At the Lynx final home game of the season tonight, the top-seeded WNBA team will be giving away pink wigs.
If you’re extremely offline and missed the hype around the StudBudz — arguably Minnesota’s biggest celebrities right now — we’ll get you up to speed on the bestie teammates known for their charismatic, all-access livestreams and matching pink crops.
Lynx guards Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman, who met in 2019 when they both played for the Connecticut Sun. After a few years on different teams, Williams and Hiedeman were reunited by the Lynx in 2024.
When Williams played in the WNBA All Star Game in July, the duo filmed the long weekend for 72 hours straight. Candid cameos with star players included Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark, who said she’d watched hours of the stream. The duo even got WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert to get down with them on the dance floor. (Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who was also filmed partying with the StudBudz, later joked that video of her was “AI.”)
The StudBudz All Star stream countered negative misperceptions that WNBA players are bitter rivals and showed there’s a lot of camaraderie among the fierce competitors. Also, the besties’ openness about their lives — the StudBudz are unapologetically themselves, talking about everything from their ideal partners to their periods — is a stark contrast from most pro athletes’ tendency to guard their privacy.
The StudBudz’ accessibility also reflects the WNBA’s inclusive, community-focused approach and underscores how players’ salaries make their lifestyles more relatable than those afforded their men’s league peers. And they’re countering the tendency for the spotlight to shine brightest on straight white women athletes who adhere to stereotypical feminine beauty standards.