To be a sports fan in 2025 is to be increasingly reminded of what used to be. So many things that were once institutions in their respective sports—the battering ram fullback in football, the baseball pitcher who regularly throws complete games, etc.—have either gone extinct or are at the stage of life where it’s time to get their affairs in order.
Beyond the games themselves, there’s the fact that athletes with outward, gregarious personalities have all but vanished. Look back to the ’80s and you’ll find rip-roaring MLB players doing blow and fighting cops, global soccer icon Diego Maradona doing even more blow, and the explosion of professional wrestling, a sport that’s not technically a sport but was completely personality-driven. The ’90s brought Michael Jordan and his cult of personality, Charles Barkley’s savagery—imagine how horrific and exhausting the discourse would be today if an NBA superstar threw an unruly fan through a plate glass window—and wild-boy figures like Michael Irvin, Eric Cantona, and John Daly. In the 2000s, hip-hop culture bled into the sports world, with Allen Iverson and Michael Vick as vanguards of the shift. But then things got … much tamer.
It’s easy to blame social media for that—every athlete with even a dollop of fame knows they could be posted every time they step outside—but there’s also a sports-wide flattening of individuality. This is why, when Anthony Edwards responds to virtually every question of his online fan Q&A with an unapologetic “Hell nawl,” a chorus of people clamor for him to be the face of the NBA. Sports needs this kind of attitude, the argument goes—but most of the athletes today are too guarded, too protective of their brand, or simply too boring to make it happen.
Unless they’re attending the WNBA All-Star festivities.
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All weekend in Indianapolis—a city that, let’s be honest, is not on many people’s travel list—personality, elation, and self-expression oozed out of every corner. From the literal (massive Gatorade ads all over downtown showing WNBA players of past and present, splashed with text reading “Let her cook”) to the figurative (the impossible-to-replicate feeling that takes over a city whenever a capital-E event is in town), every inch of Indianapolis was dominated by the women’s basketball-palooza. But inside of all the merriment, from the league-sanctioned orange carpet and other media availabilities to the after-hours parties that punctuated every night, an unrehearsed joy jumped out. WNBA players know that, by virtue of being a professional athlete in 2025, they are a brand. But crucially, they know that their brand can also be fun.
Unlike many of their modern contemporaries, WNBA players are not shy about letting loose. Let’s begin with the unquestioned winner of the weekend: Minnesota Lynx point guard Courtney Williams. The 31-year-old two-time All-Star and co-host of the Twitch show StudBudz with her Minnesota running mate Natisha Hiedeman was living her best life and then some. On Friday morning, sitting at a table in Gainbridge Fieldhouse, I approached Williams and asked how she was feeling. “Shitty,” she responded. “Oh my goodness, bro. I did too much last night. But we had a ball!”
