Paige Bueckers Sheds Tears After Being Selected First Overall by Dallas Wings During 2025 WNBA Draft

Paige Bueckers is ready to be a big star in the Lone Star State!

During the 2025 WNBA Draft on Monday, April 14 in New York City, the Dallas Wings selected Bueckers, 23, with the first pick.

The UConn Huskies star, who, alongside Azzi Fudd, led her team to the 2025 NCAA women’s championship over Dawn Staley’s South Carolina Gamecocks on April 7, wore a black suit for her big night.

Once her name was selected, she hugged her teammate Azzi Fudd and UConn head coach Geno Auriemma, as well as her parents.

Bueckers, who shed tears on ESPN after she was selected, said that she felt “an overwhleming sense of gratitude” and credit her friends and family for their support. “It takes a village,” Bueckers added.

“It’s super surreal just being here with other draft invitees,” Bueckers told ESPN’s Holly Rowe. “I’ve been focusing on staying present, staying where my feet are and to be here right now, I’m extremely blessed.”

Bueckers, who follows in the footsteps of last year’s No. 1 pick Caitlin Clark, was joined by her family: parents Bob Bueckers and Amy Fuller, and younger siblings Drew, Ryan and Lauren.

During an interview with PEOPLE just before the March Madness tournament kicked off, Bueckers shared that she loves how “disconnected” from basketball her siblings are. “They don’t really talk basketball with me. They just are my little siblings. They just bring me a whole bunch of joy. They have this little kid joy about them.”

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Bueckers also spoke to PEOPLE about how she’s navigating the end of her college career and transition into the WNBA. “It’s like you know the end is near, so you’re trying to cherish it and drag it out as long as possible because you don’t want it to end,” Bueckers said before the tournament.

She shared at the time that she wanted to play “with passion and joy” in the final college contest that she and UConn went on to win.