How the StudBudz are revolutionizing the WNBA - ESPN

«I WENT OVER there to de-escalate the situation,» Natisha Hiedeman says.

With her pink hair poking out of her blue hood, she's explaining her role in an incident at the end of a Minnesota Lynx-Seattle Storm game. The details don't matter much. But here goes: Hiedeman's Lynx teammate Kayla McBride fouled Erica Wheeler on a drive to the basket. McBride scooped up the ball and tossed it in frustration toward Wheeler. Seattle's Skylar Diggins rushed toward McBride. Hiedeman stepped in and had a few words for Diggins.

«I was like, 'You know what? That whole little crush that I thought I had… it's out the window. It's gone.'»

Courtney Williams, sporting sunglasses and matching pink hair, busts out laughing in her perch next to Hiedeman. She grabs her teammate's chair, shakes it and stomps her feet on the floor.

«You know what she told me?» Hiedeman continues. "'Shut up. I know you still like me.'"

Williams. Just. Can't. She gets up and staggers out of the frame as Hiedeman cackles at the camera that's livestreaming the conversation.

This is StudBudz. They're open. They're honest. They're Black. They're gay. They're masculine. They're beloved. And they're always recording.

At the start of the season, Williams and Hiedeman unleashed StudBudz accounts on Instagram and TikTok. From there they took their banter to Twitch. They streamed 72 straight hours during WNBA All-Star Weekend, which catapulted them into the mainstream and spawned merch like «Everyone watches StudBudz» T-shirts. Napheesa Collier even flaunted a giant StudBudz chain on the bench during Minnesota's Aug. 21 game in Atlanta.

In a season deprived of a full suite of Caitlin Clark magic, in a season that saw the rise of the Lynx, in a league that has only recently