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Congratulations to the Dallas Wings’ Paige Bueckers, the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year.
The No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft who averaged 19.2 points, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game, Bueckers collected 70 of 72 first-place votes, with the Washington Mystics’ Sonia Citron, the No. 3 overall pick, receiving the other two votes. Bueckers was presented the award by WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert on Tuesday before her appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show.
What was most impressive about Paige’s rookie campaign?
No, it wasn’t her dashing 44-point display in LA, which established a new rookie single-game scoring record and was the first instance in league history where a player scored 40 or more points while shooting better than 80 percent from the field. It also wasn’t the fact that she began her career with 30-straight double-digit scoring games. Nor that she finished in the top 10 league-wide in points, assists and steals per game. And nope, it’s not that she was the fastest rookie to reach 500 points and 100 assists.
It was this: Bueckers understood the responsibility that comes with greatness.
To put it bluntly, it was a bad season for the Wings, one where the combination of injuries, trades, inexperience and underperformance could have sent the team careening into chaos. But, Paige never would have allowed that to happen, exhibiting a wise-beyond-her-years instinct for leadership that kept the Wings afloat, even as their record sunk further and further below .500. As the losses piled up, she did not retreat into the shadows, satisfied with her own production; instead, she only reiterated her belief in and commitment to her team.
Paige made sure to share the spotlight with her fellow rookies. She embraced new teammates. She uplifted struggling veterans. By pouring into her teammates, she started building the foundation on which future, better Wings teams will be built.
Despite a season full of obstacles and a coming offseason of uncertainty, it’s hard not to feel anything but optimism about the Wings because of Bueckers.
In addition to the trophy commemorating her Rookie of the Year achievement, Bueckers will receive a prize of $5,510.
