Alexa Philippou
Multiple Authors
Wings star Paige Bueckers addressed the thrill surrounding her relationship with teammate Azzi Fudd in a gap assertion at Dallas’ media day Monday, saying, “Quite frankly, I believe me and Azzi’s personal relationship is nobody’s business but our own, and what we choose to share is completely up to us.”
Bueckers went public together with her relationship with Fudd in July 2025, although the 2 haven’t commented on it since final summer season. Bueckers and Fudd, each No. 1 recruits out of highschool, have been teammates at UConn for 4 years, received a nationwide title collectively in 2025 and have been shut mates since their highschool days, when in addition they performed along with USA Basketball.
“Me and Azzi have always been the utmost professional,” stated Bueckers, who was chosen at No. 1 by Dallas final 12 months and is the reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year. “We’ve always conducted ourselves as such, and we’ve never let anything that happens off the court carry onto the court. That’s what we continue to do.
“Me and Azzi aren’t new to this. We’ve been doing this for a very long time. We have numerous reps at it. We have a number of expertise with it, so we’ll proceed to make use of that have to point out up and be professionals, nice teammates, nice leaders, the toughest staff, and proceed to point out up and do our job and assist the Dallas Wings win basketball video games.”
Bueckers said she plans to address her relationship with Fudd only this one time and that if they continue to get asked about it, they will refer to this answer or deflect and talk about teammates.
“Azzi Fudd was a No. 1 draft choose as a result of she earned it, and it had nothing to do with me and every little thing to do with who she is as a human being, who she is a basketball participant, her resilience, her power and her career-best 12 months at UConn,” Bueckers continued. “So, Azzi is her personal nice particular person individual, and he or she ought to be celebrated as such.”
The Wings selected Fudd No. 1 in this month’s college draft following her first-team All-American campaign for the Huskies. She was asked about her relationship with Bueckers during her introductory news conference April 16 before Wings PR intervened to say the team would not have players comment on their personal lives.
In an interview with Dallas’ ABC affiliate, WFAA, Fudd later described being reunited with Bueckers as, “So particular. Here I’m, no management in the place I get drafted, and I get to play with my greatest buddy once more. So it truly is particular,” adding that they will benefit from having established chemistry in how to play with and off each other.
Wings general manager Curt Miller previously said that while evaluating this draft class all over the world, “It at all times got here again to Azzi.” The 5-foot-11 guard averaged 17.3 points and managed a 45% clip from the 3-point arc as a senior at UConn and should provide some much-needed perimeter shooting for Dallas.
“Words that we heard again and again within the investigation of her was, a winner, competitor, a tough employee,” Miller said about Fudd. “Obviously the ability set speaks for itself, an unbelievable shooter — in all probability one of many quickest releases within the sport at the moment, a defender with a number of competitiveness and toughness, and, in the end, all of the intangibles that goes together with Azzi within the locker room — being unselfish, being an unbelievable teammate, being a high-basketball-IQ participant. [It] all pointed us by means of a really deliberate and thorough course of again to Azzi Fudd.”
The Wings kick off their season May 9 in opposition to the Indiana Fever in a matchup between the previous 4 No. 1 picks.
