RBS #109 SKYKAR DIGGINS-SMITH WNBA TRENDSETTER & GAME CHANGER…

RBS #109
SKYKAR DIGGINS-SMITH WNBA TRENDSETTER & GAME CHANGER…

SKYLAR DIGGINS IS sitting in a booth in an empty restaurant near Manhattan’s West Side Highway, telling stories about a subject that’s intimately familiar to any woman who spends time on the internet: male trolls. The difference between Diggins and most women, of course, is that she has more than 600,000 followers on Twitter and nearly 1 million on Instagram, which is more than any other female basketball player on the planet. It’s more than the WNBA. So when she says she isn’t terribly bothered by guys being rude to her online because “there are too many to count,” I believe her. But that doesn’t mean she ignores them. “I block people,” she says, laughing. “I’m like Dikembe Mutombo.”

Ask whether people ever give her crap in real life. “Rarely do fans come up to me and say” — she impersonates a gruff male voice — “’Diggins, I think your shorts should be a little shorter.’” She rests her arm on the banquette. “Ain’t no man coming up to me and saying that.”

When the waiter approaches, he fidgets a little, and I wonder whether he’s trying to place her. At only 5-foot-9, it’s not immediately obvious that Diggins is a professional basketball player, much less a WNBA All-Star. She’s wearing a hoodie and leggings, with a light dusting of makeup (she just left a photo shoot), and her hair is pulled into a low, smooth ponytail. The waiter takes her order — turkey burger, salad on the side — then pauses, clearing his throat a little. “Um, are you by any chance Skylar Diggins?”

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