Dallas Wings stars Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd say they ended their relationship more than a year before Fudd was ever drafted onto the team, putting to rest months of speculation about whether the two were still a couple while playing together.
The pair addressed it directly on their show “Fudd Around and Find Out.” Bueckers said the breakup happened well before the WNBA draft brought them back together as teammates.
“We’re not together anymore. It’s been, for everybody wondering — even though we don’t have to share — it’s been a while. Like, over a year,” Bueckers said. “We were not together before she got drafted, so all of those narratives can go to bed.”
Bueckers made clear the draft decision had nothing to do with their past relationship.
“She was not drafted because she was my girlfriend, she was drafted because she deserved it. She’s an amazing human, amazing basketball player. And we’re still friends, still cool. We broke up over a year ago, so we played an entire season together. We’re the utmost professional, we care about basketball, and we’re still friends, we’re still cool.”
Fudd kept her own comments brief.
“We know you guys are curious and probably have a ton of questions, but we’ve addressed everything that we need to, and the rest will stay with us.”
Bueckers added some perspective on why things changed.
“Sometimes in life there’s just seasons. And sometimes in life, two people are just at different points of their life. We still support each other, we’re still going to be great teammates, we’re going to be professionals.”
Throughout the season, both players and Wings public relations staff had shut down questions about their relationship status, leaving fans to assume they were still together when Fudd was selected first overall by Dallas earlier this year.
Bueckers and Fudd were teammates at UConn from 2021 until April of last year, when Bueckers became the first overall pick in the WNBA Draft. The two played in two national championship games together, winning the title last year. They were reunited in Dallas earlier this season.
Same-sex relationships between teammates and opponents are not new to the WNBA. Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley, for example, got married while playing together on the Chicago Sky.
The Wings finished the season 27-17 but were knocked out in the first round of the playoffs by the eventual champion Golden State Valkyries.
