Pickleball Players Are Airing Their Community's Dirtiest Laundry — It's Incredible

Every pickleball community insists they're drama-free.

They're lying.

A popular Reddit thread asking players to "spill some tea" quickly turned into a confessional of affairs, feuds, gatekeeping, court wars, and one player so universally disliked that nobody wants to share a court with him.

Here are some of the wildest responses:

foosballallah

We showed up to the outdoor courts one morning and by the paddle rack, taped to the fence was a scorned wife’s manifesto to the mistress. I won’t go into details but it was spicy...

OkAirline4206

It's like the pickleball hunger games... I've seen adults standing inches away from each other, face to face, shouting profanity.

TeensyTinyPanda

We have a lovely lady who is going through a separation with her husband who, she found out, has been having an affair with someone he plays with. They're different skill levels, so they go to different sessions. We've all been looking out for this mysterious hussy.

Sad_Junket1351

No-one wants to play with R*. They don't like his serve, his line calls, his exclamations on points, his excessive lobs, his talking, etc...

TennisLawAndCoffee

I (female 5.0) beat some 4.25-4.5 guy in organized rec play. Said guy tells people I suck because I play too “fast”. Rinse. Wash. Repeat. It’s enough to make me want to quit this sport.

Lazza33312

There are public courts nearby where this older, LOUD guy acts like he is the mayor. He bosses everyone around but people put up with him because he organizes fabulous parties where other older players get drunk. Anyway, I was on a neighboring court when I heard him screaming at someone who called his ball out. He was furious and simply didn't accept the opponent's line call. So as he was being berated the guy walks off the court. I was appalled. 

Bruno_lars

People are making memes, gossiping about, and trolling a guy in my group who never plays down and makes bad calls

imaqdodger

A couple women made a list of all the guys in their group and rated them. Very high school-esque, except instead of rating their looks they rated their skill levels in pickleball. That list got out and one of the guys was pretty upset to find out they rated him as a 3.5. Technically everyone has a DUPR so making their own list seemed pretty unnecessary.

ChadwithZipp2

High schoolers on summer break occupying the courts and drinking beer on the public courts.

markarnon

Swindled! Our local “pickleball ambassador” (from 2021) opened up a pb venue at the mall. The place was packed all winter & spring and rainy days, but she somehow struggled with the business (even though there’s a large pb community, there’s lots of free courts in the summer). Everyone helped her by doing facilities fix up stuff and expanding from 4 to 6 courts. She even won several decent sized local grants. When she stopped paying rent just before last winter, we raised over $10k in “pre-paid “ memberships (like $300 each) to rescue her. She never settled the rent, and was later evicted. No one got their cash back and it came out later that another senior group loaned her another $30k.

Moral of the story? Every pickleball community has its own soap opera. Sometimes it's paddle queues. Sometimes it's ratings. And sometimes... it's an affair that has the entire club playing detective.

Anything especially scandalous going down on your local courts? Spill the tea: alex@thedinkpickleball.com

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