Angel Reese's 'Uncomfortable' Dave Portnoy Opinion Ended StudBudz Barstool Linkup
The duo of Minnesota Lynx guards Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman (who call themselves the "StudBudz") took over the 2025 WNBA All-Star weekend because of their constant live streaming, which granted unprecedented behind-the-scenes access to a player's perspective of what the All-Star Game is like.
The StudBudz' streams caught the attention of Barstool founder Dave Portnoy, who made an X post on July 19 that read, "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".
A bit later on, the StudBudz announced that Portnoy was going to show up on one of their live streams. When they announced this during a stream, the topic of Portnoy being a notorious Angel Reese hater came up, as the duo was asked by a fan how they were going to address this with him.
"Okay, so when Dave comes on, we're gonna ask him, 'Hey Dave, ‘Why are you talking about Angel like that?’" Williams said.
Angel Reese's Opinion of Dave Portnoy Ends StudBudz Potential Linkup
Ultimately, Williams never had the chance to ask Portnoy this question because he never joined a StudBudz stream.
And the reason it fell through had to do with Angel Reese, which was revealed in a StudBudz profile in Vogue that was released on September 4.
“She pretty much said bro made her feel uncomfortable and [Portnoy] be saying some nasty things about her on the net,” Williams said about a conversation she had with Angel Reese about Portnoy.
She then added, "Angel is our dog for real, and we don’t ever want to do anything that’s going to make the people we work with or are cool with uncomfortable. So we were like, all right, that’s over with.”
They talked to Angel over the phone and put end to the linkup. pic.twitter.com/0ObdMmaDfO
— StephGotPlex (@Stephaniesdj) September 5, 2025
Williams later added, “We had a conversation with Angel, and I think that’s all we owe that situation."
Earlier in the article, Williams noted that she had no idea who Portnoy was before all of this occurred, and therefore wasn't familiar with his opinion of Reese.
Ultimately, it's probably for the best that this collaboration didn't happen, as it likely would have stirred up more issues and frustration for the StudBudz than they would have been willing to deal with. Angel Reese is surely happy that it didn't happen.
Angel Reese is surely happy that it didn't happen.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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