Dallas Wings<\/a>\u2019 No. 1 overall draft pick\u00a0is undergoing season-ending knee surgery, the team announced Wednesday. The Wings said the arthroscopic procedure will address ongoing right knee soreness.<\/p>\n\u201cI know exactly what comes next: rehab, put in the work, come back ready and better than before,\u201d\u00a0Fudd wrote in a post on her Instagram story after the announcement. \u201cGrateful for my family, my circle, and the Wings organization for the support.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dallas ruled the guard out 30 minutes before tipoff against the Golden State Valkyries on Aug. 7, citing an abundance of caution after Fudd experienced soreness during warmups.<\/p>\n
It was the first game she missed since the Wings\u2019 May 12 home opener at College Park Center. The team also cited an abundance of caution in that situation.<\/p>\n
Fudd entered the WNBA coming off a long college season at UConn that included a run to the Final Four. The 23-year-old tore her ACL and MCL in 2019 and tore her ACL and medial meniscus in 2023. Both injuries were to her right knee.<\/p>\n
In 30 games this season,\u00a0Fudd averaged 13.1 points and 1.7 steals while shooting 39.7% from three.\u00a0Fudd\u2019s 62 made 3-pointers are the most in team history for a first-year player. Fudd became the first rookie in WNBA history to win the 3-point contest at WNBA All-Star weekend last month. She ranks top 5 in the league in steals.<\/p>\n
Fudd, who averaged 31.7 minutes per game, was a key member of the starting lineup. In games she hasn\u2019t played, the Wings have gone 1-5.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, when you have one of the best shooters that\u2019s probably going to play the game not on the floor, it\u2019s a little easier to guard us,\u201d Wings guard Odyssey\u00a0Sims told reporters Wednesday after practice before the team announced Fudd\u2019s status.<\/p>\n
Her absence is one of many obstacles the Wings (20-16) have faced in their post All-Star break slide, which has seen the team go 2-7 over its last nine games.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou go through ups and downs. It\u2019s pretty normal in this league,\u201d Wings forward Jessica\u00a0Shepard told reporters Wednesday after practice. \u201cObviously, Azzi not playing in some of those games I think impacts it a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Azzi Fudd\u2019s rookie season is over.\u00a0 The Dallas Wings\u2019 No. 1 overall draft pick\u00a0is undergoing season-ending knee surgery,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":411334,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[150,152,151,1638,136057,88877],"class_list":["post-411333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arlington","tag-arlington","tag-arlington-headlines","tag-arlington-news","tag-brief","tag-tp-azzi-fudd","tag-tp-dallas-wings"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411333","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=411333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/411333\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/411334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=411333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=411333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=411333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}