The Dallas Wings selected former UConn star Azzi Fudd with the No. 1 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft on Monday. While being the top pick in the draft is a special feeling in itself, Fudd now also gets to play alongside her girlfriend, Paige Bueckers.
The Wings had selected Bueckers with the first pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft. Fudd was in attendance that night and was even seated at the table. Bueckers wasn’t at the table at The Shed at Hudson Yards last night, but she was in the arena and was delighted by the Wings’ selection.
Paige Bueckers’ reaction to Azzi Fudd getting drafted to the same WNBA team as her 🔥
Back-to-back No. 1 picks from UConn to Dallas! pic.twitter.com/oUEMOy421U
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) April 13, 2026
Fudd is also understandably thrilled to be reunited with Bueckers, who was her teammate at UConn from 2021 to 2025.
“Paige is an incredible player,” Fudd said, via WFAA. “Everybody knows that. She’s someone that makes playing basketball easy, and so I think just the prior experience knowing how to play with her, play off of her will only help going into this.”
“Our time at UConn, it was just full of injury,” Fudd stated. “Full of like, either I was playing, she wasn’t. She was playing, I wasn’t. It wasn’t until last year that we really got a chance to actually play together, and even then, it wasn’t a full season. So I feel like there’s still so much left on the table… So much potential, with not just her but the entire Dallas Wings roster. So, I can’t wait, obviously, to play with her again, but to play with every single one of them.”
Bueckers and Fudd first met at tryouts for the USA Women’s Under-16 National Team in 2017. The former then urged the latter to follow her to UConn, and she did in 2021. Injuries, though, meant they didn’t get to play much together for a while.
Bueckers and Fudd finally were healthy in the 2024-25 season and led the Huskies to the national title in April. A few months later, it was finally confirmed that they were in a relationship. Rumors had been flying around for quite some time that the UConn teammates were dating, but neither had addressed them.
Then, in June, Fudd posted a picture on Instagram, in which you could see that “paige bueckers’ girlfriend” was written on her iPhone case.
azzi’s phone case says “paige bueckers’ girlfriend” bro… 🥹💗 pic.twitter.com/CQ7dPudMDd
— #35 roty 🏆🐺 (@bueckers__) June 21, 2025
There was still some doubt at that point, as this could be something best friends do. Bueckers, though, later acknowledged they were a couple during an interview with WAG Talk in July.
View this post on Instagram
Bueckers and Fudd will now be looking to lead the Wings to glory, as they did with the Huskies. The team finished with a woeful 10-34 record last season, though, so it won’t be easy to turn their fortunes around.
