How Kelly Loeffler’s WNBA Team Became Her Most Passionate Opponent

Elizabeth Williams will say she doesn’t like conflict, that she isn’t usually political, but the photo from this summer looks a lot like a challenge. In it, she stands straight against a stucco wall, feet shoulder-width apart, and from behind her mask, she is staring directly at the camera. On her black T-shirt are the words:

VOTE
WARNOCK

In 2016, when a group of WNBA players became the first athletes to publicly support the Black Lives Matter movements, wearing T-shirts to their games in defiance of league rules, Williams was a newcomer to professional basketball, unsure of what to do and nervous about provoking the league’s ire.