Azzi Fudd is barely a month into her WNBA career and she’s already trash-talking one of the league’s biggest names. Her favorite target? Her own teammate.
After the Dallas Wings wrapped up practice on Saturday, Fudd won the team’s half-court shooting competition. She didn’t just celebrate. She used the win as a chance to absolutely roast Paige Bueckers in front of reporters.
“Yeah, today was a big day for me,” Fudd said, according to Melissa Triebwasser. “I really just wanna shout out my teammates though, Aziaha James and Haley Jones told me they believed in me. They told me it was my day and really, that was the cherry on top that I needed…. All of them are great except Paige. I hope she misses every half-court shot for the rest of the year.”
The room laughed. Bueckers probably did too. But the moment says a lot about how comfortable Fudd already is in Dallas.
She has every reason to be. The Wings took her with the No. 1 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, pairing her with Bueckers in what the front office clearly hopes is a long-term foundation. And so far, Fudd has backed up the selection. She’s started 11 of 17 games, averaging nearly 30 minutes a night and putting up 13.2 points per game. The scoring has been consistent enough that nobody’s questioning whether she deserved the top spot.
Well, almost nobody.
There’s been an ongoing conversation about whether Fudd’s friendship with Bueckers influenced the pick. Bueckers has repeatedly said Fudd earned it on merit. But the fact that Lynx rookie Olivia Miles has had a strong season of her own has kept that debate alive. Miles and Fudd will share the court again soon, and every matchup between them adds another data point to the argument.
The Wings host the Lynx on June 28 at College Park Center. Tipoff is at 2 PM ET. Fudd will get another chance to prove the doubters wrong, and she’ll probably have something fun to say about it afterward too.
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