If there’s one thing the current NBA playoffs have reminded us of, it is how good of a product the WNBA is. While the Oklahoma City Thunder are getting a personal referee escort to a dynasty, the W actually allows the players to play. I for one am grateful to have at least one professional basketball league in which contact doesn’t turn a players bones to Jell-0, and isn’t rewarded with free throws. The W is arguably a better product right now than the NBA and it’s one of many reasons why women’s professional basketball is more popular than ever, and quickly gaining traction in terms of ratings, attendance, revenue and cultural zeitgeist.
And as the sport continues to grow, players are becoming household names. One of them is Maddy Westbeld, a Notre Dame product who is now power forward for the Chicago Sky. Westbeld was a first round draft pick in 2025 and is looking to make a big leap in her sophomore season after the departure of Angel Reese, for whom she spent the majority of her rookie effort relieving.
And it turns out Westbeld is big time into coffee.
She joins a growing cadre of professional athletes who take their coffee seriously. Jimmy Butler, Hunter Pence, César Salazar, the list of athletes seeking out coffee and coffee experiences wherever in the world their day job takes them. And on a recent trip to Portland, Coffee Feed’s Gio Fillari caught up with Westbeld to go deep on the subject.
In the two-part interview posted first to @sprudge on Instagram, Westbeld talks about her go-to coffee orders, what she looks for in a cafe, how the sports and coffee worlds mingle, her routine, and how coffee is a large part of her world.
In the first video, Westbeld explains her coffee habits, including the two drinks she had with her for the interview.
View this post on Instagram
Fillari and Westbeld talk cafe design and matching tunnel fits to coffee, where I adamantly disagree that iced coffee is a better accessory, because I think it’s time we introduced ceramics into the world of fashion.
View this post on Instagram
So if you’re getting tired of the NBA’s whistles chirping like birds flying south for the winter and want to explore basketball that is actually fun to watch, allow me to suggest rooting for Maddy Westbeld and the Chicago Sky. You could front run with Caitlyn Clark, A’ja Wilson, or Paige Bueckers (though the Bueckers-Azzi Fudd re-connection is one of the better storylines going right now), but how can you not acknowledge the coffee connection in Chicago?
Zac Cadwalader is the managing editor at Sprudge Media Network and a staff writer based in Dallas. Read more Zac Cadwalader on Sprudge.
