For a significant portion of WNBA fans online, Minnesota Lynx players Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman were the breakout stars of the league\u2019s All-Star weekend in Indianapolis. Better known as the \u201cStudBudz,\u201d the duo went live on Twitch for most of the weekend, bringing fans behind the scenes for practices, parties and more. Now, as the StudBudz aim to keep their content growing down the stretch run of the WNBA season, they are hitting a wall as fans push back on their idea of bringing on Barstool Sports owner Dave Portnoy for an interview.<\/p>\n
After going viral for clips with Caitlin Clark<\/a> and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert over the weekend<\/a>, the StudBudz went live again this week as the WNBA season resumed. On-stream, Williams purportedly shouted Portnoy out for his support of the StudBudz throughout the weekend and suggested she would like to bring him on for an interview.<\/p>\n Williams then confirmed she had already connected with Portnoy and was planning out the interview.<\/p>\n the studbudz are down to collab with dave portnoy regardless of what the chat has to say pic.twitter.com\/EOuHr6XwlG<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 sonny angel \ud83d\udc7c (@imsosonnyy) July 23, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n When the Twitch chat began pushing back, Williams added that\u00a0their intention would be to call him out for some of his more contentious takes on stars like Angel Reese.<\/p>\n Stud Budz reveals they\u2019re going to confront Dave Portnoy about talking about Angel Reese when he comes on their stream:<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re gonna ask him, \u2018Why are you talking about Angel like that?\u2019 Because we love her bad.\u201d pic.twitter.com\/8NKUI0Xr4H<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 StudBudz HQ (@StudBudzHQ) July 23, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Quickly, their audience and the wider WNBA community online pushed back.<\/p>\n \u201cFans are upset that they would have such a horrible person on studbudz. As I think it\u2019s been a safe internet place for a lot of fans,\u201d wrote one Reddit user on r\/WNBA<\/a>, in a thread on the situation that already has 341 comments in less than a day.<\/p>\n \u201cunfortunately we live in the timeline where the studbudz would absolutely do a stream with d*ve p*rtnoy so now I just have to sit here terrified of the day it actually happens,\u201d wrote @bucketsnbooks on X<\/a>, in a post with 39,000 views and counting.<\/p>\n That led both Williams and Portnoy to defend themselves.<\/p>\n \u201cPeople are big mad at Studbudz just cause we talked. W fans are freaking nuts,\u201d Portnoy wrote on X. \u201cI got one of biggest megaphones in the country. I love them. I love the league. Yeah I don\u2019t like Angel and I love Caitlin. It\u2019s called sports.\u201d<\/p>\n People are big mad at Studbudz just cause we talked. W fans are freaking nuts. I got one of biggest megaphones in the country. I love them. I love the league. Yeah I don\u2019t like Angel and I love Caitlin. It\u2019s called sports. pic.twitter.com\/8BQd2tmVkW<\/a><\/p>\n \u2014 Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) July 24, 2025<\/a><\/p>\n Of course, Portnoy\u2019s comments about Reese run deeper than sports. The Barstool owner, who has fully jumped aboard the Clark bandwagon<\/a>, has called Reese a \u201cclassless piece of sh*t\u201d and while he has fervently denied his issues with her have anything to do with race, Portnoy believes his comments likely drove others to make Reese\u2019s rivalry with Clark about race<\/a>.<\/p>\n In the case of his interaction with the StudBudz, Portnoy likely came to the players\u2019 attention because of a viral clip in which he thoroughly praised Williams and Hiedeman and their content. Portnoy said the two should get a reality show and put his stamp of approval on the stream<\/a> as a marketing opportunity for the WNBA.<\/p>\n Nevertheless, Williams insisted she was open to bringing him onto the Studbudz\u2019 Twitch stream to talk about the WNBA.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll have a conversation with ANYBODY tbh,\u201d she wrote. \u201cDon\u2019t mean I rock with their views or the things that they\u2019ve done.\u201d<\/p>\n I\u2019ll have a conversation with ANYBODY tbh. Don\u2019t mean I rock with their views or the things that they\u2019ve done. And quite frankly I\u2019ll address ANYBODY. We getting a lil clout and I guess yall forgetting how we give it up \ud83e\udd37\ud83c\udffd<\/p>\n