NEED TO KNOW

• The WNBA has several couples, some of whom have even played on the same team

• WNBA legend Diana Taurasi and her wife, Penny Taylor, met as teammates on Phoenix Mercury

• Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd played together at the University of Connecticut before going pro in 2025 and 2026, respectively

The WNBA is home to several couples who were brought together by their shared love of basketball.

While some duos play on the same team, others, like Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner, compete against each other. Thomas and Bonner were previously teammates on the Connecticut Sun, however they now play for the Phoenix Mercury and the Atlanta Dream, respectively.

“It’s a gift and a curse right?” Bonner told the Associated Press in June 2024 of working alongside her fiancée. “Because there’s time that we go at it and we’re competitors ... But on the court, I just feel like she knows me. I know her. She makes me better. She makes my job easier.”

Here are six WNBA couples whose chemistry goes beyond the court.

01 of 06

Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd

Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd first met at a USA Basketball tryout camp in 2017.

“We both made the team, I realized that she’s actually one of the best players I’ve ever seen play,” Fudd told The UConn Blog in July 2021.

They became friends, and after Bueckers committed to UConn for college basketball, she convinced Fudd to join her the following year. They went on to win a national championship for the Huskies in 2025, and Bueckers was selected as the first overall draft pick by the Dallas Wings that April.

In July of that same year, Bueckers confirmed that she was dating Fudd during an interview with WAG Talk. The following year, Fudd was drafted by the Wings, and the duo once again became teammates.

“She’s an incredible person,” Fudd told ESPN of Bueckers at the time. “An incredible player, and it’s gonna be a lot of fun.” 

02 of 06

Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley

Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley, affectionately nicknamed the “VanderQuigs,” met during the 2012-2013 Euroleague season, per Sports Illustrated.

Vandersloot — a member of team Ruzomberok — and Quigley — a member of team Kosice — competed against each other in a five-game championship series in Slovakia where team Kosice came out on top.

The two ended up on the same flight home together, went on to play together for the WNBA team Chicago Sky and began dating in September 2013.

Five years later, the VanderQuigs tied the knot in December 2018. They welcomed daughter Jana Christine Vandersloot Quigley in April 2025, telling PEOPLE at the time that they were “over the moon.”

Quigley retired from the league in 2025. Vandersloot returned to Chicago that same year after a stint with the New York Liberty, where she helped bring home the team’s first-ever WNBA championship.

03 of 06

DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas

Bonner and Thomas were initially on opposing teams when they played for the Phoenix Mercury and the Connecticut Sun, respectively.

In 2020, Bonner joined Thomas on the Sun. The two grew close during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We couldn’t leave, it was just in the hotel room all day every day, around the same person,” Bonner told CBS News in June 2024. “So if you can do that, and spend that time with somebody and really enjoy it, I felt like, ‘Okay, this could really be my person.’ ”

The couple got engaged in July 2023. Bonner is also a mom to twin daughters Cali and Demi, whom she shares with her ex-wife, Candice Dupree.

04 of 06

Gabby Williams and Marine Johannes

Gabby Williams and Marine Johannes met in 2021 while playing on the French national women’s basketball team.

The couple have a bicoastal relationship, with Williams playing for the Golden State Valkyries and Johannes for the New York Liberty.

“My partner has been an all-star in my life,” Williams said during a press conference, per B/R W Sports. “There’s a lot of things that kind of go on behind the scenes, and just knowing that you have someone who’s there through it ... it makes my life and my job so much easier, just having someone by my side all the time.”

05 of 06

Diana Taurasi and Penny Taylor

WNBA veterans Diana Taurasi and Penny Taylor met in 2004 when they were both playing for the Phoenix Mercury. They tied the knot in May 2017 in Phoenix, one year after Taylor’s retirement from the league.

“It was the most amazing and beautiful day of our lives,” Taurasi told PEOPLE shortly after their wedding. “To be able to share our love with family and close friends meant the world to us.”

The Olympians welcomed their first child, son Leo, in March 2018, followed by daughter Isla in October 2021.

In February 2025, Taurasi announced her retirement from the WNBA.

“Mentally and physically, I’m just full,” she told Time. “That’s probably the best way I can describe it. I’m full and I’m happy.”

06 of 06

Tierra Ruffin-Pratt and Victoria Vivians

Former WNBA players Tierra Ruffin-Pratt and Victoria Vivians got engaged in July 2021 after Ruffin-Pratt popped the question.

The couple have since gotten married, and celebrated their three-year wedding anniversary in July 2026. They currently live in Oregon, where Ruffin-Pratt works for Nike, per her LinkedIn.

Read the original article on People