Robin Roberts Checks South Carolina Fan Over Perceived Paige Bueckers GMA Slight
In the days following their 2025 NCAA national championship win over the South Carolina Gamecocks, UConn Huskies stars Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd made several appearances on major broadcast television talk shows, including The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon for Bueckers and Good Morning America for Fudd.
These appearances prompted one salty South Carolina fan to go viral for an X post that wrote, "Although I love Paige and I’m very happy for her success. I do want to point out this crazy national champ 'world tour' she’s going on, while last year not a single one of our SC girls got this treatment after going undefeated. Very interesting."
Although I love Paige and I’m very happy for her success. I do want to point out this crazy national champ “world tour”she’s going on, while last year not a single one of our SC girls got this treatment after going undefeated. Very interesting.
— Renny G. (@RendaRoo23) April 10, 2025
The post received a ton of criticism, largely because it neglected to mention that Gamecocks head coach Dawn Staley did multiple major media appearances after her team won the 2024 NCAA Title, which fans pointed out in the post's replies.
Bueckers made an April 16 appearance on Good Morning America. And sure enough, a South Carolian fan shared a similar sentiment in the comments section of an Instagram post of Bueckers posing alongside GMA host Robin Roberts.
"Did any of the SC Gamecocks get invited to this show last year after winning the natty and going undefeated the entire season?" the comment wrote.
Instead of other fans calling this comment out, Robin Roberts did so herself by responding, "I was in Cleveland for the game and the next morning I had a lengthy live interview with Dawn Staley on GMA."
— 🪐 (@STEWIESAURA) April 16, 2025
Props to Roberts for shutting this ridiculous narrative down straightaway. Hopefully, this will deter other fans from trying to assert a similar stance in the future.
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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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