Azzi Fudd’s introductory press conference as the newest member of the Dallas Wings made headlines because of an awkward moment when a reporter asked about her and Paige Bueckers’ relationship status and whether they had reached out to other couples in the league for advice. The Wings shut down the question by declining to comment on players’ personal lives, and the incident sparked a fierce debate about the appropriateness of the question.
Fudd never addressed the matter again, but Bueckers took it upon herself to settle it once and for all.
“Quite frankly, I believe me and Azzi’s personal relationship is nobody’s business but our own,” Bueckers said in part, according to reporting from ESPN’s Alexa Philippou. “And what we choose to share is completely up to us. We’ve never let anything that happens off the court carry onto the court, and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
And she’s absolutely right. Their relationship is their private business, and they don’t owe fans or media members any insights into their off-court lives that they don’t want to reveal.
Teammates and coaches, who may be impacted by a relationship between two players on the team, will know everything they need to know from a professional standpoint, but the only thing that should matter to anyone else is whether they can play well together and help the Wings win—which is something they already did when they won a national championship together with the UConn Huskies. So, unless their relationship somehow ends up interfering with on-court production—which it definitely shouldn’t, given their track record—it doesn’t really matter much.
Too many people were focused on the wrong thing
Bueckers also said, “Azzi Fudd was the 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 as a basketball player.”
And that’s the other key issue with people focusing on Bueckers and Fudd’s relationship: it’s overshadowing Fudd’s talent.
A professional franchise doesn’t use a number-one pick to draft someone just because of their relationship with one of the team’s stars. Azzi Fudd became the number-one pick because of years of strong play at the college level, a very unique skill set as one of the best 3-point shooters to ever enter the league, and because she fits the team’s vision.
Claiming anything else is ridiculous and not fair to Fudd. Leaving a storied program like UConn as a number-one draft pick is a great accomplishment and should be celebrated. But talk about her personal relationships and whispers that the Wings only picked Fudd because of Bueckers took away from Fudd’s special moment.
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