Dallas Wings player Paige Bueckers is shutting down speculation about her relationship with new teammate Azzi Fudd.
“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,” the WNBA star said during a press conference at Dallas’ media day on April 27.
The former University of Connecticut players rejoined each other as teammates this year after the Wings selected Fudd as the No. 1 Pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft. While the two hard-launched their relationship on TikTok in June 2025, when Fudd was still a guard for the UConn Huskies and Bueckers was in the midst of her rookie year on the Wings, they have not spoken publicly about the topic since.
After Fudd was drafted on April 13, renewed curiosity about their relationship sparked a new round of speculation, with one reporter asking a pointed question about the status of their relationship. At a press conference on April 16, amid questions about basketball, the Dallas Morning News asked Fudd about whether she and Bueckers were “still” a couple, and whether she would seek advice from other WNBA couples. A Wings representative quickly shut down the inquiry, which has since gone viral as commentators discuss its appropriateness.
“Understand why you have to ask that question,” the representative said to the reporter. “We’re going to respectfully decline from commenting on our players’ personal lives.”
Bueckers used this week’s press conference as another opportunity to ask reporters to respect their privacy as players.
“Me and Azzi are not new to this,” Bueckers said. “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 help the Dallas Wings win basketball games.”
Rather than focusing on their relationship, Bueckers says she wants people to celebrate Fudd for her individual accomplishments — and moving forward, she says all other questions on their relationship will be deflected or shut down.
“Azzi Fudd was a 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 a basketball player, her resilience, her strength and her career-best year at UConn,” Bueckers said. “Azzi is her own great individual person, and she should be celebrated as such.”
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