UConn’s Paige Bueckers, the probable No 1 pick in this year’s WNBA draft, is a brilliant talent, although she may not want you to point that out.
“Everybody was focused on me and what I did at UConn my freshman year,” she said during last year’s NCAA Tournament. “But I think it’s more important for the game to share the spotlight to grow the game and show all the stars of college basketball and not just focus on one particular player, whether it be me, Caitlin [Clark], JuJu [Watkins], Angel [Reese]. There’s so many names in college basketball now that are huge, that are stars that deserve credit.”
That’s very admirable of her, but sometimes praise is due. In 2021, Bueckers was the first freshman to earn the Wooden Award, Naismith Trophy, AP Player of the Year and USBWA Player of the Year. She also led the Huskies in points, assists, steals and three-point percentage for a team that played in the Final Four and finished 28-2 overall.
Then, in July 2022, she tore her ACL and missed the entire 2022-23 season. She had also been sidelined by injury for 19 games the previous season.
But this season she is healthy and wreaking havoc on every team she faces. She is the model of efficiency. Right now, Bueckers is the only player across the NBA, WNBA and college basketball with a 50/40/90 line and top assist to turnover ratio. She’s averaging nearly 20 points per game and a conference-best 4.8 assists per game. It’s little wonder her team are one of the favorites to win the championship.
To bounce back from a series of serious injuries is amazing in itself, but to come back arguably better than she was before deserves a standing ovation. And, yet, Bueckers doesn’t receive the same fawning attention from large parts of white America as Clark, a player of similar skills. Why?
Perhaps it’s because, unlike Clark, Bueckers has always been outspoken about issues off the court. At the 2021 ESPYs, Bueckers was named the college athlete of the year. She used her acceptance speech to celebrate and honor Black women in particular.
“With the light that I have now as a white woman who leads a Black-led sport and celebrated here, I want to shed a light on Black women,” said Bueckers. “They don’t get the media coverage that they deserve. They’ve given so much to the sport, the community and society as a whole and their value is undeniable.”
Only 19 at the time, she told the audience that in the previous WNBA season, 80% of the postseason awards were won by Black players, but they received a fraction of the coverage given to their white peers.
“I think it’s time for change. Sports media holds the key to storylines,” she said. “Sports media and sponsors tell us who is valuable, and you have told the world that I mattered today, and everyone who voted, thank you. But I think we should use this power together to also celebrate Black women.”
She went on to acknowledge Black female trailblazers. “To Maria Taylor, Robin Roberts, Maya Moore, Odicci Alexander. To all the incredible Black women in my life and on my teams,” she said. “To Breonna Taylor and all the lives lost, and to those names who are not yet learned, but I hope to share, I stand behind you and I continue to follow you, follow your lead and fight for you guys so I just want to say thank you for everything,”
While Black America cheered Bueckers, it seemed like mainstream, white America – a demographic that once viewed her as, in her words, a “media darling” – weren’t singing her praises quite as much. And still don’t. Is this coincidence? Or maybe because her injuries have made people forget her greatness as an athlete? Possibly. But she’s back from injury now, so why aren’t people as focused on Bueckers as they were on Clark last season, when she was tearing up college basketball? Maybe if Bueckers had delivered a more vanilla ESPYs speech things would have been different.
Another factor is the Angel Reese effect. Women’s college basketball ratings surged in the last two NCAA Tournaments, some of that was to do with the excellence of the players on show. But some of it was for less edifying reasons. Much of the media made Reese the villain to Clark’s heroine after the Black Princess upstaged the Great White Hope in the 2023 NCAA Tournament championship game. The viral image of Reese defiantly waving her hand in front of her face – the same taunt Clark had used in a previous game – transformed Clark and Reese from great players to lightning rods for racial animus. People who had no interest in women’s basketball suddenly became fanatics – in every sense of the word – for all the worst reasons. They were there to cheer Clark’s whiteness, and attack Reese’s Blackness, not their talent. When she was drafted into the WNBA last year Clark repeatedly asked fans not to weaponize her, but it didn’t stop her becoming a dubious hero for bigots, who often spewed racist abuse at her Black opponents. Clark had become a huge star, because of her sheer talent – she was an WNBA All-Star and rookie of the year in 2024 – but also because of her supposed rivalry with Reese, a rivalry both players have played down (and, it has to be said, profited financially from).
Meanwhile, there has been no Black villain for Bueckers to compete against. The fact that that has meant she has gained less attention and adoration from middle America says a lot about the state of the country.
Meanwhile, during Ramadan Bueckers cooks breakfast for her muslim teammate, Jana El-Alfy, sings gospel songs (the Black versions) before games, has a level of connection with her Black teammates that truly resembles a sisterhood, was raised by her Black stepmother, has Black stepbrothers and sisters, has had Black boyfriends has designated herself an ally to her Black teammates on multiple occasions, not just in her ESPYs speech. All of this simply does not sit well with “that certain demographic” who embraced Clark and championed her for the wrong reasons. That’s not to say all of Clark’s fans fall into this category nor is this the fault of Clark, who just wants to play basketball.
Bueckers is a special player and deserves every ounce of praise and respect both on and off the court. But if she does end up winning a championship, and still doesn’t receive the praise given to Clark, you’ll know why.
