The WNBA’s Studbudz Are Ready to Run It Back

Their rise has also, unsurprisingly, had an effect on their dating lives. Studbudz fans are legion; at games last year, I frequently spotted pink hair in the stands, as well as a hopeful”Here 4 the Studbudz” homemade sign at a Liberty-Lynx game. Hiedeman has signed at least one boob. “It’s been a lot of motion,” Williams says.

“Don’t ask Courtney!” Hiedeman interjects, laughing. “[These girls] be coming at Courtney bold. They want her bad.”

Williams smiles. She’s single and having a good time. “It ain’t going to be like this forever,” she says. “Might as well enjoy it while I’m in it.”

“Am I single?” Hiedeman says ponderingly. “I’m off the market.”

“So you’re not single!” Williams says, laughing. “If you’re off the market, that means you’re not single. You’re in a relationship.”

“Take it how you want to take it, world,” Hiedeman says.

“She’s in a relationship and I’m single,” Williams offers. “For all the girlies that want to know.”

Their banter reminds me of something Whitmore observed when we talked about the rise of the Studbudz. “They are being genuinely who they are,” she said. “What you see is what you get with them. When it comes to basketball, both of them take it super serious and you can see it in the way they play and the way they train. But you can’t live life serious all the time. There has to be some type of comic relief. They are genuine about their job; they’re genuine about their sense of humor; they’re genuine about how they live life, period.”

So much in this era of professional women’s sports is, by necessity, rooted in the fight for equality, for better treatment, better pay, better opportunities. WNBA players routinely receive death threats and racist and homophobic attacks, and in addition to their jobs as athletes they’re expected to regularly stand up and speak out for so much more. The Studbudz are down for that cause, but they’re also a refreshing reminder that exceptional women athletes can be a lot of fun, too. Especially when they’re allowed to be themselves.

“It’s the best when somebody just comes up to you like, ‘Oh, you have no idea what you did for my relationship with me and my daughter,’” Hiedeman says. “It’s crazy, because you don’t understand it when we just stream. We just on there talking. You’re not thinking about how impactful [it is] and what you actually doing for people.”

Hiedeman has flourished in Seattle, where she’s averaging career highs in her first season as a starter. “I’ve been really just embracing my time out here and enjoying it, enjoying my teammates,” Hiedeman says. “I just miss my friend a little bit more now. That’s all it is.”

Williams, who will play in her third All-Star game in Chicago this weekend, says the plan is to keep the Studbudz alive, even if they never end up on the same team again. “I want our All-Star Weekend to be like Streaming University,” she says. “We’re not able to stream as much as we was when we was on the same team, [but] it’s something that people look forward to every year. No matter what it is we doing in the between time, we know that we can always turn All Star Weekend up and folks can get that inside look. So hopefully [it’ll get] bigger and bigger.”