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Renee Montgomery, Chris Sienko represent Atlanta Dream at College Park Awards

Photo Credit: Steve Freeman/NBAE/Getty Images

Is it just us … or have the Atlanta Dream been in the news a lot as of late?

From Renee Montgomery joining the broadcast team for the College Park Skyhawks to the Dream unveiling its new logo and its relocation to Gateway Center Arena in College Park south of Atlanta, to co-owner Kelly Loeffler being named by Georgia governor Brian Kemp as Johnny Isakson’s successor in the United States senate … lots of WNBA and Atlanta Dream news has occurred lately.

So it was only appropriate that at the 2019 City of College Park Awards that the latest ATL institution to call the area home make an appearance.

President and general manager Chris Sienko along with Montgomery represented the Dream at the occasion last week at the Georgia International Convention Center.


Good evening, everybody. I’m your new neighbor. How are you?

–Chris Sienko, general manager and president, Atlanta Dream


I’ve got to tell you, I’m addicted to the south side and clearly College Park.

–Chris Sienko, general manager and president, Atlanta Dream

Sienko began his remarks with praising those that the Dream has worked with since the announcement of the move to the south Atlanta suburbs and hoped that those in the room, mostly business owners, would get their staffs to Dream contests in 2020 and beyond.

His pitch is that the best women’s basketball on the planet that once performed at State Farm Arena and the McCamish Pavilion has found a home in College Park.


You’re talking about the best 144 athletes in the world at what they do. The very best. The very best.

–Chris Sienko, president and general manager, Atlanta Dream

Sienko then introduced Montgomery who joked with the crowd in attendance that their claps were a bit too “proper” and was hoping for something a bit louder and more raucous as if they were at a Dream game.

The crowd obliged.


Basketball started out being the love of my life. So, imagine doing the same thing your whole life. I mean your whole life, think about this. Imagine starting at the age of six when you found the love of the game. Then this love grew to your junior high years and your high school years. And then you realized, ‘I can play this in college and get a free education.’ Then imagine you can play this game and they’re actually going to pay me to do it.

–Renee Montgomery, Atlanta Dream

Montgomery then spoke of her championship experience throughout her career from her AAU days to the W – and that she is in search of another.


I’m looking for my third here with Atlanta in College Park.

–Renee Montgomery, Atlanta Dream

The message of Montgomery’s? That a sport and winning at said can be part of an athlete’s entire identity. So much that the thought of that thing being part of an athlete’s entire identity can be taken away in a few seconds.


The life of an athlete means rehabbing for months not knowing if you’ll be the same player you was before you got hurt.

–Renee Montgomery, Atlanta Dream


I’m that kid, I’m that athlete and I’m always one step away.

–Renee Montgomery, Atlanta Dream

She then spoke of how basketball has helped her on and off the court – from gaining teammates who have become friends to becoming a role model. Montgomery also harkened back to that “one step away” with words of how she started her own foundation to continue her work to be that role model for the next generation.

She said that when thinking of what she wanted it to accomplish, a goal was to “spread positivity.”


One of the goals of my foundation is to promote discipline, teamwork, self-confidence and work ethic – in young athletes and also especially in girls.

–Renee Montgomery, Atlanta Dream

Montgomery then talked about Nike’s Game Growers program which is a collaboration between Nike, the WNBA and NBA with the aim of increasing participation of girls in their early teens to participate more in sports. She described the skillset that sports provides as important for life inside and outside the sporting realm.

One of the initiatives of the Renee Montgomery Foundation is the Let’s Go Pro program which was designed to broaden the reach of women’s professional sports – including the WNBA.


I started with my home state, because in West Virginia we don’t have any professional sports teams in the state.

–Renee Montgomery, Atlanta Dream

Montgomery felt at first it would be no hassle to get funding given the circumstances, but she would be proven incorrect.


Michelle Obama once said it’s not about the amount of money you make, it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives.

–Renee Montgomery, Atlanta Dream

Montgomery got the funding. She particularly shouted out Eat Clean Bro and Commodity Cables since she said the funding from those two organizations in particular allowed for 60 people to experience a professional sporting event.


I received feedback from a lot of the participants – many of whom did not follow women’s basketball before the trip and now are avid fans and advocates for the game.

–Renee Montgomery, Atlanta Dream

Montgomery said that her foundation has more planned for 2020. She said that the success of her foundation’s initial initiative changed her mindset to wanting to leave a legacy for future generations.

The word “legacy” had meaning to her as she mentioned she looked up the word on Google and thought that she would try and connotate her successes with her legacy – not necessarily her failures even though that is part of it too, she mentioned.

She went back to earlier in her speech to when she mentioned she was in a lot of championship games, but did not win them all.


Maybe me losing the national championship my first three years at UConn is what helped me to motivate my teammates to go undefeated my senior year. Fast forward to the pros – I will never forget Game 5 playing with the Minnesota Lynx against the Los Angeles Sparks (in 2016). We were three seconds away from going back-to-back. Three seconds.

–Renee Montgomery, Atlanta Dream


I can still remember watching Nneka Ogwumike gather her rebound and put the ball back in as the time expired. And maybe because we lost the way we did in 2016, it helped us to come back the next year and win the WNBA title. I don’t know…maybe.

–Renee Montgomery, Atlanta Dream

She then touted the avenues that basketball can open up outside of being a player – such as being a coach (like Nicki Collen) or in the front office (like Mary Brock or Chris Sienko) or a commentator with ESPN or Peachtree TV with the Skyhawks as she is. Or one could be a company spokesperson and travel to places one has never seen before.

Another scenario Montgomery highlighted was the idea of starting back at square one in a new career in one’s early 30s. She talked about how she foregoed her overseas basketball salary to pursue a new career in entertainment as an actor. She also entered into the Harvard Business School’s Crossover Program.


As I started reflecting on the places basketball had taken me and to where I am now, I truly started to appreciate the things that it taught me – discipline, teamwork, self-confidence, work ethic. I’m thankful because all of those traits I learned – doing what I love is what helped me succeed in my new career path.

–Renee Montgomery, Atlanta Dream

She closed by saying she wanted her legacy to be more than just basketball. She says it remains the love of her life, but pondered what she wanted hers to be.

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