She also stressed that she had nothing to do with the Wings selecting Fudd with the No. 1 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft.
“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, her resilience, her strength, and her career-best year at UConn,” said Bueckers, who won a national championship with Fudd at UConn in 2025 .
Fudd and Bueckers publicly announced in July 2025 that they were dating, but were quiet about their personal relationship heading into the WNBA Draft despite the prospect of becoming teammates once again with the Wings. When Fudd was asked about their relationship at her introductory news conference with the Dallas media — as well as if they had reached out to other WNBA couples for advice on how to navigate that situation — a Wings PR person stepped in and said Fudd would not be answering that question.
In her statement Monday, Bueckers acknowledged the media interest in her and Fudd, considering they are reuniting as teammates and were both as No. 1 picks — Bueckers in 2025 and Fudd earlier this month. However, Bueckers said she did not wish to engage in any further conversation about their personal lives and said, “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 added that if such questions come up again, she will refer back to this moment or simply deflect and talk about her teammates.
Bueckers went on to say that she and Fudd have a lot of experience separating their personal and professional lives and have never let interactions off the court affect their play on it.
“We’ve been doing this for a long time, we have countless reps at it,” Bueckers said. “So we will continue to use that experience to show up and be professionals, great teammates, great leaders, the hardest workers. We continue to show up and do our job and help the Dallas Wings win basketball games.”
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Dallas Wings, WNBA
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