Her hometown of Hopkins, Minnesota, renamed itself “Paige Bueckers, Minnesota” the night she played her first professional basketball game.
That is not hyperbole. The city council actually did it. And if you have been paying attention to women’s basketball for the last five years, you understand why a mid-sized Minneapolis suburb would consider that a proportionate response to what Olivia “Paige” Bueckers has meant to the sport.
At 24 years old, Bueckers is the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year, a two-time All-Star, an NCAA national champion, and the franchise cornerstone for the Dallas Wings. She is publicly dating her UConn teammate and current Wings backcourt partner Azzi Fudd, a relationship that has brought unprecedented visibility to LGBTQ+ representation in professional basketball. She also has a Nike player shoe deal, a Gatorade partnership she signed as a freshman that was the first of its kind in college sports, and a nickname, “Paige Buckets,” that tells you everything about what happens when she gets to the rim.
The town that renamed itself after her was not wrong.
Hopkins, Minnesota, and Learning to Play Like That
Bueckers was born on October 20, 2001, in Edina, Minnesota, and grew up in nearby Hopkins, where she attended Hopkins High School. Her parents, Bob Bueckers and Amy Fuller, divorced when she was three. Paige stayed with her father in Minnesota while her mother relocated to Montana. Bob, who played point guard himself in high school, coached Paige until she was in seventh grade. He has been at virtually every game since.
Her mother, Amy, competed in cross country and track at the University of St. Thomas. Athletics were woven into both sides of the family. Paige also has two brothers, Ryan and Drew, and a sister, Lauren, across her parents’ subsequent families.
At Hopkins High School, Bueckers played five seasons of varsity basketball, making her debut in November 2016 as a freshman and scoring 28 points in her first game. She averaged 19.0 points, 5.4 assists, and 3.9 steals across her high school career, leading Hopkins to a 30-0 record and a Class AAAA state championship game in her senior year — a game that was ultimately canceled due to COVID-19.
She left Hopkins ranked as the #1 recruit in the 2020 class by ESPN. The accolades stacked up: McDonald’s All-American, Gatorade National Player of the Year, Naismith Prep Player of the Year, and the 2020 Gatorade Female High School Athlete of the Year. She was also a three-time Gatorade Minnesota Player of the Year. By the time she committed to UConn, the conversation was already less about potential and more about trajectory.
UConn, Geno Auriemma, and Four Years of Building Something Rare
Bueckers arrived at the University of Connecticut in 2020 and almost immediately justified the hype in a way that college basketball freshmen almost never do. She averaged 20 points per game and became the first freshman to win the Associated Press Player of the Year award, alongside the Naismith Award and the John R. Wooden Award. UConn made it to the Final Four. She was the reason.
Then, in August 2022, she tore her ACL playing pickup basketball. She missed the entire 2022-2023 season.
Injuries had already been a theme. A broken wrist. A tibial plateau fracture in her left knee. The ACL was the harshest. She returned for her junior year and won Big East Player of the Year. She won it again as a senior. And in April 2025, she led UConn to the NCAA National Championship, an 82-59 win over South Carolina in Tampa, in front of her father, who started crying during warm-ups.
Her individual tournament performance is in the record books: 40 points against Oklahoma in one game, the most in a single tournament game by any UConn player in history. She averaged 24.8 points, 4.0 rebounds, and 3.3 assists across the entire NCAA Tournament run. She graduated with a degree in Human Development and Family Studies, a 3.49 GPA, and a Big East nomination for the NCAA Woman of the Year.
Seven days after winning the championship, the Dallas Wings made her the #1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft, the sixth UConn player to earn that distinction, following Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Tina Charles, Maya Moore, and Breanna Stewart.
The WNBA Arrival: Rookie of the Year, 44-Point Games, and History
The professional transition was not a slow build. Bueckers averaged 19.2 points, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.6 steals through 36 regular-season games in her rookie year, leading all guards in efficiency rating. She became the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year running away.
The individual highlight that drew the most attention came on August 20, 2025, when she tied the single-game rookie scoring record with 44 points against the Los Angeles Sparks, doing so while shooting at least 80% from the floor. She became the first player in WNBA history to score 40-plus points while shooting at that efficiency level.
She was also the first player in league history to record 25+ points, 5+ assists, 2+ steals, 2+ blocks and zero turnovers in a single game, achieved against the Indiana Fever on June 27, 2025.
Her closest individual comparison in public conversation is Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever, the other franchise cornerstone of the WNBA’s current boom. The Bueckers-Clark dynamic is the defining rivalry of the league’s most-watched era. They are not enemies, but they are genuine competitors, and every time they face each other, the sports media ecosystem runs at full capacity. The distinction matters: Clark played at Iowa, Bueckers at UConn. Different teams, different coaches, different styles, and the relationship between them was always rivalry, never partnership.
In her 2026 season, Bueckers has continued as the Wings’ unquestioned leader, averaging approximately 18.7 points, 6.0 assists, and 3.6 rebounds through the first weeks of June. She is the only player in the league ranking in the top 10 simultaneously in points, assists, and three-pointers made. In early June All-Star voting returns, she trailed only A’ja Wilson among all players with 298,027 fan votes.
Azzi Fudd: From UConn Teammate to WNBA Partner
Bueckers and Azzi Fudd first met in 2017 when they were both high school players trying out for Team USA. Fudd was, by her own later account, not particularly impressed with “this skinny little white girl” she encountered at tryouts. They became close friends, then UConn teammates when Fudd enrolled in 2021.
Fudd’s UConn career was marked by serious injury. She tore an ACL — and then tore the same ACL a second time, along with her medial meniscus, in November 2023. She missed most of two seasons. She still won a national championship as the 2025 tournament’s Most Outstanding Player, and then stayed at UConn for one more year in 2025-2026, leading the Huskies back to the Final Four.
During the WNBA 2025 All-Star break red carpet, a media outlet ran a Q&A segment with Bueckers called “How well do you know your D1 girlfriend?” She confirmed at the end, on camera, that the girlfriend was Fudd. The confirmation was widely covered as a “hard launch” and drew significant attention to LGBTQ+ representation at the highest level of professional women’s basketball.
In April 2026, the Dallas Wings selected Fudd #1 overall in the 2026 WNBA Draft, reuniting the couple on the court. When a reporter tried to ask Fudd about their off-court relationship at her introductory press conference, Wings PR shut the question down. Eleven days later, at Wings media day, Bueckers made a statement: their relationship would not affect their play on the court.
Fudd started wearing a phone case that read “Paige Bueckers’ girlfriend.” The whole thing became the most-talked-about development in the WNBA offseason.
Bueckers and Fudd are now both starting guards for Dallas. Fudd currently ranks 11th in early All-Star voting with 148,047 votes. The backcourt is legitimate and young.
The NIL Portfolio That Rewrote What College Athletes Could Build
Before any of the professional career happened, Bueckers was building something unusual in college sports. When the NIL rules changed in July 2021, she was ready with her existing social media following and athletic profile.
She became the first college athlete to sign a multi-year endorsement deal with Gatorade (November 2021). She was the first college basketball player to receive a player-exclusive edition of a Nike shoe through a deal she signed in September 2023. Her NIL portfolio across her college career included Nike, Gatorade, CeraVe, Bose, Crocs, Dunkin’, Taco Bell, Verizon, Intuit, Panini America, StockX, Madison Reed, and over 20 other brands.
Her On3 NIL valuation sat at approximately $1.4 million during her final UConn season. Her total accumulated NIL earnings through graduation are estimated to have reached approximately $1.5 million in net worth by mid-2025 when combined with her Unrivaled salary, WNBA rookie contract ($78,831), and brand deals.
She also became an ownership stakeholder in Unrivaled, the women’s professional basketball league founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, making her the first active college athlete to hold equity in a professional league. She played for the Unrivaled Breeze during the offseason, reaching the semifinals before losing to Arike Ogunbowale and the Mist.
This is the same generation as Livvy Dunne in gymnastics, athletes who arrived at college sports at the exact moment the economic rules changed and built multi-million dollar commercial profiles before going professional. Ilona Maher rode a similar cultural wave in women’s rugby. Bueckers represents what that looks like in basketball.
What She’s Actually Like Off the Court
Bueckers has been public about her values in ways that go beyond brand talking points. At UConn, she organized “Buckets With Bueckers” youth basketball clinics in Minnesota and Montana. She volunteered at Connecticut Children’s Hospital. She funded free grocery stores on campus and in Hopkins. She was nominated for the NCAA Woman of the Year by the Big East Conference.
She carries herself with a particular directness that coaches and journalists frequently note. When she talks about basketball, she sounds like someone who has been thinking about it since she was eight. When she talks about anything else, she sounds the same way.
The Bueckers-Fudd relationship confirmation brought significant public attention to LGBTQ+ visibility in professional women’s sports. Neither player has been particularly expansive about it beyond the confirmation itself. Bueckers’ statement at media day was clean: it will not affect the court. That is, in its own way, a form of visibility. Being unremarkable about it is the point.
Paige Bueckers in 2026
As of mid-June 2026, Bueckers is averaging close to 19 points and 6 assists per game in her second WNBA season, leading an improving Dallas Wings team that has built around her as its undisputed franchise player. Fudd is settling into her rookie year alongside her. The potential ceiling of this backcourt is what people in the league are already talking about.
The next major individual milestone on the calendar is the 2026 WNBA All-Star Game. She leads all guards in fan voting. The Wings, with two consecutive first-overall picks now on the same roster, are being taken seriously as a future contender for the first time in years.
She is 24. She has already been compared to every great point guard the women’s game has produced. For now, she is busy proving the comparison is not overstated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How old is Paige Bueckers?
Paige Bueckers was born on October 20, 2001, making her 24 years old as of 2026. She was born in Edina, Minnesota, and grew up in Hopkins, Minnesota.
Who is Paige Bueckers dating?
Paige Bueckers is dating Azzi Fudd, her former UConn teammate and current Dallas Wings backcourt partner. Bueckers publicly confirmed the relationship in July 2025 during a WNBA All-Star red carpet interview. The Dallas Wings selected Fudd with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, reuniting the couple as teammates.
What team does Paige Bueckers play for?
Paige Bueckers plays for the Dallas Wings as a point guard. She was selected No. 1 overall by Dallas in the 2025 WNBA Draft. She also played for Unrivaled’s Breeze during the offseason league, reaching the semifinals in the 2025–2026 season.
Did Paige Bueckers win the NCAA Championship?
Yes. Bueckers led the UConn Huskies to the 2025 NCAA Women’s Basketball Championship, defeating South Carolina 82–59 in Tampa. She scored 40 points in a tournament game against Oklahoma, the most by a UConn player in a single NCAA Tournament game, and averaged 24.8 points per game throughout the tournament run.
What is Paige Bueckers’ net worth?
Paige Bueckers’ net worth is estimated at approximately $1.5 million as of 2025–2026, combining her WNBA rookie contract, Unrivaled salary, and endorsement deals. Her NIL portfolio during college included Nike, Gatorade, CeraVe, Bose, Crocs, Dunkin’, and more than 20 other brands. She was the first college athlete to sign a multi-year Gatorade deal and the first college basketball player to receive a player-exclusive Nike shoe.
How does Paige Bueckers compare to Caitlin Clark?
Bueckers and Caitlin Clark are two of the defining stars of the WNBA’s current era and direct on-court rivals. Bueckers starred at UConn under Geno Auriemma, while Clark played at Iowa. They represent different programs, playing styles, and franchises, and their matchups consistently generate some of the league’s highest television ratings and fan interest.