Paige Bueckers says 1 relationship is nobody’s business but her own
paige bueckers set the boundary herself at Dallas media day on Monday: her relationship with Azzi Fudd is “nobody’s business but our own.” The Wings star said she would address the topic only this one time, then shift the focus back to basketball as Dallas prepares to open the season on May 9.
Bueckers draws the line
“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 said in her opening statement. She added that if the questions keep coming, she and Fudd will point back to that answer or move the conversation to teammates.
Bueckers also tied the message to how she and Fudd have handled scrutiny before. “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 onto the court.”
Azzi Fudd’s case
The push to redirect attention was not just about privacy. Bueckers said Fudd’s place in the discussion should come from what she earned on the floor, not from who she is dating.
“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.” The Wings selected Fudd No. 1 in this month's college draft after her first-team All-American campaign for the Huskies.
Shared history in Dallas
Bueckers and Fudd are not strangers trying to build chemistry from scratch. They were teammates at UConn for four years, won a national title together in 2025, and were close friends since their high school days, including time together with USA Basketball.
Fudd said after the draft that reuniting with Bueckers was “So special,” adding, “Here I am, no control in where I get drafted, and I get to play with my best friend again.” Wings general manager Curt Miller has already framed the selection around Fudd’s game, saying the evaluation kept coming back to her and describing her as “a winner, competitor, a hard worker,” along with “an incredible shooter -- probably one of the quickest releases in the game today, a defender with a lot of competitiveness and toughness.”
Dallas now carries that on-court connection into May 9, when the Wings open against Indiana. The off-court conversation has been set aside; the next test is whether the pairing that won at UConn can move fast enough to help Dallas win in the WNBA.
