many areas in our community. Social justice reform isn't going to happen overnight, but I do feel that now is the time and Moments equal Momentum. Let's keep it going!"
Her departure from the floor this season will impact the Dream, both from the perspective of taking a veteran player out of the rotation, but also because it removes a floor leader from their group. The Dream’s general manager, Chris Sienko, had this to say about the decision Montgomery made:
"We are disappointed Renee will not be contributing on the court this season, but her assistance to the community is extremely significant and will help bring attention to important causes. We fully support Renee's off-the-court efforts and know that she can help facilitate change in Atlanta and around the globe."
Montgomery was the fourth overall pick in the 2009 WNBA Draft by the Minnesota Lynx out of Connecticut after the program won the national title that season. Over the course of her career, she has played for the Lynx, the Connecticut Sun, the Seattle Storm and the last two years with the Dream. Montgomery made the All-Star Game in 2011 while with the Sun, as she averaged 14.6 points and 4.9 assists per game that season. In her career, she has played in 364 regular season games, starting 173, and averaged 9.7 points plus 3.1 assists per contest. She has hit 38.6 percent from the floor, 34.7 percent three-point range and 84 percent at the free throw line in her career.
Montgomery started all 68 regular season games over the last two years for the Dream, providing a veteran presence to help steady the team. In addition, she knocked down her 500th career three-pointer last season against Indiana and has been a solid floor general throughout her career. Montgomery may not be the only player to sit out this season around the league but she was the first to make that statement. How this could affect her career going forward seeing that she turns 34 in December remains to be seen. Her career could well be over at this point because of this decision as it would be a challenge to come back in 2021 after having missed the entire 2020 campaign.
We’ll have to keep an eye out to see if more players are going to choose not to play this season or not. The one thing for sure is that Montgomery won’t be taking the floor this season.
