What a difference a year makes. At the 2024 WNBA draft, Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd bopped around the Brooklyn Academy of Music auditorium—fans mobbing the guests of honor as they dutifully took photos and signed autographs—until the league found suitable seats for the duo. At this year’s draft, Bueckers’s assigned seat in Manhattan’s The Shed more closely resembled a throne. Flanked by UConn coach Geno Auriemma and her former teammate Fudd, Bueckers was expeditiously summoned from her perch. The night’s No. 1 pick was no surprise, with the Dallas Wings jumping at the chance to draft a potential generational player in Bueckers.
The 2025 WNBA draft, and all the machinations surrounding it, served as a fitting coronation for the newly minted NCAA champion. The pomp and circumstance also underscored the exponential growth the league has enjoyed in recent years.
