As evidenced by her second-place rank in jersey sales from a season ago, few players have commanded the attention of the WNBA world quite like Paige Bueckers has for the Dallas Wings.
Thus, it was particularly noteworthy when she joined the “Bird’s Eye View” podcast for a one-hour sitdown with Hall of Fame guard Sue Bird. The former Husky greats discussed an assortment of topics, with Bueckers’ mental approach to her torn ACL and her first-ever All-Star Game settling among the most discussed.
The link to the full episode is below.
The two discussed countless topics, with Bueckers’ journey through the 2025 Women’s Basketball March Madness Tournament settling among the most impactful.
Paige Bueckers on UConn’s Title Journey in 2025
Early on, Bueckers offered up thoughtful responses on topics likely to perk the ears of both UConn and Dallas fans alike.
She described one such instance during Connecticut’s National Title-winning journey, and the mental toughness required to do so:
“I think what made it special was, after that Tennessee game, we talk about it now. We were like ‘(expletive) are we cooked? Like, do we have it in us? Can we even do this, like is it possible? When you lose at UConn it’s like a death. You have to grieve, you have to go through the processes of shame, guilt, regret, all of those things.
Personally, I had a bad game and you know how it is when you’re the leader of the team and you don’t show up. The film session was brutal, and I think we just had a choice from there on, whether, I mean, just mail it in, say like, we could try our best but we don’t know if we can do it this year. Or, we could band together and have this be the reason we win the Natty.”
Bueckers is referring to two different losses from that celebrated 2025 season. The first was a home loss to the JuJu Watkins-led USC Trojans on Dec. 21, 2024, and the second was a crushing 80-76 defeat to the Volunteers just before the March Madness Tournament.
Fortunately, as Bueckers notes, Geno Auriemma’s motivational coaching style helped galvanize the Huskies the rest of the way. After that aforementioned loss, Connecticut ran off 16 consecutive wins to close the 2025 season, all of which being by 14+ points or more.
What Players Does Paige Bueckers Model Her Game After?
Just before the All-Star break, ESPN noted a statistic in which Bueckers — in just Year Two — could become just WNBA history’s third-ever guard to average 20 or more points on 50 percent shooting or better, joining Hall of Famers Sheryl Swoopes and Seimone Augustus.
Given her already-historic blend of efficiency and production, Bird wisely inquired about the types of players Bueckers modeled her game after, to which she offered an answer that NBA and WNBA observers likely saw coming:
“I love like D-Book (Devin Booker), Kyrie (Irving), Shai (Gilgeous-Alexander), like watching those guys. I wanted to get Shai’s bump in my bag, which I’ve kind of started doing the last couple games. Just, like the shoulder bump where you don’t extend fully so it’s hard to call the offensive foul, but you create enough separation to where you can get to your stepback. So those, playing out of the post up, and then, I didn’t really know how to snake a screen honestly, my rookie year. Like, that was a new concept to me.”
On the WNBA side, Bueckers’ picks were just as standout:
“Talking about snaking (pick-and-rolls), like Chelsea (Gray), and her ability to get people on her back in a ball screen. Like, when I would come off of ball screens, I would usually just go. Like, as soon as I get that step I would just go. But, to put the defense in a hostage situation, where to now they’re probably going to have to switch and that big’s gonna have to step up, that’s definitely something that I’ve learned with the Aces, like Jackie (Young)’s ability to get right to her three off the screens. And, she drew like three fouls against us on 3-point shots.”
Bueckers also noted Olivia Miles’ ability to get to the rim, as well as her fearlessness against bigs as her third and final player of note.
What Does Bueckers Think of Dallas’ Playoff Goals?
Transitioning to something more current, Bueckers and Bird also discussed the remarkable growth of this year’s Wings team, particularly in comparison to last season.
For reference, Bueckers’ Wings won just 10 games in all of 2025 entirely; in 2026, they’re already at 18 wins at the All-Star break. Bueckers noted how those turned out to be disguised blessings for this year’s group, and in particular, Jose Fernandez’s role:
“Just the selflessness that we have on our team. I’m sure you know, like depth can be your superpower, but it also can be a thing that causes tension or riffs if everybody’s not bought in. There could be envy or jealousy, but I don’t think it was like that for us at all. We’re all just competitors at heart, we have so many people who can contribute to winning basketball, and you know that throughout a long season plus the playoffs, you’re gonna need everyone at some point. And for everyone to be bought in and stay ready for their moment when their number’s called, that’s kind of what we established early on.”
As she notes, this year’s Wings are a mixture of players who haven’t yet gotten over the playoff hump, alongside gifted first-timers, such as Azzi Fudd, whom she praised for simply “running her own race” as one of the WNBA’s top rookie talents.
In one of WNBA history’s great season-to-season turnarounds, the Wings currently sit at 18-9, and would have home court advantage in Round 1 if the postseason started today.
Over the rest of the podcast, Bueckers and Bird talked about countless other topics, including Bueckers’ budding on-court partnership with Arike Ogunbowale, her pick for the WNBA’s most underrated player, and the art of getting to her spots.
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