Courtside courtships

In no American professional sports league are teammates more likely to date one another than in the WNBA.

The premier women’s basketball league in the United States has produced a number of openly lesbian couples. Diana Taurasi, the WNBA’s all-time leading scorer, paired up with Penny Taylor when they played together for the Phoenix Mercury. Two teams currently have couples on their rosters: Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner are with the Mercury, while Natasha Cloud and Isabelle Harrison suit up for the New York Liberty. The Chicago Sky’s Courtney Vandersloot and the Connecticut Sun’s Brittney Griner each married—strictly in the civic sense, not the biblical sense—current or former female partners whom they met as teammates.

The Dallas Wings selected University of Connecticut guard Azzi Fudd, the girlfriend of Wings star and former UConn teammate Paige Bueckers, with the No. 1 pick in this year’s WNBA draft. The two went public with their relationship last year, Bueckers’ first in the pros and Fudd’s last in college.

Which is why, at Fudd’s introductory press conference, Dallas Morning News reporter Kevin Sherrington naturally asked Fudd whether she had sought advice from other couples in the league about how to navigate their romantic relationships without adversely affecting team chemistry.

Immediately, the Wings’ female PR spokesperson shot down the question.

“I understand why you have to ask that question,” the spokesperson said abruptly. “But we’re going to respectfully decline to comment on players’ personal lives. Next question.”

The exchange briefly became a hot-button topic in the sports world. But one prominent independent journalist came to Sherrington’s defense.

“It’s a FAIR QUESTION!” former ESPN reporter Sage Steele posted on the social media platform X. “If 2 NBA players on the same team were dating, do you actually think the media wouldn’t ask [about] how their relationship could affect the team dynamic?

“Gimme a break. No need to coddle them. They’re professional athletes … who say they want equal treatment, right?!”

Actually, I’d argue that WNBA players demand superior treatment. It’s why their union negotiated a collective bargaining agreement that now nets its top players seven-figure salaries—the previous max was $235,000—even though the league has consistently hemorrhaged money for nearly three decades. But the WNBA’s likely implosion and seemingly inevitable bankruptcy filing are topics for a different day.

Steele’s point is a valid one. If the scenario she described—two NBA teammates dating—were to occur, it would send shockwaves through the sports world. It’s rare enough for male pro athletes to “come out of the closet,” so to speak. Instances of male teammates becoming couples are practically unheard of. Such an announcement would instantly grab headlines, and any sports journalist who didn’t ask about it would likely get fired.

By contrast, workplace romances in the WNBA frequently enter the public eye. And for the couples involved, that raises questions unique to their sport.

For instance, what happens if, say, Bueckers—Dallas’ point guard—starts feeding the ball to Fudd more than other teammates, even when Fudd isn’t in the best position to score or isn’t shooting particularly well on a given night? Would that create tension in the locker room with their other teammates and hinder the Wings’ ability to function as a unit?

Or what would happen if Bueckers and Fudd were to have an ugly break-up? If they still had to play side-by-side knowing things are permanently over between them, would either player experience a flood of emotions that adversely affects her effectiveness on the court? Would one of the players demand to be traded to another team? Would the Wings accommodate that demand?

And here’s another question: Did Dallas draft Fudd because she was the best college player available—at least one prominent commentator, Jason Whitlock, believes she wasn’t—or to please Bueckers, whom many WNBA observers rank behind Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark as the league’s second-biggest superstar?

These are legitimate questions that reporters who cover the NBA—or any other men’s pro sports league, for that matter—generally don’t have to ask because the bond men develop as teammates typically doesn’t evolve into romantic relationships. Brotherly love? Sure—think Chicago Bears running backs Gale Sayers and Brian Piccolo, whose close relationship inspired the 1971 TV movie Brian’s Song. But romantic relationships are a different thing altogether.

The conservative-leaning sports news outlet OutKick put it best: “Newsflash Dallas. You drafted a literal power couple to be your backcourt. You cannot market the Paige and Azzi chemistry for ticket sales and then act shocked when people ask about the drama.”

My thoughts exactly.