{"id":697488,"date":"2026-05-27T16:43:19","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:43:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/697488\/"},"modified":"2026-05-27T16:43:19","modified_gmt":"2026-05-27T16:43:19","slug":"is-sarah-ashlee-barker-dating-wnba-teammate-emily-engstler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/697488\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Sarah Ashlee Barker Dating WNBA Teammate Emily Engstler?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SarahiStockphoto \/ \u00a9 Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images \/ \u00a9 Jaime Valdez-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

Sarah Ashlee Barker and Emily Engstler are not dating. Fans of the WNBA jumped to false conclusions.<\/p>\n

The second-year shooting guard just likes to rep her teammates during the pregame tunnel walk.<\/p>\n

There are a lot of WNBA<\/a> couples. This is not one of them.<\/p>\n

Emily Engstler played into the fake WNBA gossip.<\/p>\n

This whole thing started on Monday night. The Portland Fire traveled to New York to play the Liberty.<\/p>\n

Sarah Ashlee Barker, the No. 9 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, arrived to Barclays Center in a throwback Louisville jersey. She wore No. 21 for her teammate, Emily Engstler. Engstler played for the Cardinals<\/a> during the 2021-2022 women\u2019s college basketball season and reached the Final Four. She averaged a career-high 11.9 points on 46% shooting with 9.4 rebounds per game that season.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Ashlee Barker wore a jersey with Engstler\u2019s name on the back during the pregame tunnel walk. The frontcourt-backcourt duo arrived to the game together and shared an elaborate handshake for the cameras.<\/p>\n

\ud83e\udd1d pic.twitter.com\/uhCfIJoice<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Portland Fire (@theportlandfire) May 25, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n

WNBA fans are messy. They immediately started to speculate that the above video is an official hard launch. Engstler is a well-known figure within the league\u2019s LGBTQ community. Maybe this was Ashlee Barker\u2019s way of coming out of the closet.<\/p>\n

Engstsler even played into the chatter with a comment on Barker\u2019s Instagram.<\/p>\n

She called her \u201cgirlfriend\u201d with a wink.<\/p>\n

\"SarahInstagram<\/p>\n

So are they dating? WNBA fans are monitoring the situation, and technically speaking, we don\u2019t know that they are not dating. But the choice of jersey has nothing to do with it\u2026<\/p>\n

Ashlee Barker and Engstler are not together. They are not in a relationship. (Probably. Definitely.)<\/p>\n

Sarah Ashlee Barker wears her Portland Fire teammates\u2019 jerseys.<\/p>\n

WNBA fans created this relationship narrative based on the pregame arrival on Monday. Sarah Ashlee Barker wore Emily Engstler\u2019s jersey and walked in together so they must be dating. Right? Wrong.<\/p>\n

This is a new thing that Ashlee Barker does. She wore Bridget Carleton\u2019s jersey just a few days prior.<\/p>\n

pic.twitter.com\/YkbbaKFDeo<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 Portland Fire (@theportlandfire) May 26, 2026<\/a> <\/p>\n

The team made the following post on Tuesday after the Engstler jersey went viral on Monday. It was almost as if the administration wanted to clear things up on Ashlee Barker\u2019s behalf. (I bet that is exactly what happened.)<\/p>\n

Case closed. Sarah Ashlee Barker and Emily Engstler are not in a relationship. The former wore the latter\u2019s college jersey to a game. The latter made a joke on Instagram. Y\u2019all relax.<\/p>\n

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