Mystics coach Sydney Johnson left Saturday’s game against the Dream in heated fashion and eventually had to be escorted off the court by police in Atlanta.
Johnson’s blow-up moment came late in the third quarter after Dream star Angel Reese drove into the paint and drew a foul from Mystics’ Alicia Flórez on her layup attempt. Johnson didn’t appear to like that call at all, though it’s unclear exactly what he was complaining to the refs about. He had to be held back by his assistant coaches several times, and Mystics star forward Kiki Iriafen even butted in trying to calm Johnson down and de-escalate the situation.
Following several back-and-forths in which Johnson kept on pursuing the WNBA refs, the second-year Mystics coach received two technical fouls and was ejected from the arena. But a visibly angry Johnson kept on jawing at the refs, which caused the Atlanta police to step in and escort him off the court.
Watch that very tense exchange below:
Washington Mystics' head coach Sydney Johnson was escorted off the court after this interaction with the officials. pic.twitter.com/rssNiDowBF
— espnW (@espnW) June 7, 2026
And here is Reese’s side-eye reaction to seeing Johnson get tossed:
The players on the Dream are too relatable 😭 pic.twitter.com/KGDSrexamR
— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) June 7, 2026
Dream crushes Mystics in one of franchise’s worst losses of WNBA season
The Dream were up 64-43 at the time of Johnson’s testy confrontation, and it’s fair to say tensions were running high at the moment. After his ejection, and after the Mystics got blown out 109-77, Johnson bluntly brushed off his emotional on-court outburst.
“I lost my cool. Nothing more than that. Officials did what they did," Johnson said. “I don’t want to get into it. I don’t want to take away from how Atlanta played and how we played.”
Five Dream players put up double figures in Saturday’s rout, including Angel Reese who recorded 18 points and 17 rebounds (her fourth consecutive double-double and seventh this campaign). Saturday’s win marked Atlanta’s highest-scoring game so far this season, with the Dream also tallying a whopping 16 steals as they improved to 7-3 on the year.
Meanwhile, the Mystics fell to 4-5. Iriafen and Sonia Citron finished the night as the team’s top scorers with 24 points and 18 points, respectively. It wouldn’t be surprising to see Johnson get slapped with a fine from the WNBA for his mid-game blow-up; any potential discipline will likely be handed down in the coming days.
