Paige Bueckers has stated that her relationship with new Dallas Wings teammate Azzi Fudd “is nobody’s business but our own.” The pair, who were college teammates at UConn, were reunited when the Wings selected Fudd with the No. 1 overall pick in this year’s WNBA draft. They confirmed they were dating last year but have since offered few details, leaving their current status uncertain.
Bueckers Addresses Speculation
At a press conference on Monday, Bueckers made an opening statement addressing the gossip surrounding her and Fudd. “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,” she said.
Bueckers and Fudd have been friends since their teenage years and played together for four seasons at UConn, winning a national title. Bueckers emphasized their professionalism amid media attention. “Me and Azzi have always been the utmost professional,” she said. “We’ve always conducted ourselves as such, and we’ve never let anything that happens off the court carry on to the court. That’s what we continue to do.”
She added, “Me and Azzi are not new to this. We’ve been doing this for a long time. We have countless reps at it. We have a lot of experience with it, so we will continue to use that experience to show up and be professionals, great teammates, great leaders, the hardest workers, and continue to show up and do our job and help the Dallas Wings win basketball games.”
No Influence on Draft Decision
Bueckers also dismissed any suggestion that she influenced the Wings’ decision to draft Fudd. “Azzi Fudd was a 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 a basketball player, her resilience, her strength and her career-best year at UConn,” Bueckers said. “So, Azzi is her own great individual person, and she should be celebrated as such.”
After being drafted, Fudd told Dallas’ ABC affiliate, WFAA, that she was thrilled to join Bueckers. “Here I am, no control in where I get drafted, and I get to play with my best friend again. So it really is special,” she said.
General Manager Confirms Merit-Based Selection
Wings general manager Curt Miller insisted Fudd was selected solely on merit. “Words that we heard over and over again in the investigation of her was, a winner, competitor, a hard worker,” Miller said. “Obviously the skill set speaks for itself, an incredible shooter – probably one of the quickest releases in the game today, a defender with a lot of competitiveness and toughness, and, ultimately, all the intangibles that goes along with Azzi in the locker room – being unselfish, being an incredible teammate, being a high-basketball-IQ player. [It] all pointed us through a very deliberate and thorough process back to Azzi Fudd.”
The WNBA season begins on May 8, with the Wings playing their first game on May 9 against Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever.
