i'm always & forever on the AT for MVP train

a brief list of the good, the bad, & the ugly in queer women's sports

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the good

The Women’s Pro Baseball League held tryouts for their inaugural season last week. As someone who has followed and covered women’s baseball for a very long time, my feelings about this new league are much more conflicted than most of the uncritically positive coverage has been. However, this stays on “the good” list because of how much it means for these players to have an opportunity like this. I’m thrilled for them and hope the league succeeds.

The Women’s Rugby World Cup is underway and it is very gay.

Gabby Williams doing a tunnel walk with a nod to (her rumored fiance) Marine Johannes on her shirt? I think we call that a win.

seattlestorm

A post shared by @seattlestorm

Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd were very cute together on the IG “Close Friends” podcast.

overtimewbb

A post shared by @overtimewbb

The StudBudz were on the cover of SLAM magazine and, say what you will about them, it’s great to see players who fall outside of traditional norms being recognized as faces of the WNBA (I may eventually write something longer about these two, but I haven’t quite figured out what I want to say yet). “We’re representing the community, you feel me?” Courtney Williams told SLAM. “So we got a gay community on our back. Man, I feel like we showing the world like, the gays is here, baby. And we lit.” Also, Natisha Hiedeman walking a cow at the Minnesota State Fair is one of my favorite things ever.

slam

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I am forever and always on the “Alyssa Thomas for MVP” train, but can we talk about what she’s doing this season?? Alyssa Thomas now has seven triple-doubles in August 2025, which is three more than anyone else has in their WNBA career including the playoffs. She also has 40% (22 of 55) of the total triple-doubles in WNBA history. Not only that, she notched 31 assists over two consecutive games which is also a record, breaking Courtney Vandersloot's 30 from 2020. Additionally, she just logged the first ever 15+rebound/15+assist game in WNBA history (there is also no other player in WNBA history who has had both a 15-assist game and a 15-rebound game in their career—let alone at the same time). And then she as the audacity to look this hot too??

athomas_25

A post shared by @athomas_25

In the very first week of Dave Portnoy’s run on Fox’s “Big Noon Kickoff,” Ohio State barred him from going inside the Buckeyes stadium. Look, this is likely more due to the fact that he’s a Michigan alum more than anything else, but I always love to see Portnoy being given a hard time about something (less cool is Rolling Stone including Portnoy on their list of the “25 Most Influential Creators of 2025” without providing any critical context to his inclusion).

the bad