Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers addresses her relationship with Azzi Fudd during media day at College Park Center on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.
Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
ARLINGTON — Paige Bueckers had something on her mind and she spoke it.
Ever since the Dallas Wings drafted Azzi Fudd No. 1 overall in the 2026 WNBA draft earlier this month, discourse has swirled about Bueckers’ relationship with Fudd, along with how media members should handle it in their coverage.
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Bueckers, the No. 1 pick in 2025, put that debate to bed Monday in an opening statement to reporters attending Wings media day at College Park Center.
“Quite frankly, I believe me and Azzi’s personal relationship is nobody’s business but our own,” Bueckers said. “And what we choose to share is completely up to us.”
Related: Refusing to acknowledge Azzi Fudd, Paige Bueckers relationship feeds an ugly narrative
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Dallas’ decision to draft Fudd, who was tabbed as one of the best players in this year’s draft class more than a year ago, has attracted national attention partly because Bueckers confirmed last summer that she and Fudd were in a relationship. When Dallas Morning News columnist Kevin Sherrington asked Fudd at her introductory news conference April 16 about the status of her relationship with Bueckers, Wings spokesperson Pam Flenke stepped in.
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“I understand why you have to ask that question, but we’re going to respectfully decline from commenting on our players’ personal lives,” she said.
The exchange became one of the biggest stories in sports, fueling a debate about what reporters should or shouldn’t ask, along with what coverage of the WNBA should entail.
Bueckers, like Flenke did two weeks ago, acknowledged on Monday the perspective of media members.
Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers addresses her relationship with Azzi Fudd during media day at College Park Center on Monday, April 27, 2026, in Arlington.
Elías Valverde II/The Dallas Morning News
“I understand you have a job to do and you have to ask questions about the basketball aspect of it, so that’s what I will be addressing today,” Bueckers said in her opening statement.
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“Me and Azzi have always been the utmost professionals. We’ve always conducted ourselves as such. We’ve never let anything that happens off the court carry on to the court, and that’s what we continue to do. I’m not entirely sure if this is new to media members, to social media, to new people who are watching the WNBA or women’s basketball in general, but me and Azzi are not new to this,” she continued.
Related: Five takeaways from the first week of Wings training camp
Bueckers and Fudd won a national championship together at UConn in 2025, with Fudd earning Most Outstanding Player honors at the Final Four that year. In her final season at UConn in 2025-26, Fudd averaged 17.3 points on 48.1% shooting, 2.6 rebounds and 3.1 assists for the 38-1 Huskies who finished in the Final Four.
“Azzi Fudd was the No. 1 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,” Bueckers said.
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Dallas Wings guards Azzi Fudd (left) and Paige Bueckers talk practice on the team’s opening day of training camp at College Park Center on Sunday, April 19, 2026, in Arlington.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
The two back-to-back No. 1 picks are key pieces of a rebuilding franchise that has struggled since moving to North Texas in 2016, but could be on the rise with big moves in free agency that included resigning All-Star guard Arike Ogunbowale and adding top talents such as reigning co-defensive player of the year Alanna Smith.
While conversation has circulated about the status of Bueckers and Fudd, relationships between players on the same team have been common in the WNBA. In 2025, the Wings signed DiJonai Carrington and NaLyssa Smith, who were a couple. As a coach and general manager in the WNBA, Wings GM Curt Miller has built a reputation for working with teammates who are also in a relationship.
The high profiles of Bueckers and Fudd have put them under more of a microscope, however.
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Related: How will Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd jell on the court? Wings’ timer starts at training camp
“I don’t think that you can have the growth in the game that we’ve had without the exposure and the media, so it’s kind of like that double-edged sword, at least for someone like me who doesn’t love the media,” Fudd said earlier Monday in response to a question about the increased attention on the league and its players and how she navigates it.
She added that she’s tried to limit her social media consumption.
“You don’t always need to know what people are saying, what they’re talking about, what they’re doing,” Fudd said.
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Bueckers, the WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2025, added strength in the offseason and has found her voice as she enters her second professional season. Poised to help the Wings change their trajectory after a 10-34 season last year, Bueckers also wanted to reclaim the narrative.
She shut down any further questions about her relationship with Fudd.
“If we 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,” Bueckers said.