"She even tried to get me into modeling": WNBA star Sydney Carter once opened up about her mother’s preferences for Texas coach’s career

Nobody can miss the well-dressed Sydney Carter when watching the Texas Longhorns games. The player development coach and assistant recruiting coordinator for the Aggies has captured headline with her bold fashion on the sidelines.

In an April 2023 interview with Black Love, Carter explained her love for fashion, which began at a very young age.

“Growing up, I was always into fashion, even though I did have a tomboy side. I loved sports and basketball since I was four, but I was wearing my mom’s shoes to school when I was in preschool. At one point, she even tried to get me into modeling," she said.

Sydney Carter's fashion went viral in 2022 when she was photographed courtside in pink leather pants. While women's basketball coaches coming to court in clothes off the runway are not new, Carter received unnecessary hate for her fashion choice.

“I never thought, let me put this on to get a reaction; that was never the case. I actually wore those pink pants because of Breast Cancer Awareness because women’s basketball celebrates in the month of February," Carter said.

"Of course, I saw the comments, but overall I’ve never paid attention to the negativity. The best advice someone gave me was not to look at it because you’ll feel like you need to comment."

---

Sydney Carter shuts down hate train

The coach has not shied away from donning different looks since then, and the hate towards her has not stopped. In a recent podcast appearance on "Way Up with Angela Yee", Sydney Carter addressed the negativity.

"A lot of people are not secure with their own confidence. So my confidence offended people. To this day, I'm not apologizing for who I am because I was raised this way. ... It surprised me because, at the end of the day, I was just doing my job," she said.

"And like I can't help that I'm curvy. I can't help that I like to dress a certain way and I've never been inappropriate. So, of course, to me, that's surprising because it's like, 'What did I do wrong?'"

Despite all the negative comments, Sydney Carter continues to share her game-day outfits with her 1.4 million followers.

She played for the Texas A&M Aggies (2008–2012) in college and then spent four years in the WNBA playing for Chicago Sky, Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever and Atlanta Dream before retiring in 2015. Carter also had an international career playing in Latvia and Israel.