After rising to fame during the WNBA All-Star weekend, the StudBudz are being called out by fans.
After the WNBA’s All-Star weekend, two new stars emerged: Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman, AKA the StudBudz. But after a meteoric rise due to their 72-hour all-access livestream during the All-Star festivities, the Twitch streamers are mired in controversy over Barstool Sports founder Dave Portnoy.
Less than a week after gaining countless new devoted fans because their livestream gave a behind-the-scenes look at the WNBA, the two Minnesota Lynx players are facing backlash from fans who are disappointed that Williams and Hiedeman admitted they would consider having Portnoy come on their Twitch show.
The controversy kicked off on July 19, when Portnoy shouted out the StudBudz on X, and the pair said they’d be open to talking to him. Fans were immediately up in arms because of Portnoy’s very vocal attacks on Chicago Sky star Angel Reese, but now the StudBudz have addressed the backlash.
"Okay, so guess what? When Dave comes on, we're gonna ask him, 'Hey Dave, ‘Why are you talking about Angel like that?’" Williams said on a July 23 livestream.
"Because we love her, bad," Hiedeman added.
"Y'all see how simple that is?" Williams continued. "Y'all all over like here like, 'No, no, no!' We don't run away from [this stuff]. ... I don't think he gonna deny it, he seem like the type of guy that's gonna stand on what he feels."
The pair continued to defend themselves on another livestream, where they talked about not wanting “conditional love” from fans. “We literally just said we open to having a conversations with anybody and that just made everybody be in like shambles,” Williams said. “It’s like c’mon bro. That conditional love, you can keep that, twin. Keep that conditional love because it’s going to be a lot of things me and T probably do that y’all probably ain’t gonna like.”
Yesterday, Williams also took to X to point out that Reese is not upset with the StudBudz over their comments. “The Studbudz have talked to Angel and she knows we don’t play about her AT ALL End of Story,” she wrote.
Who is Dave Portnoy?
Portnoy caught the StudBudz attention when he posted on X after having watched their All-Star weekend livestream, writing, "I’ve never downloaded Twitch or any streaming platform in my life. That was until today. Studbudz has done more marketing for the @WNBA with their 72 hour stream than the bozos running the league have done since its inception. They are hilarious and humanize everybody.”
But who is Portnoy?
Portnoy is a social media personality and businessman who founded Barstool Sports in 2003. What started as a free sports newspaper with edgy, controversial content has since grown into a media empire worth half a billion dollars. Barstool Sports is well known for popular podcasts like Pardon My Take, for helping to popularize Call Her Daddy before the podcast’s controversial exit, and Brianna Chickenfry’s BFFs podcast before she left the network.
Portnoy also made headlines in the past when he was accused of sexual assault by two women who made allegations that were made public in a 2021 Insider exposé.
But it is his ongoing criticism of WNBA star Reese that has fans up in arms with the StudBudz because they feel his comments are racially charged.
Angel Reese controversy explained
Portnoy is a vocal fan of the WNBA and has been a Caitlin Clark stan since she was first drafted, but has directed a lot of ongoing hate at Reese.
He has pushed the narrative that Angel Reese is classless, fueling the racially coded way people talk about Reese. He’s called her an “instigator, agitator, and jacka—,” has said that Reese is jealous of Clark, that she "deserved to get booed,” and has gotten angry at people who say his hatred for Reese has anything to do with race.
"I'm sick of ESPN making it a race issue," he said in a video posted to X. "You have a superior basketball player who constantly has someone below taking shots at them, won't shut up, and then plays the victim. … If [Angel] didn't have Caitlin, nobody would know who she is. If Caitlin didn't have Angel, it would be the same popularity for Caitlin."
After allegations were made that fans were hurling racist comments at Reese during a game against Clark, Portnoy called the WNBA’s investigation into the incident “bulls–t.”
“It’s okay to have a spine @IndianaFever,” Portnoy posted on X,“The ‘investigation’ was bulls–t. Both you and @WNBA gave credibly [sic] to a very obvious troll. @espn ran with it. @CaitlinClark22 had to defend her fans for no reason. You made something outta nothing. @IndianaFever fans deserve better.”
StudBudz fan backlash
After the StudBudz’s comments about Portnoy, fans quickly took to TikTok and X to criticize the pair for saying they would share their, now very large, platform with someone like Portnoy.
"The tragic irony in this….The only reason the Stud Budz are on Portnoy’s radar is because they were under Angel Reese all-star weekend & he’s obsessed with her! Now they trying to make deals with the [devil emoji] because he bought a Stud Budz jumpsuit."
"Before I buy anymore #wnba merch this year.. let’s see what players stand by studbudz after this bs especially with them blocking people who are just trying to inform them! David Portnoy is a racist essaier whonis also homophobic!"
Dave is a sick man #wnba #wbb #studbudz #courtneywilliams #natishahiedeman #basketball #daveportnoy
"i personally don’t see what studbudz is trying to do with dave portnoy. you are not going to change his view or mind nor are you doing a service for angel . i would respect more if they said they just want to get him on the stream and call it a day ."
This article originally appeared on Pride: StudBudz shoot back after facing fan backlash from Dave Portnoy & Angel Reese controversy
Category: General Sports
