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Paige Bueckers Voted WNBA Rookie of the Year After Excellent Debut Season for Wings
Wings star Paige Bueckers has won the WNBA Rookie of the Year, the league announced on Tuesday.
Bueckers was selected first in the 2025 WNBA draft by Dallas after an outstanding college career at the University of Connecticut. Her great play translated easily to the WNBA; Bueckers averaged 19.2 points, 5.4 assists, and 3.9 rebounds per game. She received 70 of the possible 72 votes for ROY, with the Mystics's Sonia Citron getting the other two.
Bueckers had a great first season and is clearly a star in the making. Her on-court success didn't translate to wins, however. The Wings finished the year tied with the Sky for the worst record in the league at 10-34.
Sill, Bueckers clearly lived up to the hype. The 23-year-old guard was nearly as highly touted a prospect as Caitlin Clark and showed why throughout her rookie season. Her best games included a 44-point outburst against the Sparks and a pair of 10-assist double-doubles against the Dream and Lynx.
It was fun to watch her begin her WNBA career. The best lies ahead. For now, Bueckers gets well-deserved hardware in the form of the Rookie of the Year trophy.
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Liam McKeone is a senior writer for the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He has been in the industry as a content creator since 2017, and prior to joining SI in May 2024, McKeone worked for NBC Sports Boston and The Big Lead. In addition to his work as a writer, he has hosted the Press Pass Podcast covering sports media and The Big Stream covering pop culture. A graduate of Fordham University, he is always up for a good debate and enjoys loudly arguing about sports, rap music, books and video games. McKeone has been a member of the National Sports Media Association since 2020.