What to Make of the Hayden Patriquin-Anna Leigh Waters Drama?

Is MLP back or what? We’ll have plenty to get to as the week goes along and we’ll have takeaways before Columbus starts. There’s so much to discuss both good and bad. But, we have to dive into one of the more interesting drama sequences we have seen in the history of pro pickleball.

If you haven’t seen the whole sequence of events, you should definitely take the time to view the whole sequence of events from at least a couple of perspectives – here and here. The essence of the conflict is that, following the conclusion of their mixed game, Hayden Patriquin and Anna Leigh Waters had a verbal altercation where Patriquin called Waters a “f—ing b—–“. This led to a whole sideline altercation as Waters went to confront Patriquin about the incident. 

There is one obvious thing that should be said up front. Hayden cannot be saying that to Anna Leigh. It’ll be hard to find anyone to disagree that he can’t say that. As much as people love the drama, there will almost certainly have to be a fine issued to Hayden by the UPA as this isn’t the first time Anna Leigh Waters has been called the big B word by an opposing male player – see: Staksrud, Federico. Or maybe not, if you try to decipher MLP’s very odd official statement on the matter.

There’s a lot to unpack about the incident but the overall take we have is that it is a bad look for most involved on both sides. 

As we said already, Hayden can’t be calling ALW a bitch, but the way ALW handled the situation was poor. It’s not so much that Waters went to confront Hayden. Rather, it’s how the incident unfolded as she did it. Something just rubs you the wrong way about how much of a deal their sideline tried to make out of being touched by the Shock employee (this appears to be their COO, Andrew Haines). 

In the heat of the moment, Haines was clearly conscious about keeping his hands off ALW. While it was likely unnecessary to use his body to keep ALW away from Hayden for as long as Haines did, he eventually concedes and then is bombarded by the 5’s sideline, including Leigh Waters, as if he did something reprehensible. 

It’s an objectively hilarious line for Leigh Waters to respond to Haines’s plea to get the video by saying “I’ll send it to your inbox”, but the whole sequence of events from both Anna Leigh and Leigh gives this air of entitlement that is off-putting. Even Leigh Waters appeared to tell Anna Leigh when things had calmed down that “you can’t go over there”, but it’s interesting that she was over there making a big deal out of what happened when ALW went to the Shock bench to confront Patriquin.  

It may seem weird to make this comparison but the ordeal gave some don’t lob me when I’m looking into the sun vibes. It felt like two siblings going at it probably because, well, Hayden and Anna Leigh are still teenagers. Though, that is not an excuse for being unprofessional as a professional athlete.

Kids, two wrongs don’t make a right.

However, beyond the incident itself, the situation was a reminder of how great MLP can be. Again, we have plenty of complaints coming out of the weekend but it is very clear that the fire and energy that MLP is capable of bringing to pro pickleball cannot be matched at tour style events. 

The 5’s are the most annoying team in MLP. Their relentless 1-2-3-4-5’s chant that their GM and part-owner, Ryan Harwood, leads makes you want to cheer against them. They have fans at every event because of this cult-like following Gary Vaynerchuk has from his supporters.

With all that being said, the 5’s are why MLP is fantastic. Their energy, cockiness and fire gets into the heads of their opponents. They support each other as well or possibly better than any franchise in MLP. And they have been a really good team that doesn’t lose much. 

Harwood is an instigator and teams want to beat him and the 5’s so badly that we can’t be surprised when things get out of hand as we witnessed on Sunday.

Sometimes people are going to cross the line when emotions get high and we have to live with that to create the best product possible. We shouldn’t want to beat the personality out of the MLP format because that is what makes it so unique to not only pro pickleball, but professional sports as a whole. 

It’s somewhat ironic to, on the one hand, criticize the behavior of everyone involved in the incident but also say that we want stuff like this to keep happening. However, both things can be true. Raw drama that is not manufactured is the best kind of drama.

Can you imagine what a best 2 out of 3 playoff matchup might look like between the 5’s and the Shock?

One other thing that comes to mind about why the Waters’s reactions rub us the wrong way, despite the instigating behavior being completely unacceptable from Patriquin, is that the 5’s as a franchise invite the back and forth with opposing teams.

The 5’s are constantly talking crap from the sidelines because they want to get players on the other team off their game. This is totally within their the right to do and they should keep doing it. That doesn’t mean opponents should cross the line but you also have to be ready to deal with some of the crap that will inevitably be thrown back at you. 

The MLP product remains a work in progress and athletes are always going to do things that are less than ideal. At the end of the day, though, the 5’s and the Shock showed us why MLP has the potential to be something special.  

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