Athletics: Atlanta Dream’s newest guard

ATLANTA, Ga. (CBS46) - The southeast’s largest firework show is celebrating 25 years and they’re doing it with a bang from Centennial Olympic Park on July 3.

For the weeks leading up, the PeachtreeTV team is celebrating all things Atlanta ahead of the big show with the five aspirations:

Art
Athletics
Accommodations
Attractions
Appetite

We’ve already breezed through appetite and accommodations. Now, we focus on athletics!

PeachtreeTV announced as exclusive broadcast partner of ‘Look Up Atlanta’

No matter the sport and no matter the athlete — all players have faced adversity at some point in their careers and that can certainly be said about the Atlanta Dream’s newest guard AD.

The Douglasville native was drafted 2nd-overall by the New York Liberty in the 2019 WNBA draft, but an injury and testing positive for COVID-19 lead them to spend year 1 sidelined.

“I was getting worse, worse. I was vomiting. I couldn’t keep anything down. I lost 32 pounds, like, in a month,” AD said. “As much as I didn’t want to believe it, I was in denial big time. I’m like ‘I’m going to be fine but I felt so sick, I thought I was going to die.’”

AD says they were in a dark place for a while but something truly positive happened during their time away from basketball.

“I started therapy a few months ago, like last fall and she started asking me questions about who I am and I always knew, like, ever since I was a kid, I never liked people calling me - “girl” or “lady” or anything like that. I just didn’t, it just never felt right towards me.” they shared.

AD doesn’t considering themself a specific gender so they simply go by AD, but with people they trust, it’s a little different.

“With my close friend, my guy friends, we call each other ‘brothers.’ I’m comfortable with that. That’s who I am. I completely understand when I get on the basketball court, I’m playing with women but when I’m with my guy friends, they call me - ‘he/him’ and I’m perfectly fine with that. My fiance calls me ‘he/him.’ sometimes she says ‘they/them’ but when it comes to basketball, it’s either ‘AD’ or ‘they/them’ and that’s what, you know, feels natural for me,” AD explained.

AD is the only player in the WNBA listed with “They/them” pronouns.

“Where we are in society, like, you know, you have to be open,” said Atlanta Dream Head Coach Tanisha Wright. “You have to be patient, but you have to be respectful and I think we’re looking to be inclusive in everything that we do and so it’s unique but I think we’re up for the challenge.”

“You know, they ask questions. They already told me - ‘hey I don’t mean any harm if I slip up and say something wrong.’ I couldn’t have asked for better teammates. They’re really great people,” AD said.

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