Former UConn Star Paige Bueckers Lands Major Honor For WNBA Debut

Former UConn Huskies star Paige Bueckers will be honored by her hometown on the day of her WNBA debut.

Apr 14, 2025; New York, New York, USA; Paige Bueckers is interviewed by ESPN after being selected with the number one overall pick to the Dallas Wings in the 2025 WNBA Draft at The Shed at Hudson Yards. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images | Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images

This is a true UConn Huskies story. The events depicted took place in Paige Bueckers, Minnesota in 2025.

The hometown of Bueckers, the UConn women's basketball star-turned-top WNBA draft pick, has approved of a motion to temporarily rename itself on May 16.

Hopkins' rebrand will be known as "Paige Bueckers Day" and will be staged on the day Bueckers is set to make her professional debut for the Dallas Wings.

"Paige Bueckers made a name for herself as a Hopkins High School basketball player, becoming known as one of the best to ever do it at the high school level in Minnesota and moving on to the University of Connecticut," a Hopkins city council report reads in part.

"While playing with the Huskies, and despite many injuries and setbacks, Bueckers set [and] gained numerous accolades and awards, winning both the Naismith and Wooden Awards and ending her college career by leading the school to its 12th national title."

Before moving onto Storrs, Buckers burst onto the national scene at Hopkins High School in Minnetonka, rising to its junior varsity program as a seventh-grader. As a Royal, Bueckers became one of the most decorated amateur athletes in Minnesota history.

Under the Hopkins banner, Bueckers won Minnesota's Miss Basketball award in 2020 as well as Gatorade's National Player of the Year title. She joined the Huskies shortly after and the rest is history in more ways than one, the last being the record-extending 12th national championship she brought to the program on April 6. Before taking the floor for the Huskies, Bueckers finished as the Royals' leading in scoring, assists, and steals.

Bueckers now joins the Wings, who won the right to land her services after prevailing in the WNBA draft lottery last winter. Ironically enough, the Wings will be hosting Bueckers' favorite team as a child, the Minnesota Lynx, who are fresh off their record seventh WNBA Finals appearance.

Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags