Analysis

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Editor’s Note: Read more WNBA coverage from the Athletic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/wnba/">here</a>. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the WNBA or its teams.
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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="aligncenter wp-image-268984" src="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/08/GettyImages-1164716641-1024x683-1.png" alt="Elena Delle Donne and Candace Parker" width="900" height="600" srcset="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/08/GettyImages-1164716641-1024x683-1.png 1440w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/08/GettyImages-1164716641-1024x683-1-300x200.png 300w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/08/GettyImages-1164716641-1024x683-1-1024x683.png 1024w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/08/GettyImages-1164716641-1024x683-1-768x512.png 768w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 900px) 100vw, 900px" />
CHICAGO — In Chicago, basketball is the sport. It’s important. There’s an identity connected with it.
“As much of a tradition of baseball (is) here, as much of a tradition of track, as much as a tradition of football here … basketball kind of cuts through all of those things,” said longtime Chicago sports broadcaster Laurence Holmes. “It’s local. It’s your block. It’s your side of the city.”
We often hear about men’s hoopers from the Chi, but the women have a strong legacy in the city as well. From preps to college to pros. Chicago’s love for those who excel on the hardwood is for everyone, native or not.
This weekend, two of the women who excelled the most, Candace Parker and Elena Delle Donne, will take their place among the sport’s greats when they are enshrined in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. In different ways, both have Chicago to thank for sparking that journey.
After just two days at UConn with coaching legend Geno Auriemma’s program in 2008, Delle Donne made headlines when she decided to leave her scholarship, return home and enroll at the University of Delaware. The decision to walk away from basketball didn’t last long — Delle Donne joined the Blue Hens in 2009.
The Chicago Sky drafted Delle Donne with the second pick in the 2013 draft. Though she wasn’t raised in the area, and her game wasn’t forged in a Chicago park, Delle Donne immediately became a part of the city’s pro basketball story. She embraced the city’s culture right away and was a Michael Jordan fan, siding with the Bulls legend in the GOAT debate. Delle Donne started her career with the Sky and left her mark during her short time with the team.
Before becoming the WNBA’s first player to shoot at least 50 percent from the field, 40 percent from 3 and 90 percent on free throws with the Washington Mystics, Delle Donne became the first (and only) player in Sky history to win league MVP honors. Despite last suiting up for Chicago a decade ago, she remains the franchise’s all-time leader in scoring average (20.5), player efficiency rating (28.2), 20-point games, 30-point outings and the owner of the Sky’s only two 40-point performances. She also ranks fourth in 3-point percentage (38.1), fifth in points and 10th in rebounds. Chicago posted the WNBA’s fourth-best record during Delle Donne’s four seasons, peaking with its first WNBA Finals appearance in 2014.
“I know it was the first time a lot of girls knew there was a WNBA team in Chicago,” said Karli Bell, a journalist who previously covered the Sky. “I was there for their inaugural season and went to a couple games after that, but (Delle Donne’s first) season is when a lot of people found out that a team existed here.
“Unless you were in the basketball circle, no one knew who or what the Sky was. I remember some people in high school were like ‘Yo, did you know we have a pro women’s team?’ And us in the space knew, but the general sports population didn’t.”
Parker grew up in Naperville, Ill. — about 28 miles southwest of Chicago — and has always made it clear that’s where she’s from. But Chicago loves her like its own. She led Naperville Central to two state titles in 2003 and 2004 and was the first woman to win the McDonald’s All-American slam dunk contest. Parker was named prep player of the year twice by both Gatorade and USA Today. As a teenager, she drew national attention and local admiration. Chicago-area newspapers covered her games and achievements as they had the hoops phenoms before her. Then Parker joined legendary coach Pat Summitt at Tennessee.
“Candace was everything. She had all the tools. She was tall, she was strong, she could shoot, she could dribble,” Holmes said. “So when we would see highlights of her in high school, it was kind of like, man, there’s this young lady out in Naperville that can ball.”
In 2008, as the No. 1 draft pick by the Los Angeles Sparks, Parker became the only player in WNBA history to win MVP and Rookie of the Year honors in the same year.
After an accomplished stint with the Los Angeles Sparks, she joined the Sky via free agency in 2021, helping them win their first title. In 2022, she recorded the second and third triple-doubles in Sky history en route to All-WNBA first-team honors at the age of 36, leaving her behind only Cynthia Cooper (37 in 2000) as the league’s oldest honoree. Before 2022, no player in league history recorded multiple triple-doubles in a season.
Surviving Chicago basketball gets Parker a level of respect and appreciation that made her signing with the Sky in 2021 something important to the area, even before there was a WNBA championship, the franchise’s only one, to celebrate.
Her presence in Chicago had an impact on youth ball for women. There was a surge in camps and AAU teams in the city. Many local women attribute their love of hoops to Parker. Naperville held tournaments with her name on it, and it was considered a privilege to get an invite.
Parker brought the W national attention. Delle Donne provided the Sky local acclaim.
Delle Donne embodied the post play of the forward position offensively but really played like a stretch three with quick hands on defense. Parker could pull up from anywhere and ran over opponents inside. Her on-court impact was been evident at every level.
But they both brought immense value and versatility in different ways.
Both players independently showed the growth of the forward position and its distinct impact for the women’s game, which has often relied on point guards and bigs. They both embodied the evolution of the forward position by playing anywhere on the floor. That existed in the men’s game thanks to players such as Kevin Garnett, but that shift was delayed in the women’s game because positions were traditionally based on size alone.
Before their careers, forwards were meant to create space, set screens and maybe provide a handful of points off of layups and free throws with the occasional jumper. But Parker and Delle Donne came in and showed they can do all those things, score from anywhere else on the floor and shut down opponents who were driving to the rack.
Look at the league now. The point will always be important, but some of the most impactful players in the game are forwards: A’ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Angel Reese, DeWanna Bonner, Napheesa Collier, Dearica Hamby, Nneka Ogwumike, Satou Sabally, Alyssa Thomas.

parker-delle-donne-change-basketball-with-chicago-help

Candace Parker and Elena Delle Donne Changed Basketball with Help from Chicago

Player News

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Editor&#8217;s Note: Read more WNBA coverage from the Athletic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/wnba/">here</a>. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the WNBA or its teams.
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<div id="attachment_268611" style="width: 2010px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-268611" class="wp-image-268611 size-full" src="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/08/Thumbnail-2026-08-10T112619.791.png" alt="" width="2000" height="1125" srcset="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/08/Thumbnail-2026-08-10T112619.791.png 2000w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/08/Thumbnail-2026-08-10T112619.791-300x169.png 300w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/08/Thumbnail-2026-08-10T112619.791-1024x576.png 1024w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/08/Thumbnail-2026-08-10T112619.791-768x432.png 768w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/08/Thumbnail-2026-08-10T112619.791-1536x864.png 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" />Kayla McBride #21 of the Minnesota Lynx shoots over Paige Bueckers #5 of the Dallas Wings</div>
Kayla McBride is the new WNBA single-game 3-point queen.
The 13-year veteran became the first player in league history to hit double-digit 3-pointers in one game, knocking down 10 triples in the Minnesota Lynx’s 103-90 win over the Dallas Wings on Sunday. The 10 3-pointers were part of a career-high 43-point night for McBride, who also broke the Lynx single-game scoring record for a regulation game.
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McBride was unconscious for most of the day, making her first four field-goal attempts and 12 of her first 13, including six 3s. She went into a bit of a heat check after that stretch, missing three jumpers in a row to close the third quarter. But she rediscovered her form in the final frame, nailing four more triples to set the record and clinch the victory on the back-to-back for Minnesota.
“I love this game, and it’s been so good to me,” McBride said on the broadcast postgame. “When I have opportunities like that, I want to give it back.”
Her 10th 3-pointer came on an assist from Napheesa Collier, McBride’s longest-tenured teammate in Minnesota.
The Lynx ran one more set for her to extend the record before giving her a curtain call with just more than a minute remaining. The Target Center crowd chanted “Kayla” after McBride went to the bench, and she was overcome with emotion in the corner of the court after time expired.
“It’s crazy, I’ve been in this league for 13 years, and choosing to come back here in the offseason, I didn’t know — we didn’t know what it was going to look like,” McBride said on the broadcast. “Moments like this, times like this, you realize you made the right decision.”
McBride is enjoying the most prolific shooting season of her career, taking and making more 3s than ever and averaging more points (18.4) than in any of her previous 12 seasons. Her 3-point percentage of 42.4 is the second-highest of her career, behind her final season in Las Vegas in 2019.
She ranks first in the WNBA in total made 3s and third in 3s per game behind Rhyne Howard and Marina Mabrey, both of whom have also drained nine 3-pointers in a game (Mabrey has done so twice in 2026). Seven players, on nine occasions, had hit nine 3s in a game before McBride’s record.
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/author/sabreena-merchant/?eafs_enabled=false">Sabreena Merchant</a> is a women&#8217;s basketball Staff Writer for The Athletic. She previously covered the WNBA and NBA for SB Nation. Sabreena is an alum of Duke University, where she wrote for the independent student newspaper, The Chronicle. She is based in Los Angeles.
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kayla-mcbride-sinks-wnba-record-10-3-pointers

Kayla McBride Sinks WNBA Single-Game Record 10 3-Pointers

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Editor&#8217;s Note: Read more WNBA coverage from the Athletic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/wnba/">here</a>. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the WNBA or its teams.
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<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-265683" src="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/07/Thumbnail-2026-07-09T114533.188.png" alt="" width="2000" height="1125" srcset="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/07/Thumbnail-2026-07-09T114533.188.png 2000w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/07/Thumbnail-2026-07-09T114533.188-300x169.png 300w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/07/Thumbnail-2026-07-09T114533.188-1024x576.png 1024w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/07/Thumbnail-2026-07-09T114533.188-768x432.png 768w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/07/Thumbnail-2026-07-09T114533.188-1536x864.png 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" />
NEW YORK — Cheryl Reeve knows how to win better than anybody in the WNBA.
She proved as much Wednesday night, when the Minnesota Lynx beat the Connecticut Sun on the road, 86-80, making her the winningest coach in WNBA history. Reeve, who already owns the WNBA’s playoff wins record, tied Mike Thibault (379-289) for the WNBA’s record for most regular-season wins with the Lynx’s win over the Dallas Wings on June 28.
Her 380th victory isolates her atop the mountain.
“I’m so glad this is over,” Reeve said on the postgame broadcast.
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What makes Cheryl Reeve so good at building a roster?
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“I learned a lot from Mike through the years,” she added. “Tremendous coach. So much respect that we’ve had for each other through the years. I know he’s happy for me. And somebody’s going to pass me and I’ll be happy for them, too.”
This season’s 16-6 record especially validates her coaching prowess.
Reeve, a four-time WNBA champion, has missed the playoffs only twice in her 17-year tenure as the Lynx coach — her first season in 2010 and in 2022. Still, Minnesota was expected to have a down year entering 2026.
The Lynx, after all, lost two key contributors in Alanna Smith, 2025 Co-Defensive Player of the Year, and forward Jessica Shepard, both of whom signed with the Dallas Wings as unrestricted free agents. Reeve took a swing at 11-time All-Star and 2016 WNBA MVP Nneka Ogwumike and struck out. And although she re-signed her second- and third-leading scorers in Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride, respectively, legitimate questions lingered about what the Lynx would look like without MVP runner-up Napheesa Collier, who has been sidelined since undergoing offseason surgery on both ankles.
Yet where many saw question marks, Reeve had answers.
She brought back Natasha Howard, the 2019 Defensive Player of the Year, and signed 10-year WNBA journeywoman Nia Coffey, inking both of them to two-year deals. Reeve’s biggest coup, however, was her 2024 draft-day trade with the Chicago Sky, which translated to the No. 2 pick in the 2026 draft, which she used to select <a title="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7334730/2026/06/04/olivia-miles-rookie-3-point-record-lynx-valkyries/" href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7334730/2026/06/04/olivia-miles-rookie-3-point-record-lynx-valkyries/" data-index="0" data-outlook-id="5a0ead77-b9f5-499c-bf33-8dabd4c0cdfb">Olivia Miles</a>.
McBride led the way on Wednesday with a game-high 23 points. Williams and Howard added 12 apiece and Dorka Juhász added 12 off the bench in her second game back for the Lynx after suffering a right foot injury in April.
Roughly halfway through the season, the Lynx are No. 1 in the league standings with the best net rating (11.8) — even without their MVP-caliber franchise player.
On June 27, Reeve was inducted into the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
“She is just brilliant in what she does,” Miles, who was sidelined for her second consecutive game with a right calf injury, said of Reeve on Friday. “She understands how to use players to their strengths. You see (Howard) playing out of her mind. Everyone thought she was done. She’s playing some of her best basketball of her career. It’s things like that that Cheryl sees in players and allows people to raise to their full potential.”
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-265685" src="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/07/Thumbnail-2026-07-09T120247.587.png" alt="" width="2000" height="1125" srcset="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/07/Thumbnail-2026-07-09T120247.587.png 2000w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/07/Thumbnail-2026-07-09T120247.587-300x169.png 300w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/07/Thumbnail-2026-07-09T120247.587-1024x576.png 1024w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/07/Thumbnail-2026-07-09T120247.587-768x432.png 768w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/07/Thumbnail-2026-07-09T120247.587-1536x864.png 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" />
The four-time Coach of the Year was hired by the Lynx in 2010 after eight seasons as a WNBA assistant, including the Detroit Shock’s final four seasons (2006-2009) when they made three WNBA Finals appearances and won two titles.
In 2017, she added the role of general manager to her plate, and in 2022, she was promoted to president of Lynx basketball operations. She is the last remaining dual coach and general manager in the WNBA, making her accomplishments all the more staggering.
Between 2011 and 2017, she solidified the Lynx as a WNBA dynasty, winning four titles and making six finals appearances over that span. Rebekkah Brunson and Lindsay Whalen, two standouts in the Lynx championship quartet, now share the sideline with Reeve as assistants.
Brunson, who joined Reeve’s staff in 2020 after officially retiring that February, has been part of all but 18 of Reeve’s wins. Whalen accounts for 247 of Reeve’s regular-season wins after retiring in 2018 and joining Minnesota’s coaching staff in 2025. Eric Thibault was another addition to Reeve’s staff last year.
Thibault drafted Whalen to the Connecticut Sun with the fourth overall pick in the 2004 draft. She played six seasons for Thibault before being traded to the Lynx in 2010. He spent 10 seasons as an assistant coach on his father Mike Thibault’s staff in Washington.
“Lindsay’s responsible for a whole bunch of my wins and my son’s been part of a bunch of them, too,” Mike Thibault said. “I’ve been giving him crap about helping her break my record.”
The elder Thibault spent 13 of his 20 seasons competing for wins against Reeve.
Early in Reeve’s tenure as a head coach, the pair started a preseason tradition of conducting a joint practice for one day before their teams played each other in an exhibition game. In 2024, they won an Olympic gold medal together at the Paris Summer Games, Reeve as the head coach and Thibault as an assistant.
In his final season before retiring in the fall of 2022, he got his 273rd career win in what would be his last meeting against Reeve and the Lynx.
“If anybody was going to break it, I’m happy it’s her,” Thibault told The Athletic. “I think it will sit for a long time, too, because we have a lot of young coaches in the league with a long way to go.”
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/author/annie-costabile/">Annie Costabile</a> is a Senior Writer for The Athletic covering the WNBA and women&#8217;s basketball at large. Before joining The Athletic, she worked as a women&#8217;s sports reporter for Front Office Sports and, prior to that, was a sports reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times for seven years, where she covered the Chicago Sky and women&#8217;s sports. Annie also served as the high school preps and recruiting editor at The Clarion-Ledger. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa, based in Brooklyn.

cheryl-reeve-sets-wnba-regular-season-wins-record

Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve Sets WNBA Regular-Season Wins Record

<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-full wp-image-199787" src="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2025/06/2560-x-100-1.png" alt="" width="2560" height="100" srcset="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2025/06/2560-x-100-1.png 2560w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2025/06/2560-x-100-1-300x12.png 300w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2025/06/2560-x-100-1-1024x40.png 1024w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2025/06/2560-x-100-1-768x30.png 768w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2025/06/2560-x-100-1-1536x60.png 1536w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2025/06/2560-x-100-1-2048x80.png 2048w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px" />
Editor&#8217;s Note: Read more WNBA coverage from the Athletic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/wnba/">here</a>. The views on this page do not necessarily reflect the views of the WNBA or its teams.
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<div id="attachment_264369" style="width: 2010px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-264369" class="wp-image-264369 size-full" src="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/06/Thumbnail-2026-06-23T161453.924.png" alt="" width="2000" height="1125" srcset="https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/06/Thumbnail-2026-06-23T161453.924.png 2000w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/06/Thumbnail-2026-06-23T161453.924-300x169.png 300w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/06/Thumbnail-2026-06-23T161453.924-1024x576.png 1024w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/06/Thumbnail-2026-06-23T161453.924-768x432.png 768w, https://cdn.wnba.com/sites/4/2026/06/Thumbnail-2026-06-23T161453.924-1536x864.png 1536w" sizes="auto, (max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px" />Brittney Griner #42 of the Connecticut Sun</div>
Connecticut Sun center Brittney Griner broke the WNBA’s career blocks record on Monday night, swatting away a shot for the 878th time when she rejected Chicago Sky center Kamilla Cardoso with 6:24 left to play in the third quarter.
That pushed Griner past Margo Dydek, who set the previous record as a member of the Sun.
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“It’s something that I’ve always went after, the one record that I really cared about and paid attention to,” Griner said after the game. “Blocking shots, I’m helping my team out on defense, keeping them out of the paint, challenging shots, so it’s always made me a good defender when I try to lock in on that.”
Dydek led the WNBA in blocked shots eight times during an 11-year career spanning 323 games. Griner has led the league in blocks eight times as well, though she needed 364 games to reach Dydek’s total. However, Griner missed the entire 2022 season while <a title="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4180983/2022/03/23/detained-wnba-star-brittney-griner-in-good-condition-in-russia-says-u-s-state-department-official/" href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/4180983/2022/03/23/detained-wnba-star-brittney-griner-in-good-condition-in-russia-says-u-s-state-department-official/" target="_blank" rel="noopener" data-outlook-id="ffd5a219-6f20-408d-96af-7fe3551445d8">detained in Russia</a> on drug-smuggling charges. In 2021, the longtime Phoenix Mercury star finished second in the voting for league MVP.  She made the All-Star team in consecutive seasons after her release from Russia and return to the U.S. in December 2022.
The Sun won the game against the Sky, 92-63, and Griner finished with 14 points, eight rebounds and four blocks. The victory improved their record to 3-15 on the year, their last in Connecticut before they <a title="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7277561/2026/05/13/wnba-sun-sale-connecticut-houston-relocation/" href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/7277561/2026/05/13/wnba-sun-sale-connecticut-houston-relocation/" data-outlook-id="b1de7d86-310a-4cfa-b737-250ffd7d82e8">relocate next season to Houston </a>— Griner’s hometown — and rebrand as the once-defunct Comets.
 
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/author/sabreena-merchant/">Sabreena Merchant</a> is a women&#8217;s basketball Staff Writer for The Athletic. She previously covered the WNBA and NBA for SB Nation. Sabreena is an alum of Duke University, where she wrote for the independent student newspaper, The Chronicle. She is based in Los Angeles.
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brittney-griner-sets-all-time-blocks-record

Brittney Griner Sets All-Time WNBA Blocks Record With 878th Of Her Career

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INDIANAPOLIS — The Dallas Wings were at rock bottom in 2025 when they selected Paige Bueckers with the No. 1 overall pick.
They were fresh off a nine-win season and moving on to their third coach in four seasons when Bueckers became the rope thrown to the drowning franchise. But even she can’t work miracles. At least, not in Year 1 anyway, as the Wings missed the playoffs.
But Saturday, as the Wings opened the 2026 season against the Indiana Fever with a 107-104 win in Bueckers’ sophomore season debut, a franchise that’s been adrift looked like it could finally see land.
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“I’ve been saying, I feel like this is the best roster we’ve had since I’ve been here,” Wings four-time All-Star guard Arike Ogunbowale said. “It’s just complete.”
Bueckers wasn’t the final missing puzzle piece, but she was the catalyst.
After her rookie season ended with 10 wins, the Wings’ second-straight without a postseason, Dallas opted to find its fourth coach in five years as it fired Chris Koclanes. The Wings then went against the coaching trend of hiring from the NBA in favor of a well-respected, winning college coach in Jose Fernandez from South Florida. When free agency finally opened following a contentious 17-month-long negotiation period for a new collective bargaining agreement, general manager Curt Miller signed players, such as forwards Alanna Smith and Jessica Shepard, who looked on paper like they could make the Wings legitimate playoff contenders. He followed those free agency moves by drafting Buecker’s familiar backcourt UConn running mate in sharpshooter Azzi Fudd.
The result of every move over the last 13 months was on full display Saturday, and the early grade passed with top marks. Bueckers finished with 20 points, four assists, three rebounds and just one turnover.
“She’s special,” Fernandez said. “She reads how she’s being guarded. Having coached against her and seeing her now, I mean, she sees things two, three times ahead of stuff. That’s remarkable.”
Bueckers is fresh off a busy offseason that included her first season playing with Unrivaled, the professional three-on-three league, and with Team USA’s senior national team.
Individually, she committed to bulking up in an effort to withstand the toll of a 44-game WNBA season, the results of which are apparent in her noticeably stronger frame. Bueckers said she lived in the weight room, ate better and even prioritized better sleep.
One area of Buecker’s development that can’t be visibly measured is her leadership.
“She’s one of those generational talents that not only shows up on the court, but off,” Smith said. “She leads by example. She holds herself to a certain standard, which I think is really important for people in leadership positions. You gotta walk the walk to talk the talk. That’s something she naturally does, which is really rare for a young player to do.”
Beyond Smith, Bueckers has garnered the respect of a team full of WNBA veterans, including Ogunbowale, who shouldered the weight of the Wings’ expectations for six seasons.
“We just got to have our hands up, because we know she’s going to make the right read,” Ogunbowale said. “She’s super efficient every night. … She’s just really elite.”
The Wings entered the 2026 season with lofty expectations surrounding them. At minimum, they’re widely predicted to get back to the playoffs. But at the peak of possibilities for the Wings is title contention.
Bueckers holds the keys.
“I’m not one to live in the past,” Bueckers said. “But I’m not sure how long it was until we got our first win last year, and three counting the preseason. It’s not to say get complacent, or oh, we got one win, we’re going to go 44-0. We’re so focused on winning the day, winning the practice and getting better every single day, which leads to wins in total.”
<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/author/annie-costabile/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Annie Costabile</a> is a Senior Writer for The Athletic covering the WNBA and women&#8217;s basketball at large. Before joining The Athletic, she worked as a women&#8217;s sports reporter for Front Office Sports and, prior to that, was a sports reporter at the Chicago Sun-Times for seven years, where she covered the Chicago Sky and women&#8217;s sports. Annie also served as the high school preps and recruiting editor at The Clarion-Ledger. She is a graduate of the University of Iowa, based in Brooklyn.
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Paige Bueckers Showed Why She Holds Keys to Dallas Wings’ Season in Win Over Indiana Fever

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