Two-Time WNBA Champion Renee Montgomery Retires After 11 Seasons

Two-time WNBA champion Renee Montgomery is retiring after 11 seasons in the league. Montgomery made the announcement on Tuesday on her podcast, Remotely Renee.

Montgomery, the No. 4 pick in the 2009 WNBA draft, opted out of the 2020 WNBA season last June in order to pursue social justice reform. 

She had spent the 2018 and 2019 seasons with the Atlanta Dream and had previously played with the Sun, Storm and Lynx, with whom she won both her titles.

“I was just looking outside of the window and I'm asking [my mother, Bertela], How should I go about being involved in this moment?” Montgomery told Sports Illustrated this fall.

Montgomery also expanded on her existing foundation, which she created in 2019. She added a number of initiatives, including the Remember the 3rd program, which focused on increasing her community’s involvement in local politics through the creation of workshops and pep rallies. She was also involved with More than a Vote (a group co-founded by LeBron James to combat systemic voter suppression) as well as Last Yard, which raises money to improve education at HBCUs.

"I want the Black and brown communities to be in a space that's going to be in the future,” Montgomery told SI. “We're not necessarily ingrained in that space yet.”

Montgomery is in her first season as a studio analyst for the Atlanta Hawks on FOX Sports Southeast.

In her 11-year career, Montgomery earned WNBA All-Star honors in 2011 and was named the WNBA’s Sixth Woman of the Year in 2012.