The women's basketball world was briefly thrown into disarray when WNBA journalist Howard Medgal asserted during a January 8 appearance on the Hoffman Women's Sports show that UConn Huskies star Paige Bueckers, "is going to go full Eli Manning," before the 2025 WNBA Draft.
What he meant by this is that before the 2004 NFL Draft, consensus No. 1 overall pick Eli Manning made it clear that he had no intention of playing for the San Diego Chargers, who had the top pick in that Draft. While the Chargers still drafted him, they traded him to the New York Giants about an hour later.
Medgal added that, "I asked eight WNBA talent evaluators what chance they put on Bueckers’ representatives attempting the same maneuver as Eli Manning. Estimates ranged from 90% to 200%."
Aside from Megdal's report, there is nothing to specifically indicate Bueckers would opt to refuse to play for the Wings. Though there was a November 18 report from ESPN's Michael Voepel that indicated Dallas was not Bueckers' preferred team to land the No. 1 pick in the WNBA Draft.
Despite these rumblings, Bueckers (who is the consensus No. 1 pick) has never gone on record citing her distaste toward potentially playing for the Dallas Wings, who hold the No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft.
And Wings executive vice president and General Manager Curt Miller addressed this rumor directly as part of a March 13 article from The Dallas Morning News.
“We have not heard anything directly that any person eligible for this draft would not want to play in Dallas,” Miller said in the article. “In fact, [Wings star] Arike [Ogunbowale] hears from most of the top possible draft picks in this class, and they’re all really, really excited about possibly pairing with Arike.”
Hmm, I wonder who would’ve told her that?..😏 pic.twitter.com/Rk6sCedOTy
— J (@JN21666) March 14, 2025
Wings chief executive officer and managing partner Greg Bibb added, “I think if you talk to the players that are here, everyone’s excited to be a part of the Dallas Wings organization and understands what we’re building, which is a world class professional sports organization.”
In other words, there's no reason to believe Bueckers will be playing anywhere else than the Dallas Wings later this year.
