The new Dallas Wings season got off to rocky start in the news when, earlier this month at the introductory press conference for No. 1 draft pick Azzi Fudd, team PR shut down a question about her romantic relationship with reigning Rookie of the Year Paige Bueckers, her former teammate at UConn.
The two had previously been public about the fact that they were dating, only for that detail to be left out of ESPN’s draft broadcast and most outlets’ coverage of the pick. But when the team shut down a question to Fudd from the Dallas Morning News about how the two would navigate their relationship as professionals, it blew up into a bigger story.
Monday presented an opportunity to address the dynamic once again, and Bueckers opened the team’s annual media day with a statement about Fudd, their professionalism while playing together, and how they will handle future questions about the situation.
“There is something I want to address, and I only plan on addressing it once. So if we continue to get asked about it, we will refer to this moment in time or we will use the time to deflect and talk about our teammates,” Bueckers 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. But I understand that as media members, 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.”
Paige Bueckers addressed the media today on her relationship with Azzi Fudd and only plans on addressing it once:
“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. pic.twitter.com/OI8uiOqlJ4
Bueckers continued with a reminder that she and Fudd have navigated their relationship as teammates before and will have no trouble doing so in Dallas, while affirming that Fudd deserved to be selected first overall regardless of their ties:
“Me and Azzi have always been the utmost professional, we’ve always conducted ourselves as such, and we’ve never let anything that happens off the court carry on the court. And that’s what we continue to do.
“And I’m not entirely sure if this is new to media members, to social media, to new people who are watching the WNBA or women’s basketball in general, but me and Azzi are not new to this. We’ve been doing this for a long time, we have countless reps at it, we have a lot of experience with it. So we will continue to use that experience to show up and be professionals, great teammates, great leaders, the hardest workers, and continue to show up and do our job and continue to help the Dallas Wings win basketball games.
“To add onto that, Azzi Fudd was the No. 1 draft pick because she earned it. And it has 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. So Azzi is her own great individual person, and she should be celebrated as such. And now that we got that out of the way, I would love to talk basketball.”
The statement from Bueckers is about as good as it gets from a PR standpoint. Without crossing a line and specifying the status of their relationship or the details of their personal lives, Bueckers acknowledged the story was relevant and worthy of an explanation. Then, she gave evidence as to why she, Fudd, and the team are confident it will not become an issue, thereby getting in front of any future questions about their relationship’s effect on the team. And after all that, Bueckers offered a reminder of Fudd’s story and status in the WNBA, taking the focus off their relationship once again and putting it back onto Fudd’s journey toward her first pro game next month.
And even if reporters find an opening to try and ask about this again, Bueckers ensured she and Fudd will not need Wings PR to shut down questions in the future, explaining that they both will decline comment going forward.
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