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Dallas Wings guard Azzi Fudd (center), the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA basketball draft, take part during an introductory press conference with head coach Jose Fernandez (right), and general manager Curt Miller at Hyatt Regency Dallas, on April 16, 2026.<\/p>\n
Shafkat Anowar\/The Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Azzi Fudd\u2019s introductory news conference Thursday in a Hyatt Regency meeting room overflowing with friends, family, media, a half-dozen of her new Wings<\/a> teammates and a 7-foot gecko taught us a few things about the latest No. 1 pick from UConn.<\/a><\/p>\n Like the fact that she once hit a shot to beat her new coach in college. Or that her mom played in the WNBA.<\/a> Or that she stars in a new commercial with the company repped by the aforementioned lizard.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n We also learned she loves barbecue, wants to visit the Stockyards and would like to buy a cowboy hat to match the new black boots she wore Thursday.<\/p>\n But the first thing you might have wanted to know, as to whether she\u2019s still dating her new\/old teammate, Paige Bueckers?<\/a><\/p>\n Make Dallas News a preferred source so your search results prioritize writing by actual people, not AI.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Add Preferred Source<\/p>\n <\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n No sooner did yours truly pose the question as well as a follow-up about whether they\u2019d sought the counsel of the WNBA\u2019s other couples than the Wings\u2019 moderator interceded.<\/p>\n \u201cI understand why you have to ask that question,\u201d Pam Flenke said, \u201cbut we\u2019re going to respectfully decline from commenting on players\u2019 personal lives.\u201d<\/p>\n Before getting to the opportunity missed Thursday, as well as the unfortunate statement made in its place, let\u2019s get this straight: It\u2019s not as if I broke any news. The relationship went viral when Bueckers announced it last summer.<\/a><\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Now, eight months after their joint interview in Glamour, all of a sudden the subject is off-limits, which is not a little ironic, considering it just moved from\u00a0TMZ material to mainstream news story.<\/p>\n As far as I can tell, this is the first time in any sport a player taken with the first pick of the draft could be in a relationship with a player already on the team and who just happens to be a former No. 1 pick as well. I mean, what are the odds? Even Fudd said she couldn\u2019t believe in the possibilities until after she got the news.<\/p>\n But the story isn\u2019t that the Wings were bad enough two years in a row to end up so fortunate. The news isn\u2019t even an old tale of two young teammates in love.<\/p>\n If that\u2019s still the case, of course.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The story is that, after doing their due diligence, with the wide, wide world to choose from and a cast of candidates including a terrific point guard just down the road at TCU,<\/a> the Wings may have gone with the one player bound to have a bad day with your best player.<\/p>\n Let me try to put this in perspective: As a partner in a relationship of nearly 40 years, I think I can safely say it\u2019s a good thing the lovely wife and I no longer work in the same building. Living in the same house is occasionally fraught with peril. If I were to throw a basketball to her some days, she might not throw it back.<\/p>\n Not when I was looking, anyway.<\/p>\n Maybe Bueckers and Fudd \u2013 if they\u2019re still an item \u2013 are mature beyond their years. Maybe they can put aside any grievances for the good of the team.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Maybe they\u2019ll never have a bad day.<\/p>\n But that is not the way to bet, which is why I asked if they\u2019d discussed relationships with any of the WNBA players on record about theirs. Others have made it work. In 2018, the Chicago Sky\u2019s Allie Quigley and Courtney Vandersloot got married. Three years later, they helped their team to a title. Diana Taurasi and Penny Taylor didn\u2019t acknowledge their relationship until after they won three titles with the Mercury, at which point they married.<\/p>\n Curt Miller, the Wings\u2019 GM, has had experience with couples. Back when he was in Connecticut, DeWanna Bonner and Alyssa Thomas started dating in 2020, got engaged three years ago and now play for the Mercury. DiJonai Carrington and NaLyssa Smith, both of whom played for the Wings last year, acknowledged their relationship on social media before apparently splitting.<\/p>\n This much is clear: Miller\u2019s not afraid of the potential challenges of couples on the roster, even if he won\u2019t talk about it.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n When I asked him after the news conference whose idea it was for the no comment, the players or the organization, he would only say they would \u201cnever\u201d comment on athletes\u2019 personal lives. Which sounds good, right? But who\u2019s speaking for whom? Hard to say. While Flenke issued the no comment, Fudd looked a little, well, befuddled. Bueckers wasn\u2019t among the teammates who showed up Thursday in support.<\/p>\n Before you say the media should stay out of athletes\u2019 personal lives, you should know we butt in all the time. The vast majority of stories draw few objections. As Dak Prescott<\/a> and Dirk Nowitzki<\/a> and any number of Dallas superstars over the years will tell you, we write about the love lives of male athletes, too. Because your personal life can impact your professional life.<\/p>\n By signing up, you agree to our Terms Of Use<\/a> and acknowledge that your information will be used as described in our Privacy Policy<\/a>.<\/p>\n So if it\u2019s good enough for male athletes, shouldn\u2019t it be the same for female athletes playing on the same team?<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Refusing to acknowledge whether players are still in a relationship after one of them went public about it a year ago suggests they\u2019ve done something wrong, feeding an ugly narrative. What are we afraid of here? What are we saying when we try to hide something already out in the open?<\/p>\n If anyone\u2019s at fault here, it\u2019s the Wings, who invited the obvious question by drafting Fudd when they had other options, then acted as if they were covering for something that didn\u2019t need hiding. Bueckers and Fudd didn\u2019t deserve this. No matter what their status from here on out, I wish them better luck.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dallas Wings guard Azzi Fudd (center), the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA basketball draft, take part…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":254039,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[2353,102,104,103,88877,94507,89478],"class_list":{"0":"post-254038","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-commentary","9":"tag-dallas","10":"tag-dallas-headlines","11":"tag-dallas-news","12":"tag-tp-dallas-wings","13":"tag-tp-wnba","14":"tag-tp-paige-bueckers"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254038","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=254038"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254038\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/254039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254038"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254038"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254038"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n
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