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As I settle in post-wedding and honeymoon, I wanted to share my favorite storylines from the beginning of the WNBA season. Even if you’re not into the Xs and Os of the game itself, there are plenty of exes and ohs to keep you paying attention. Let’s get into it.
Dyke drama
The on-court interactions between the Indiana Fever’s NaLyssa Smith and the Connecticut Sun’s DiJonai Carrington in the first week of the season brought many lesbians to the W. The internet is asking, “why did no one tell me how messy the WNBA is???” and I have been staring back like, “I swear I’ve been trying!!”1
“These visible relationships serve to normalize queerness on a large, public scale,” I wrote back in 2022. “And they also introduce mainstream culture to a different way of thinking about relationship and community, one where exes frequently coexist and interact with one another — something familiar to any person who has ever walked into a lesbian bar and seen their friend making out with their ex while another ex is sipping a drink at the next table.”
Anyway, a story in five (?) parts. The context here is that Smith and Carrington very publicly dated each other and are rumored to have broken up shortly before the season started:
The Sun and the Fever met in the first game of the season. After a hard foul, Smith helped Carrington up off the floor by her waist.
The next week, the two teams met again. Carrington got a huge block on the Fever’s Erica Wheeler and Wheeler had words about it. Smith stepped in and stopped her own teammate from yelling at her ex-girlfriend (also worth noting that Smith and Carrington wore matching shoes to this game).
After that game, Carrington tweeted the following:
Then Smith left this comment on a photo of Carrington (they had previously unfollowed each other on socials).
Several W players (and former players) weighed in.
However, Smith’s brother Rodney has chimed in on X to let me know “they drama really not as deep as yall think,” so… noted.
But if you don’t think the league is above using the drama to promote their games, think again:
Straight drama
Right before the season, the Las Vegas Aces’ Kelsey Plum announced her divorce from her husband of about a year, NFL player Darren Waller. Plum has been on a revenge tour, showing up to games looking hot as hell, appearing in the WNBA’s new Skims campaign looking hot as hell, launching her own cigar brand and looking hot as hell.
This week, Waller released a song and music video about their breakup and it’s so embarrassing for him that I’m not even sure what to say. In the video, a fictional version of Plum stabs Waller and kills him?
Plum should dump him again, if possible. I can only imagine the fun the Aces locker room is having with this gem.
Dick jokes (and box jokes, equal opportunity genital jokes)
The Aces’ Sydney Colson (also seen above) is always out of pocket and this season is no different. She has many jokes, including making dick jokes about her teammate’s Gatorade ad and box jokes about her team’s speaker donation.
Love triangles in the history books
The Sun’s DeWanna Bonner passed her ex-wife, Candice Dupree, in all-time league scoring, on a pass from her teammate and fiance, Alyssa Thomas.
Revenge seasons
A’ja Wilson was snubbed in the MVP voting last season so she has made sure that no one forgets her name this year. To start the season, she became the first player in WNBA regular season history to have five consecutive games with 20+ PTS and 10+ REB (h/t Across the Timeline). She’s also posted a double-double in all five Aces games so far this year.
Last season was Dearica Hamby’s first with the Los Angeles Sparks after the Aces traded her while pregnant and she brought a discrimination lawsuit against the team. She has been putting on a clinic, showing why trading her was a mistake. She is now is the first player in WNBA regular season history to log seven consecutive games in a season with 17+ PTS and 9+ REB (h/t Across the Timeline). She is averaging (19.0) points, (13.2) rebounds, and (4.6) assists in her last five games.
After spending a season out of the league and struggling to find a team where she fits well, Chennedy Carter is back in the W playing for the Chicago Sky and WNBA legend Theresa Witherspoon in her first year as head coach. She’s shining and looking great and this could be the breakout season she’s been waiting to have.
Like all of us, Diana Taurasi is living for the drama this season.
Angel Reese, meanwhile, is ready to keep bringing it.
Some links for your weekend
At
, asks, “How many Palestinian lives must be lost before FIFA & the IOC decide to intervene? What fresh horror is necessary for sports to align with the increasing demands for Israel to be held accountable?”Also from Sports Politika, a new sports field in an illegal East Jerusalem settlement tells the story of how the Israeli government dispossesses and discriminates against Palestinians.
PWHL Minnesota beat PWHL Boston in a winner-take-all Game 5 to become the first PWHL Walter Cup Champions. Minnesota’s Michela Cava (who, imo, should have been Walter Cup MVP but I digress) continues her streak of championships: 2022: ZhHL champion; 2023: PHF champion; 2024: PWHL champion. She won this one with her girlfriend, teammate Emma Greco, which must have felt very special.
As the WNBA goes mainstream, it’s worth watching if and how less feminine/more masc-of-center players get pushed out of fashion coverage and conversation. Not great: this piece from The Daily Beast. Very good: this one from Harper’s Bazaar (some of the best quotes from the piece are below, featuring the queer players):
“I probably wear more makeup during games than I do in regular life, but it’s like: People get ready for work to look their best,” Carrington told Harper’s Bazaar. “So, for me, this is my work, and I like to look my best too.” (Worth reading: this NYT piece from 2022 about women basketball players and their on-court beauty looks, with an emphasis on the Black players, including Carrington.)
“I’m big into fashion. I’m the girly one that wants to be in heels, and my fiancée, Alyssa, is like, ‘The only way I’ll do it is if I’m comfortable,’” Bonner told Harper’s Bazaar. “I don’t wear makeup—I’m not waking up any earlier than I have to, you know? But I’m always gonna have a lip gloss—or five or six—on me.”
“I love Devin Booker’s style: comfy and casual. I feel like a lot of my looks are based off of that,” Thomas told Harper’s Bazaar. “Something I’ll never wear? Heels. Definitely never.”
“I’ve been in touch with fashion since I was a kid, but it has been amplified now,” Arike Ogunbowale told Harper’s Bazaar. “My personal style? I would definitely say streetwear—cozy, cool sweatpants. If I do wear pants, it’s jeans.”
Christen Press and Tobin Heath have launched a gender-inclusive clothing brand called re—inc.
They also went to an LA Sparks game:
As did The L Word’s Leisha Hailey and Rosie O’Donnell:
How motorsport is quietly leading the way for trans inclusion in sport
Mark A. Myers is a hall-of-fame girls basketball coach who has a history of grooming and harassment that dates back to the 90s. Texas Monthly published a 9-month-long investigation into his crimes.
WNBA players Layshia Clarendon and Brianna Turner wrote an op-ed for CNN advocating for the NCAA to let trans athletes play: “In our experience in professional basketball, no one specific type of athlete garners success. Every athlete is different and every athlete’s success is based on a multitude of factors, including their access to nutrition, equipment and coaching. Like all athletes, transgender athletes sometimes win, sometimes lose and work hard to compete.”
Speaking of Clarendon, Adidas debuted their Pride Collection and Clarendon is one of the faces of it:
Bob the Drag Queen making three-pointers in heels is A VIBE
- wrote about the small, grassroots sports leagues and organizations that are centering gender inclusion amidst a youth sports landscape that is ever more exclusionary.
From The Climb to Kentucky, Cat Runner Is Building a Queer Future for His Sport: “A lot of the stuff that I do, I’m creating because it doesn’t exist and because I want it, or I would have wanted it.”2
Who are we protecting Caitlin Clark from exactly? The idea of pettiness toward the Indiana Fever star isn’t about Clark, writes David Dennis, Jr., but rather about how we treat Black women we think are upset by her success
Jane Fonda’s aerobics empire was a fundraising effort for the Campaign for Economic Democracy & helped her recover from bulimia
Sha’Carri Richardson, still hot:
Diamond DeShields, always a vibe:
For those wondering, I originated the WNBA coverage at Autostraddle and also got the Washington Post to let me compare the WNBA to Alice’s chart from The L Word.
You can read more about Runner’s work in my piece on Trans Climbers Belong for The Nation
As someone who does not watch ANY basketball, I have to tell you how much I loved this newsletter and how much I'm enjoying your brilliant WNBA-related writing and analysis.
Sydney Colson is my MVP