Almost an hour after being selected by the Dallas Wings with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, Azzi Fudd still found herself speechless when speaking to reporters at a press conference in New York City.
“I’m not really sure I have words to describe that feeling,” she said when asked about her emotions when she heard her name called. “Yeah, I’m not sure. I mean, I don’t think it was fully sunk in.”
But one thing Fudd was sure about was her excitement to be reunited with her former UConn teammate, Paige Bueckers, whom the Wings selected with the No. 1 overall pick in last year’s draft. Bueckers and Fudd have been close for almost a decade, and in 2025, they led the Huskies to a national championship. Last summer, Bueckers confirmed that the two were dating.
“I mean, Paige is an incredible player. Everybody knows that she’s someone that makes playing basketball with easy, and so I think just the prior experience knowing how to play with her, play off of her will only help going to this,” Fudd said, when asked about her on-court chemistry with Bueckers.
“Our time at UConn … it was just full of injuries, either I was playing, she wasn’t, she was playing, I wasn’t. It wasn’t until last year that we really got a chance to actually play together. And even then, it wasn’t a full season. So I feel like there’s still so much left on the table and so much unknown and just so much potential with not just her, but the entire Dallas Wings roster. So I can’t wait, obviously, to play with her again, but to play with every single one of them.”
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Fudd intentionally tried to keep the focus on the entire Dallas roster, not just Bueckers, when answering questions. And back in Dallas, Wings general manager Curt Miller and coach Jose Fernandez were eager to keep the focus on Fudd on a Zoom call with reporters.
“I think first and foremost, you see them different. See Paige for who she is, and you see Azzi for who she is. And while they’re terrific teammates, they won a championship together, they have synergy together, it’s about what they both individually bring,” Miller said. “The partnership is wonderful, but this night is about Azzi.”
Both Miller and Fernandez stressed that Fudd is a great basketball fit for the organization.
“The skills on the court start with her offensive game and her elite shooting ability, her lightning-quick release, her movement when she’s off the ball is truly, truly special,” Miller said. “Defensively, she competes, she’s intelligent, she’s got great basketball IQ. And then the intangibles, which were ultimately the deciding factor for us, is she’s a unifier in the locker room, a great teammate, and has all the characteristics that we’re trying to accumulate in that locker room.”Â
Miller admitted that, like most draft experts and scouts, the Wings felt four players separated themselves from the field to be in contention for the No. 1 pick. (Though he didn’t specify, those four are widely considered to be Fudd, Olivia Miles, Awa Fam and Lauren Betts.) But he said the team always had Fudd as its pick, and that the team’s success in free agency shoring up the front court only reinforced that.
“I will tell you that Azzi was our pick, is our pick. But the free agency success in the post made it crystal clear,” Miller said.
Why Fudd was ‘the right fit’ for the Wings
Fernandez — who was hired last October after 25 years as the coach at South Florida and had many matchups with UConn — said the first thing he did when he got the Wings job was to take a trip to Storrs, Connecticut, to talk to UConn coach Geno Auriemma and see Fudd play in person. He knew immediately that the Wings needed to address 3-point shooting and floor spacing, and it was clear that Fudd would help immensely in those areas.
“We never wavered on what we needed. She was a right fit for this team,” Fernandez said. “She was the right fit for the locker room, and she brings what this team needed in regards to spacing, her quick release or 3-point shooting, and she’s coming from a program that is great in the locker room, and they know how to win, and that’s what we want here in Dallas.”
When asked by CBS Sports whether Bueckers was consulted about the pick, Miller said he stayed in touch with Bueckers and Arike Ogunbowale during the offseason about moves in free agency, the expansion draft and the collegiate draft.
“You know, at this level, as I’m starting my 12th year in the WNBA, there’s collaboration with your pro star players, absolutely at this level,” he said. “We have collaboration with our players when you play on the floor, and that’s what happens at this level, is that partnership, and it’s very, very important.”
