10 Gay Things Worth Talking About on WNBA Opening Week
Don’t bother yelling at me about how not everything is gay. :)
The question people ask me the most, all over the internet, is how to get into the WNBA. Who to root for? How to watch? Is it as gay as soccer? So I’m going to try to keep you updated this season on some of the most fun, most queer storylines. Don’t bother yelling at me about how not everything is gay because: a) this is the gayest sports league on earth, percentage-wise, b) there’s a whole heck of a lot of gay fans in addition to the gay players and coaches, c) the WNBA spent a very long time trying to make players not look or act gay and refusing to embrace gay fans, so it’s worth celebrating that queerness is simply woven into the fiber of the league now, and d) everything can be gay if you just believe.
So here are ten gay things worth talking about on opening week! Let me know if you like this style of post and I’ll try to keep it going every few weeks for the whole season! If you don’t like it, that’s okay, just don’t be sexist or racist or I’ll simply delete your comment and block you and curse you like a witch.
DeWanna Bonner Breaks More Records
DeWanna Bonner moved into fifth place on the WNBA’s all-time scoring list during the Connecticut Sun’s home opener against the Indiana Fever. She passed her ex-wife, Candice Dupree, to snag that spot, on an assist from her fiancée, Alyssa Thomas. Truly, you couldn’t script it any better.
Aaron Rogers enabler and troglodyte loudmouth Pat McAfee was at the game to watch Caitlin Clark’s first outing, and while he made me want to Taurasi his face when he said, “There are some bucket-getters on the other team that I have never heard of in my life,” while praising Bonner’s “smooth” play, Bonner simply turned it into good PR, tweeting: “Hiii @PatMcAfeeShow! It’s DB here. Glad you enjoyed the game!! No love lost at all!! Dope that you watched!! Now you can put a name to the face and team !!! 🙂🤝🏾 Check us out again!!”
Chelsea Gray Brings Her Baby to the Aces Ring Ceremony
New mom Chelsea Gray popped some noise-cancelling headphones on her new baby’s head and brought him along to the Aces home opener and ring ceremony. She opened the box with her enormous frikkin diamond WNBA Championship ring inside with her son propped up on her hip. (I’m assuming her wife, Tipesa Gray, had him during the game; I didn’t see him on the bench!) Bonus fun fact: Chelsea recently shared that Candace Parker is her son’s godmother.
Alyssa Thomas Is Coming For That MVP Trophy
Last season’s MVP race was maybe the most exciting in league history, and also the most dramatic. It was a three-way competition between A’ja Wilson, the best basketball player in the world and the leader of the two-time World Champ Las Vegas Aces; Breanna Stewart, the record-smashing veteran who led the New York Liberty to the WNBA Championship for the first time in over 20 years; and the Sun’s Alyssa Thomas.
AT (the player most queer women want to step on them) put up superheroic numbers no one had ever seen in the history of basketball. She boasted a career high 15.5 points, 9.9 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game. Triple-doubles became her standard. And after a lot of chatter about how the Sun were just too old to compete, she led her team to the semifinals where they ultimately fell to the Liberty. WNBVA MVP voting is some kind of weird ranked-choice situation and while AT did receive more first-place votes (23) than anyone, Stewie received eight more total points, overall, and won the trophy.
Well, AT has not missed a beat. She came out and put up a triple-double in the Sun’s season opener, looking just as dominant as she did last year, in front of a sellout crowd on ESPN’s most-watched WNBA game in 23 years. New fans learned her damn name!
Jewell Loyd’s Nike GT Cut’s Sell Out in 10 Minutes
The Seattle Storm’s superstar guard, Jewell Loyd, has been the face of Nike’s GT Cut sneaker since it launched. This off-season, while she was also continuing her pursuit of becoming a pickleball world champion, Nike asked if Jewell wanted to design her sneaker for this season. She has a buddy named Justice; he’s the neurodiverse son of her best friend. And so she asked Nike to send Justice some blank sneakers and let him draw his own design on them. He did, and the GT Cut 3 Jewell Loyd Dusty Cactus and Lilac Bloom was born. Loyd debuted the shoes during the Storm’s season opener, and when they went on sale the next day, they sold out in ten minutes. Justice’s family runs a non-profit called The Little Boy Blue Foundation; they advocate for and educate on neurodiversity, and provide access to therapies and financial resources. You can find out more about them right here!
Sydney Colson Does Face of the League Things
Sydney Colson is one of those WNBA players you might not know if you’re just a casual watcher, but if you’re a real fan, you know her as The Face of the League, a moniker she and former teammate Theresa Plaisance gave themselves for their hilarious reality series, The Syd and TP Show. Syd Colson is the league’s most hilarious and outspoken player; during the Aces’ post-championship press conference last year, she plucked the microphone from ESPN sideline reporter Holly Rowe’s hands to lead her whole team in clowning on the Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu. And her Twitter will leave you both endlessly entertained and begging her to log off.
Syd Colson is also one hell of a veteran basketball player. The Aces’ bench didn’t see much floor time last year, but Syd really showed out during the playoffs. Her contributions against the Liberty, especially defensively, were crucial to the Aces victory. Aces Head Coach Becky Hammon finally seems to be trying to figure out how to get her starters some rest, and during their season opener, that meant Syd got great minutes and pulled off one of the wildest plays I’ve seen in a while. When I asked my WNBA BFF Natalie if Syd passed the ball to herself, Natalie said, “She passed it to the best player she knows.”
Amadi Brooks Shines in Essence
Syd Colson’s partner is 28-year-old stylist Amadi Brooks, who dresses not only Syd but also A’ja Wilson and their Aces teammate Jackie Young. I’m not qualified to speak on any kind of style, so let me just turn to DapperQ owner Anita Dolce Vita, who wrote two seasons ago about how the WNBA was joining the NBA in celebrating Black athletes’ “long legacy of being fashion pioneers, of setting what is cool for the culture,” giving WNBA players — who are 80% POC — extra praise for refusing to “play up heteronormative sex appeal for marketing purposes.” This season, Ruth Etiesit Samuel is doing a whole series in Essence about the stylists who dress W players, and she kicked it off with Amadi Brooks!
Brittney Griner Makes Her Voice Heard
Brittney Griner is in a boot with a foot fracture, so she hasn’t made her 2024 debut just yet; however, she has been an absolute badass on her book tour, making stops for interviews with Robin Roberts, Joy Reid, J Wortham at New York Times Magazine, and Megan Rapinoe for The Cut. Coming Home, which tells the harrowing and heartbreaking story of her wrongful detainment and imprisonment in Russia, has been widely praised for its strength and vulnerability. She even narrated the audiobook. Today it became a NYT bestseller! Brittney and her wife Cherelle are also expecting their first baby, Bash, very soon!
Dyaisha Fair Makes the Aces Final Roster
Getting drafted into the WNBA doesn’t necessarily mean you’ll make a team. There are only 144 roster spots in the entire W and competition for them is some of the toughest sports stuff in the world. Syracuse star Dyaisha Fair has been underestimated at nearly every point in her career because of her size. The Aces drafted her in the second round, as the 16th overall pick. She balled out in training camp and at the team’s preseason games, and late last week we learned that she made the final roster!
Layshia Clarendon Kicks of Season 13 With a Triple-Double
Layshia Clarendon is another one of those players who might be flying under your radar if you’re new to the league — but you’re going to want to learn them. In fact, here’s an excellent primer: Katie Barnes’ ESPN cover story on Clarendon’s trans journey, their activism, and their long career in the league. This week, in the Los Angeles Sparks’ home opener, Clarendon dropped a triple-double! It’s their THIRTEENTH season in the W! A lot has been made of the Sparks rookies, and rightly so: Cameron Brink and Rickea Jackson are, collectively, 40 feet tall and so dynamic. But the Sparks would be lost without veteran leadership and it’s so rad to see Lay getting the numbers that speak to their impact all over the court.
Candace Parker and Dijonai Carrington For SKIMS
The WNBA is finally getting the partnerships and sponsorships it deserves. This week, SKIMS became the Official Underwear Partner of the WNBA and unveiled a new campaign featuring both Candace Parker and Dijonai Carrington (and Kelsey Plum and Skylar Diggins-Smith and Cam Brink, but I’m focusing on the gays here!). In the past, a few teams have partnered with TomboyX (my personal favorites), but it’s really cool to see a league-wide national campaign featuring two openly gay players. I wanna see some masc women next!
omg I love everything about this. I'm so happy you're going to write about the WNBgAy!!!
more pls!!!