As such, Bueckers headed across the Atlantic to visit Mühl recently, posting a series of photos of herself and her former teammate in and around the point guard’s hometown of Zagreb, the capital of Croatia. Bueckers expanded on her trip to the Balkans while speaking with reporters Sunday.
“Most recently, I went to visit Nika. That’s like my best friend and my sister,” Bueckers said. “I want her to be a bridesmaid at my wedding. That’s somebody that I love a lot. To be able to go and visit her in Croatia right before the season starts, that was cool to be able to experience that. We’ve helped each other through a lot of dark times where we were fighting injuries and just going through stuff.”
Mühl and Bueckers overlapped for four seasons between 2020 and 2024, a stretch during which, as she notes, the UConn superstar spent quite a bit of time on the physio table. Bueckers was sidelined more than three months after sustaining a tibial plateau fracture and lateral meniscus tear against Notre Dame in December 2021, an injury that helped thrust Mühl into the starting lineup as a sophomore, and she missed the following season entirely with a torn ACL.
Her Croatian counterpart enjoyed a comparatively clean bill of health in Storrs, blossoming into the program’s all-time assist leader. Instead, Mühl’s wave of knee injuries has stunted her professional career, as she missed the 2025 WNBA season after an ACL tear in her left knee and will miss the upcoming WNBA campaign after tearing the ACL and meniscus in her right knee — she suffered her latest injury while playing alongside incoming UConn recruit Olivia Vukosa for Croatia.
Mühl began her WNBA career with the Seattle Storm but was recently picked up by the Portland Fire during this year’s WNBA Expansion Draft. She could be seen wearing a bulky brace in several of the pictures posted by Bueckers.
Bueckers’ trip to Croatia also resurfaced a playful, longstanding argument between her and Mühl, with the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year insisting that there are sharks in the Adriatic Sea, which she calls the “Croatian Sea.” “Twin trip needed for the soul. Can confirm they have sharks in the Croatian Sea,” Bueckers captioned her post, which included a Google screenshot attesting to the presence of sharks in the area.