Paige Bueckers Explains What a Caitlin Clark Team USA Pairing Would Really Mean
The 2026 WNBA regular season schedule was released on January 21, and fans were quick to notice that the Indiana Fever's first game was against the Dallas Wings.
Of course, assuming they both stay healthy, this means that star 24-year-old guards Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers will get to match up for just the second time in their professional careers.
These two have been competing with and against each other for nearly a decade. However, fans got to see them on the same side during the Team USA training camp in North Carolina last month. This allowed fans to fantasize about what the pairing of Clark and Bueckers might look like on the court with Team USA in the future.
Paige Bueckers Speaks on Potential Caitlin Clark Team USA Pairing
Bueckers made a January 22 appearance on Kylie Kelce's Not Gonna Lie podcast. At one point, Kelce asked Paige about the possibility of getting to team up with Caitlin Clark on Team USA and how cool it was to play with her at last month's training camp.
"Yeah, it has been cool. I think a lot of me, me [and] Caitlin played together at the Junior Olympic level when we were younger, when we were in high school. And it was always a fun time," Bueckers responded.
"We all played really well together. Like, I still feel like we had one of the best U-16 or U-17 teams to ever exist. And to see it all come into fruition, of us all living out our dreams, and what we talked about, and what we worked for, and to get to the pros. And God willing, we all want to represent USA at the Olympic level, we feel like that's the highest level we can represent ourselves and our country," Bueckers continued.
"So yeah. It's crazy, everyone [has been] pitting me and Caitlin against each other for the longest time. And we're cool, we're friends. But again, it's respect for the competition. So we understand that, and we understand how media works, and they want to pin two people against each other, and they're supposed to hate each other," she added.
"We all understand that, and it's all in the love of the game. But at the same time, to have two fan bases that really hate each other to have to come together for a couple of months would be really fun. And so everybody would just have to get along for a little bit," she concluded.
Paige Bueckers talking about teaming up with Caitlin Clark for team USA, how they are friends and it’s the media (and fanbases) pitting them against one another. pic.twitter.com/U3p1EKkNWt
— 108 days until cc hoops ♡⋆*ೃ: (@winchesters) January 22, 2026
It sounds like Bueckers is welcoming this opportunity to play alongside Clark with open arms and is happy to embrace whatever narratives might stem from them doing so.
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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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