Paige Bueckers Talks NIL Deals, March Madness, and the WNBA

Paige Bueckers may be used to getting buckets on the court, but the ones hitting her bank account still feel unfamiliar.

“I was a kid who, I’m not gonna lie, I was on websites trying to get free coupons . . . trying to make everything affordable,” Bueckers tells me in a recent Zoom interview. Five years ago, she didn’t even have a bank account. Her idea of “income” growing up was the $20 her grandpa would slip her every time they were together.

Now, the University of Connecticut star has the third highest name, image, and likeness (NIL) valuation in women’s sports at $1.5 million, per Sports Illustrated. A quick scroll on her TikTok and you’ll see the evidence. Her page is filled with promotional partnership videos, from Unrivaled to CeraVe. Even as we speak, she’s promoting her latest partnership with Intuit, to help college students (especially athletes) gain more tools for financial literacy.

“When I first got [my first NIL check], I was like, does this go to my parents? How does this work?” Bueckers recalls. Quickly, she got a financial advisor and started educating herself on how to invest. “It still doesn’t seem real to me to have all this money in college and become an adult so quickly.” But she’s determined not to waste the opportunity.

As she prepares for her last March Madness and the WNBA draft in April, she thinks back to when she was a little girl watching the Minnesota Lynx play just a short distance from her home in Edina, MN. “They were my idols. I wanted to be everything like them,” she says. “For the shoes to sort of flip flop, it’s pretty crazy and surreal.”

“I feel like I’m living in my childhood dream. I feel very blessed, very fortunate, very grateful,” she says.

Still, Bueckers has gotten some flack for the influx of promotional content. “At this point I look forward to the ads,” one snarky commenter wrote under her TikTok. “6th add in a row, this is getting crazy,” “where are your TikToks?” others have said. Some fans are more encouraging, telling Bueckers to “get that bag girl.”

“I think when you give women the platform, they do amazing things with it.”

For the 23-year-old basketball phenom, this is bigger than just a one-time TikTok ad. It’s about building a legacy and financial security for generations to come.

Bueckers saves most of what she makes. “It’s mostly just DoorDash and UberEats,” she says, with the exception of her first Louis Vuitton bag. She doesn’t spend because she knows how hard money is to come by, especially for women athletes.

The equity gap (in pay, viewership, resources, etc.) isn’t something we can ignore, she notes. Just think back to 2021 March Madness, when women athletes were given a single rack of dumbbells while the men were provided a pro-level exercise facility. “I was in the bubble when they had the weight-room disparities,” Bueckers says.

When you compare that moment to the rise in investment of women’s sports over the last few years, the images are night and day, she adds. “After that, NIL came into play [and] you just see this boom in women’s sports.” According to a 2024 Deloitte survey, there’s been a 300 percent growth in global revenues from women’s sports in just three years, and 99 percent of brand decision-makers say they have increased investments in women’s sports over the past five years. That investment has translated to higher viewership and merch sales, expansion teams, and global visibility.

“I think when you give women the platform, they do amazing things with it . . . but I think it’s only the beginning,” Bueckers says. “In my opinion, this is the worst it should ever be, and we’re still light years ahead of where we were.”

That’s exactly what someone poised to be the future of women’s pro basketball would say. As Bueckers reflects on the 2021 March Madness disparities, she’s preparing to take on this year’s tournament, her last season at UConn, and the WNBA draft. It’s undoubtedly her time and she knows it. It’s hard not to have a conversation about college basketball or the future of the game without mentioning the UConn guard. Bueckers is expected to be the first overall draft pick in the WNBA this year. And after five seasons at Connecticut, she’s ready.

When asked if the pressure ever gets to her, Bueckers repeats back her mantra: “Pressure is a privilege.” That’s how she’s always viewed it.

Alexis Jones (she/her) is the senior health and fitness editor at PS. In her six years of editorial experience, Alexis has developed passions and areas of expertise around mental health, women’s health and fitness, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, and chronic conditions. Prior to joining PS, she was the senior editor at Health magazine. Her other bylines can be found at Women’s Health, Prevention, Marie Claire, and more.