Azzi Fudd's Grandfather Shares ESPN Critique of Wings Role
There has been a lot of chatter about Dallas Wings star rookie Azzi Fudd not starting in the team's May 9 game against the Indiana Fever, despite her being the Wings' No. 1 pick of the 2026 WNBA Draft.
And not only did Fudd not start, but she didn't make much of an impact in the 18 minutes she was on the court for, only taking 2 shots and scoring 3 points. Since then, the talk of the women's basketball world has been about Fudd's role within the Wings' offense, and whether she deserves to start because she was their number one pick, despite not having proven her worthiness on the court quite yet.
ESPN analyst Chiney Ogwumike offered a strong opinion about this during a May 12 episode of her "Chiney Today" show, saying, "Azzi Fudd not starting as the number-one pick... The last thing you want is for her not to feel completely confident and belonging. You don't want to create this loss of confidence for your number-one pick because she's getting limited minutes. That, to me, should never happen, especially when you're the number-one pick. You should have the opportunity to control your own destiny."
“You have the number one pick, and the last thing you want is for her not to feel completely confident. Azzi Fudd is the best shooter we’ve seen in a long time, she’s a pure shooter. You don’t want to create that lack of confidence in your number one pick.” + pic.twitter.com/1tsUS57zsJ
— barbra version (@sacbabi) May 12, 2026
Azzi Fudd's Grandfather Seems to Echo Chiney Ogwumike's Sentiment About Wings Handling
It would appear that Azzi Fudd's grandfather, Tom Duffy, is in agreement with Ogwumike's opinion, as he reposted a graphic of Ogwumike's comments to his Instagram story on May 13.
— ۟ (@daprettiestjem) May 13, 2026
While Duffy didn't say anything else, it's still interesting to see that he's willing to share Ogwumike's words on social media. The whole situation is seemingly starting to stir some emotion from people close to the situation.
Another example of this came from Wings head coach Jose Fernandez. He didn't seem too pleased when he was asked about it before Dallas' May 12 game against the Atlanta Dream (in which Fudd wasn't active because of something regarding her knee). When asked whether Fudd's knee contributed to her minutes against the Fever, Fernandez said, "I'm not gonna get into the minutes situation on opening night," per a YouTube video from Melissa Triebwasser.
Fernandez was later asked again about why Fudd was being held out, and said, "You heard what I said earlier. Do I have to repeat that again? We have it, right? I don't know what you want me to say. You want me to answer something a certain way, and I'm not gonna do it. You heard what I said earlier, so I think once I answered that question, you should be happy with it."
The good news is that Fudd doesn't seem distracted by any outside noise, and all it will take is one or two solid games from her to shut any narratives down.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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