Paige Bueckers Addresses WNBA Rivalry With Caitlin Clark: ‘We’re Cool, We’re Friends’

With the WNBA season still several months away, some in the league have spent the offseason playing basketball, enjoying quality time with family and friends and mostly avoiding the limelight. But once the new season kicks off in May—assuming a new collective bargaining agreement is finalized by then—two players will inevitably dominate headlines again: star guards Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers.

The two are set to face off in their WNBA season-opener on May 9 in a highly-anticipated Fever-Wings matchup pitting the 2024 and ‘25 No. 1 picks against each other. For much of the 2026 season, Clark and Bueckers will stay rivals, but for one week in September, they could be teammates as they aim to represent Team USA in the upcoming FIBA World Cup.

Bueckers, for one, is excited about the opportunity to play with the Indiana superstar, but not for the reasons you might think. The reigning Rookie of the Year broke down her rivalry with Clark in a recent appearance on Kylie Kelce’s podcast, Not Gonna Lie.

“A lot of us, me and Caitlin even played together on the Junior Olympic level when we were younger, we were in high school and it was always a fun time,” Bueckers said. “… It’s crazy because everyone’s pitting me and Caitlin against each other for the longest time. And we’re cool, we’re friends. But again, it’s respect to the competition so we understand that. We understand how media works and how they want to pit two people against each other and they’re supposed to hate each other, and blah blah blah. So we all understand that, and it’s all in the love of the game.

“But at the same time, to have two fanbases that really hate each other have to come together for a couple months will be really fun. Everybody will just have to get along for a little bit.”

Both Clark and Bueckers made their USA Basketball senior national team camp debut in December, along with the likes of Sky forward Angel Reese and USC’s JuJu Watkins. Team USA is hoping to clinch its fifth straight World Cup gold medal and will likely rely on both experienced vets such as Kelsey Plum and Chelsea Gray as well as their fresh blood.

Clark and Bueckers have played together before in junior competitions (including the 2019 FIBA Under-19 Women’s Basketball World Cup in Thailand), but this will mark their first time sharing a court on the senior national team.

Their years-long rivalry dates back to their college days when Clark played for Iowa and Bueckers for UConn and has since trickled into the pros, with the two elite guards’ teams squaring off a total of four times last season and already creating some iconic moments. Clark’s Fever lead the series, 3–1. Due to the injuries that cost her much of the 2025 season, Clark appeared in just one of the games, scoring 14 points in a 102–83 Indiana win on July 13.

“I just think she’s smooth in everything that she does,” Clark said of Bueckers. “She can shoot it, she can score the mid-range, she can get to the basket. She’s a three-level scorer. I think that what makes it so tough is there’s just so many different things that she can do. At the end of the day, she’s a winner, and those are the type of people that you want on your team.”

Come this fall, Clark and Bueckers may indeed be suiting up for the same squad on the national stage.

The 2026 FIBA World Cup will be held in Germany and run from Sept. 4–13.

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