{"id":633146,"date":"2026-04-28T01:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/633146\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T01:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T01:57:09","slug":"paige-bueckers-sends-clear-message-on-azzi-fudd-relationship-as-dallas-wings-prepare-for-wnba-season-international-sports-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/633146\/","title":{"rendered":"Paige Bueckers sends clear message on Azzi Fudd relationship as Dallas Wings prepare for WNBA season | International Sports News"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"PaigePaige Bueckers sends clear message on Azzi Fudd relationship as Dallas Wings prepare for WNBA season (Image via Getty) Paige Bueckers did not wait long to address the biggest question around her new team. At the Dallas Wings media day, she spoke openly about her bond with Azzi Fudd and made one thing very clear. Their personal relationship will not affect how they play basketball. This comes just days after the 2026 WNBA Draft, where the Dallas Wings picked Azzi Fudd as the No. 1 overall selection. That move brought the two former UConn teammates together again, this time in the WNBA. Because of their close connection, many fans started asking how the situation would work on the court. Some even shared rumors online about why Fudd was drafted.Bueckers chose to respond directly, but only once. She made it clear that the focus should stay on basketball, not their private lives. Her message was calm, simple, and very firm.<\/p>\n

Paige Bueckers explains Azzi Fudd relationship and Dallas Wings focus on professionalism and team success<\/p>\n

During media day, Paige Bueckers started by setting a boundary. She told reporters: \u201cThere is something that I wanted to address and I only plan on addressing it once. So, if you continue to get asked about it, we will refer to this moment in time or we will use this time to deflect and talk about our teammates.\u201d She then made her stance even clearer:\u201cQuite frankly, I believe me and Azzi\u2019s personal relationship is nobody\u2019s business but our own. And what we choose to share is completely up to us. But as media members, I understand you guys have a job to do, and you guys have to ask questions about the basketball aspect of it. So, that\u2019s what I will be addressing today.\u201dBueckers did not avoid the topic, but she kept the focus where she wanted it, on the game. She explained that both she and Fudd have always handled things professionally. Their time together at UConn already proved that.\u201cMe and Azzi have always been the most professional. We\u2019ve always conducted ourselves as such and we\u2019ve never let anything that happens off the court carry onto the court. That\u2019s what we continue to do.\u201dShe also pointed out that this is not new for them. They have already spent years learning how to balance everything. \u201cWe have countless reps at it. We have a lot of experience with it. So, we will continue to use that experience to show up and be professionals, great teammates, great leaders, the hardest workers, and continue to show up and do our job and help the Dallas Wings win basketball games.\u201dAt the same time, Bueckers addressed another big talking point, the reason behind Fudd\u2019s No. 1 draft selection. After the draft, some social media users claimed that Dallas picked Fudd just because of her connection with Bueckers. Bueckers shut that down completely.\u201cTo add on to that, Azzi Fudd was a number one draft pick because she earned it and it had nothing to do with me and everything to do with who she is as a human being, who she is as a basketball player, her resilience, her strength, and her career-best year at UConn.\u201dShe continued: \u201cSo, Azzi is her great individual person, her own great individual person, and she should be celebrated as such.\u201d Her words made it clear that Fudd\u2019s success stands on its own.Both players already have a strong history together. They played side by side at UConn and were part of a national championship run. That experience could help the Dallas Wings as they build their season. The team is set to begin its campaign on May 9 against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever. With Bueckers and Fudd leading the way, there is already strong attention on how the team will perform. For now, Bueckers has made the message simple, their focus is on winning games, nothing else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paige Bueckers sends clear message on Azzi Fudd relationship as Dallas Wings prepare for WNBA season (Image via…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633147,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[76200,28454,49,48,3459,4658,82,4664,630,236862,30324],"class_list":["post-633146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-2026-wnba-draft","tag-azzi-fudd","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-dallas-wings","tag-paige-bueckers","tag-sports","tag-uconn","tag-wnba","tag-wnba-draft-no-1-pick","tag-wnba-season"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}