Dallas Wings guards Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers talk practice on the team’s opening day of training camp at College Park Center in Arlington on April 19.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News
Last Monday night, while Dallas Wings fans gathered at Happiest Hour in Dallas for the 2026 WNBA draft watch party, I was glued to my TV after I got home from work, turning it on just in time to watch as WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert read the Wings’ selection in their second consecutive year with the No. 1 overall pick.
I was personally rooting for Dallas to get TCU’s Olivia Miles, who was in my philosophy class at the University of Notre Dame not too long ago. But, the outcome of Azzi Fudd and Wings guard Paige Bueckers, who played together on University of Connecticut’s national championship squad, reuniting on the same team is too perfect.
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The cameras panned to Fudd’s table, where she embraced her parents and made her way to the stage, walking past her UConn teammates cheering and capturing the moment on their phones. And of course, the cameras zoomed in on former-and-future teammate Bueckers, who was drafted to the Wings as the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft. The Wings’ star’s smile spread across her face as Fudd took the stage.
Fudd hasn’t said much more than that she’s excited to be playing on the same team as her best friend again. But people are wondering what exactly the status of their relationship is.
Fudd and Bueckers have been friends since long before their UConn days, but it wasn’t until last summer that they announced this was more than friendship. The couple hard-launched their relationship during WNBA All-Star weekend, where Bueckers answered questions in a video about her “division-1 girlfriend” and Fudd posted an Instagram story showing off her pink “Paige Bueckers’ girlfriend” phone case.
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Columnist Kevin Sherrington asked the question on everyone’s mind at a press conference last week — if Bueckers and Fudd are still together — only to be shot down by a member of the team’s media staff who said they would “respectfully decline from commenting on our players’ personal lives.”
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The question is a fair one from the press that covers this team, and the Wings could have phrased their “no comment” so it didn’t sound so intense. But I worry that the public’s fixation on the status of Bueckers’ and Fudd’s relationship takes away from a great moment in a sport that is finding its audience.
It’s a huge accomplishment to play a sport on a professional level, even more so to be the top pick of your class. Maybe Fudd wants to take a minute to bask in her hard-earned achievement without all the chatter about Bueckers. Maybe she wants to be able to be seen for her athleticism more than her relationship.
It’s rare for two No. 1 picks in back-to-back years to end up on the same team, and even rarer that two of the WNBA’s top players could also be in a relationship. But whether they are still together or just trying to figure out what the next phase of their relationship looks like, expecting them to explain all of this days after they also just found out they will be on the same team isn’t fair.
At the end of the day, they’re basketball players. Their talent, work ethic and ability to perform at the highest level got them here. If they choose to share something about their personal lives, they should be able to decide how, when and where.
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It’s one thing to announce you’re dating your former teammate on your own social media account or a short video clip. Answering questions at a press conference might be a little more out of your comfort zone than filming a TikTok video that’s supposed to be lighthearted and fun.
And sure, we ask male athletes about their relationships all the time too, but they aren’t typically dating someone who is on the same bench as them.
Wings training camp was underway this week, and Buckers and Fudd have been popping up in clips on the Wings’ social media accounts, shooting hoops as their first preseason game against the Indiana Fever next week draws closer.
In all of this, if fans were excited about Bueckers’ debut with the Wings last year, the addition of Fudd this season is sure to compound interest in the team.
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At the end of March, UConn played Notre Dame in the NCAA Elite Eight at Dickie’s Arena in Fort Worth. There was a strong showing of Irish fans, but the rest of the arena was there for UConn, and for Fudd specifically.
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There were just as many fans decked out in Wings merch as those in UConn gear. And even though the draft was still a few weeks away at that point, some had already secured Wings jerseys with Fudd’s No. 35, confident that she would land in Dallas. At halftime, fans eagerly crowded in the aisle behind the UConn bench, hoping to snap a selfie with Fudd’s parents, who were there cheering on the team.
In time, we might learn more about the duo and their relationship, but for now, the Wings drafting their newest star should be enough to hold everyone’s attention.
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