Paige Bueckers selected No. 1 by Dallas Wings

Paige Bueckers will begin her WNBA career the same way she ended her time in college: No. 1.

Dallas led off the three-round, 38-pick WNBA draft Monday in New York by selecting Bueckers first overall, as expected, just eight days after the star guard led Connecticut to the NCAA championship.

Bueckers averaged 19.8 points, shooting 53 percent from the field and 42 percent on 3-pointers during her superlative four-year career at UConn that ended with winning her long-elusive national title — Connecticut’s first in nine years — in her final game.

Bueckers put herself in contention to become a future No. 1 overall pick as early as 2021 after becoming the first freshman to win multiple awards for collegiate player of the year. Yet leg injuries sidelined her for half of her sophomore season, and then in the following offseason she tore the anterior cruciate ligament in her left knee, and missed the entire 2022-23 season.

The Wings picked first after finishing 9-31 last season, the WNBA’s second-worst record. As Connecticut was preparing for the Final Four of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament last week, Bueckers was tight-lipped when asked about speculation that she did not prefer to play in Dallas, saying that there was “nowhere specific” she wanted to be.

“Wherever I end up,” Bueckers told reporters days before the Huskies’ championship victory in Tampa, Florida.

The Wings have made little secret their intention to draft Bueckers and the excitement it could generate for a franchise that is attempting to build buy-in from local fans. The team originated as the Detroit Shock in 1998, moved to Tulsa in 2010 and relocated again to Texas in 2016. The Wings currently play in Arlington.

“I am confident that if we draft Paige Bueckers, she will move the needle for the Dallas Wings and women’s basketball in north Texas,” Greg Bibb, the Wings’ president and chief executive, told the Dallas Morning News. “If you look at the ratings, if you look at the merch being sold, if you look at the attendance at venues, there are players that move those needles and Paige Bueckers is one of them.”

The WNBA won’t be the only league in which Bueckers plays next year. On Sunday, she reportedly agreed to a three-year contract to play in Unrivaled, a start-up league founded by WNBA stars Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart that takes part during the WNBA’s winter offseason.

Whether Bueckers would actually end up with the Wings wasn’t the only intrigue involving the draft. Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles, projected to be the second overall pick, LSU’s Flau’Jae Johnson and Connecticut’s Azzi Fudd all have said they will remain in college an extra season rather than turn professional. Those choices could be influenced by the Women’s National Basketball Players’ Association’s decision in October to opt out of its current college bargaining agreement with the league. Should the players association and league strike a deal by next year, an increase in media rights fees paid to the league could allow players who enter the league in 2026 to earn higher salaries than those in the 2025 draft class.

The WNBA is coming off a season in which viewership soared behind the cross-cultural popularity of rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. The league’s championship finals were its most-viewed in 25 years, and regular-season viewership was up 170 percent compared to 2023, ESPN said last fall.

Women’s basketball players endure an extremely quick turnaround between the end of their college career and their rookie WNBA season; training camps open April 27, with the regular season beginning May 16. This season will see WNBA teams play 44 games, the longest schedule in league history.