On April 15, 2025, the Dallas Wings of the Women’s National Basketball Association selected Paige Bueckers with the first overall pick in the 2025 WNBA draft. The Wings were locked onto selecting Bueckers since winning the draft lottery earlier in November of 2024. 

"Very early on, it was Paige and Paige only. She's such a special player," said Dallas Wings general manager Curt Miller. 

The six-foot guard from the University of Connecticut had been a special player ever since her youth. Bueckers’s basketball journey began in Edine, Minnesota. While her father, Bob Bueckers, was a full-time software developer and consultant, he had been a point guard in high school. It was only natural that Bob was Bueckers’ first basketball coach. Through his coaching and Bueckers’ passion for the sport, she was able to compete at levels beyond her age. When Bueckers was in eighth grade, she was already playing on the varsity team of Hopkins High School. At that age, Bueckers had caught the attention of scouts and even received scholarship offers from the University of Minnesota, Iowa State University and University of Illinois. 

“Nobody I’ve had or nobody that we’ve played against was this kind of special at this age,” Bueckers’ high school coach Brian Cosgriff said at the time. He also did note that “there’s a lot of growing up left to do.” 

Bueckers continued to blossom at Hopkins High School. As a senior in high school, Bueckers averaged 21 points, 9.2 assists, 5.2 steals and 5.1 rebounds per game, leading her team to a perfect 30-0 record. Entertainment and Sports Programming Network rated Bueckers as a five star recruit and the number one player in the 2020 class, with comments praising her strengths as a  “poised combo-guard” that “manufactures shots,” “a facilitator with court awareness,” “[someone who] knocks downs mid-range jumpers to the arc” and “a difference maker.”

During her first year at UConn in 2020-2021, Bueckers immediately became the focal point of the team, averaging 20 points, 5.7 assists, 4.9 rebounds and 2.3 steals per game. Bueckers also earned many accolades and made history, becoming the first freshman to be awarded the Associated Press Player of the Year, Naismith College Player of the Year, United States Basketball Writers Association Women's National Player of the Year and the John R. Wooden Award. However, UConn’s run in the March Madness came to an end during the Final Four as the lower-seeded University of Arizona knocked them out.  

The following year, Bueckers missed most of her sophomore season due to injuries. On December 5, 2021, Bueckers appeared to injure her left knee during a game against the University of Notre Dame. Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Computed Tomography scans later revealed that Bueckers had a tibial plateau fracture and meniscus tear, which sidelined her for 10 weeks. Playing in limited minutes, Bueckers returned just in time for the March Madness tournament. UConn made a deep run in the 2022 March Madness tournament, but they were ultimately eliminated by the University of South Carolina in the championship game. Bueckers was the only team member on UConn’s roster who recorded double-digit points. 

Right before the start of her junior season, Bueckers had injured her Anterior Cruciate Ligament during a pickup game. As a result, she missed the entire 2022-2023 season. While Bueckers was eligible to declare for the 2023 WNBA, she decided to redshirt her junior season, thus maintaining her college eligibility for two more years. For the 2023-2024 season, a fully healthy Bueckers picked up where she left off in her freshman season as she averaged 21.9 points, 5.2 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 2.2 steals and 1.4 blocks per game. However, UConn was knocked out by the University of Iowa, a team that featured Caitlin Clark, in the 2024 National Collegiate Athletic Association March Madness tournament. 

Bueckers did not disappoint in her last season at UConn. For the 2024-2025 season, Bueckers averaged 19.4 points, 4.8 assists, 4.4 rebounds and 2.1 steals per game. She was even better in the 2025 March Madness tournament, where she averaged 24.8 points per game. An iconic moment of the tournament occurred in the Sweet Sixteen, when Bueckers erupted for a career-high 40 points to beat the University of Oklahoma. More importantly, Bueckers had finally led UConn to the ultimate victory during her time as a UConn Husky: a national trophy. 

On April 6, 2025, in what seemed to be a rematch of the 2022 March Madness tournament, Bueckers had 17 points, three assists and six rebounds to secure UConn’s victory over the University of South Carolina. Adding to her list of remarkable accolades, Bueckers had also won the 2025 Wade Trophy, an award that is “presented annually to the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association NCAA Division I Player of the Year.” 

Many mock drafts had projected Bueckers to be the first overall pick in the 2025 WNBA draft. 

Now a member of the Dallas Wings, Bueckers reveals that she is excited yet ready to get to work, sa, ying that “there is a lot of new in this organization, so to be a part of something where we can build with each other and create a new sisterhood, we're really excited.” The Wings, who finished 11th in the Western Conference with a record of 9-31 during the 2024-2025 season, look to turn things around with their franchise player. 

In a WNBA energized by rising stars like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, Bueckers enters the league poised to make her own impact. Given her impressive track record and proven ability to rise to the occasion, there is reasonable optimism that Bueckers will quickly establish herself as one of the league’s next great talents — and help usher in a new era for women’s basketball.