A neon pink cloud rolled toward me, illuminating the dimly lit Indianapolis convention center in which I stood. Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman, dressed in matching blush track suits and fuchsia hair, made their way through a sea of euphoric fans participating in an activation put on by Unrivaled (the 3x3 league created by their Lynx teammate Napheesa Collier). Tenzin, a member of the pair’s management team, followed close behind with a phone held horizontally, nestled casually in the palm of her hand. If one wished to interview Williams and Hiedeman over WNBA All-Star weekend, that meant joining the duo’s 72-hour Twitch livestream, entitled StudBudz (which doubles as a nickname for the pair). As I asked Williams and Hiedeman about their webcast’s meteoric rise to becoming a cultural phenomenon around the W, I felt an existential pang as an itch took hold of my brain that I couldn’t quite scratch. To bear witness to the StudBudz was to assume a minor role as an extra in their Twitch universe. It was all very meta, which is precisely what had made StudBudz the WNBA media juggernaut it has become.
Minnesota stars Williams and Hiedeman have livestreamed as the StudBudz throughout the 2025 WNBA season, going viral for the occasional outlandish or charming off-the-cuff comment. However, the two’s commitment to the form hit a crescendo over All-Star weekend. Making good on their promise to go live for three days, the stream remained active even as the pair slept. Was it distracting trying to get some shut-eye knowing you're being broadcast across the internet? “I count sheep, baby,” says Williams. “I sleep peacefully,” adds Hiedeman.
During waking hours, a veritable who’s who of WNBA stars tumbled in and out of the livestream’s frame, captivating viewers (nearly 18,000 tuned into StudBudz for their coverage of the All-Star Game). One moment commissioner Cathy Engelbert was captured dancing to Crime Mob’s “Knuck If You Buck,” the next Angel Reese was seen partying with the pair. At one point, Sydney Colson danced into the shot, then hours later, Nneka Ogwumike was depicted entering Williams and Hiedeman’s room to inform them of an upcoming CBA meeting. In a particularly heartwarming moment, the livestream caught Hiedeman telling Williams that the All-Star festivities had been the best weekend of her life.
WNBA COMMISSIONER, CATHY ENGELBERT, DANCING TO "KNUCK IF YOU BUCK" BY CRIME MOB????????
— zavanté (@taylenciaga) July 19, 2025
STUDBUDZ HAS GONE TOO FARRRRR, BRUH 😭😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/pWbEwMwvcj
“I made so many memories with my best friend and just all the people I got to meet and talk to and just bring the people with us too, this one is going down for me in the books,” says Hiedeman.
As much of a spectacle as StudBudz turned into over All-Star weekend, the stream also served as the summer’s preeminent buddy comedy with an audacious runtime of 72 hours. Friendship is at the heart of Williams and Hiedeman’s popularity, and as is the case with any compelling buddy comedy blockbuster, the duo are potent foils for one another.
“I really feel like we are the same person, just different,” says Williams. “We align on so many things, but our energies are so different. She is just a soft, lover girl, and they say I am a strict, mean girl. I feel like it’s a great balance between us.”
While Williams asserts that they didn’t, at any point, forget that they were on camera, StudBudz does have a candid feel, thanks in large part to the charm, authenticity and candor of the pair. They said they have no regrets about what was broadcast either.
“They’re being themselves, and I think that’s attractive,” said Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve. “I remember a time in our league that that would not have been O.K., so I think that’s how far we’ve come.”
StudBudz—much like the league the duo plays in, and the players the livestream highlighted—is queer. Yes, many of the league’s players and fans are gay, but the culture surrounding the WNBA was also built on an elemental queerness. It’s part of why the league is endlessly entertaining, joyful, subversive and holds a singular place in American culture. But that fact was not always embraced, and players weren’t always encouraged to freely express themselves. Williams and Hiedeman offered an unflinching, all-access pass into what has long been the league’s essence, but still beholding it in all its unedited glory in 2025 was simply delightful.
The fact that this generation-defining piece of WNBA content occurred on Twitch is also notable. If the medium is the message, then StudBudz is a show for our time. The platform has recently evolved into something of a town square, with various Twitch personalities, like Hasan Piker, dominating the recent political discourse. Many online pundits, often young men, sit for hours on their respective streams, dispensing and commenting on the day’s news as a graveyard of various beverages accumulates before them. StudBudz flipped that formula on its head while staying true to the platform’s spontaneous ethos.
Twitch’s webpage is ornamented with purple accents and lined with a nonstop rolling chat. It’s the stuff of brain-rot’s dreams and Foucault’s nightmares, but the ad-hoc look, sporadic emojis and lo-fi vibes fit so seamlessly into a pop culture ecosystem that simultaneously reveres nonchalance and is obsessed with authenticity. Williams and Hiedeman met their audience where it was at, creating an utterly raucous and random show.
When asked for one word to describe the weekend, in unison, Williams and Heideman exclaimed, “Lit!” That much was evident as a hot pink haze wafted into Sports Illustrated’s All-Star afterparty on Saturday night. Much like how I met them, the pair floated through the dark, cavernous space, immediately bringing to life a drowsy party. Williams jumped onstage, joining Grammy-award winning artist Diplo, holding the crowd in the palm of her hand, almost as if to say, this is how it’s done.
There’s something to be said for people who know how to curate fun, I thought, when I felt a bump on my shoulder. I turned to find a man holding a phone attached to a tripod pointed in my direction with Hiedeman dancing in the vicinity. “We were definitely just on StudBudz,” I heard over a thumping bass.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as How the Hot Pink Haze of StudBudz Took Over WNBA All-Star Weekend.
