Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers has broken her silence on her relationship with teammate Azzi Fudd — and she won’t be taking any more questions.
“Quite frankly, I believe me and Azzi’s personal relationship is nobody’s business but our own,” Bueckers, 24, told reporters in a press conference on Monday, April 27. “And what we choose to share is completely up to us. As media members, I understand you guys have a job to do and you guys have to ask questions about the basketball aspect of it. So that’s what I will be addressing today.”
She continued, ︀︀”Me and Azzi have always been the utmost professional … We’ve never let anything that happens off the court carry onto the court, and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
After years of speculation, Bueckers admitted last summer that she and her former UConn teammate were indeed in a relationship. But with Bueckers in the WNBA and Fudd, 23, still with the Huskies at the time, the two had not appeared publicly together in months.
When the Wings drafted Fudd No. 1 overall in the 2026 WNBA Draft earlier this month, questions on the state of their relationship reignited. A reporter asked Fudd directly about the nature of their relationship during her introductory press conference on April 16, but a Wings PR representative stepped in.
︀︀“I understand why you have to ask that question. But we are going to respectfully decline on commenting on a player’s personal life,” the rep said.
Bueckers and Fudd’s silence regarding their relationship has come with some controversy as fans and media alike have debated whether the public has the right to know if they are dating. The lines are blurred more by the pair being teammates where their relationship can, reasonably, affect what is happening on the court.
Though Fudd was the No. 1 pick, she was not the clear-cut choice for the Wings. Some speculated that the team selected her to appease Bueckers, their star player.
︀︀︀︀”Azzi Fudd was the 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 as a basketball player,” Bueckers said. “Her resilience, her strength and her career last year at UConn. Azzi is her own great individual person and she should be celebrated as such.”
Bueckers added that with the WNBA regular season rapidly approaching, their focus would be on helping the team.
“We’ve been doing this for a long time,” she said. “So we will continue to use that experience to show up and be professionals, teammates, great leaders − great leaders, the hardest workers and continue to show up and do our job and help the Dallas Wings win basketball games.”
The Wings won only 10 games last season, missing the playoffs for the second year in a row. They will open the 2026 regular season on May 9 on the road against Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever.
