The newest Dallas Wing is the kind of player and person a city can rally around
It’s a beautiful thing to fall in love with basketball. My parents, both Texas transplants, adopted the Mavericks in the ’90s and became diehard fans. It brought them closer together, a shared passion for a collection of loveable losers. After suffering through all those horrible teams, they were finally rewarded with the Dirk Nowitzki era. As the Mavericks evolved into perennial contenders, I grew up.
It took me a while to catch the basketball bug. I don’t remember exactly how it happened, but when it did, around age 11, a switch flipped in my brain— I knew I would love the game for the rest of my life. And it had everything to do with Dirk. I fell in love with basketball when I realized I was watching someone special every night, someone I could believe in.
Early in those days, my dad explained to me the difference between “good” and “great” players. He really drove home how difficult it was to achieve true greatness. After losing to the Warriors in 2007, I asked my dad if Dirk was “great.” And he said, “he’s really, really good.”
Four years later, we watched our guy lift the Larry O’Brien trophy. After the final buzzer, I hugged my father and, through tears, told him that Dirk was great. We, as a family, had witnessed the culmination of our hero’s journey. Mavericks fans had a front-row seat to greatness for years, watching it coalesce into its final form in real time. And all along the way, Dirk ingratiated himself with our community in ways that are hard to quantify. This is why sports matter so much.
If you’re a basketball fan in the DFW metroplex, chances are the last couple of months have sapped your love away. I won’t rehash or re-litigate everything that’s happened since the night of February 1st— you’ve likely read dozens of pieces on our website, all of them trying to make sense of how something like this could have possibly happened. Things seem to get worse by the day. And all this anger and despair stems from the unfairness of having our next hero’s journey cut short for no practical reason. Following one homegrown superstar’s chase for greatness is all many Maverick fans have ever known. If Luka Dončić is gone and Dirk Nowitzki is a fading memory, what does it even mean to be an MFFL? It’s an identity crisis that many won’t be able to resolve with anything but apathy.
Thankfully, I’m here with some good news: Paige Bueckers was drafted first overall by the Dallas Wings on Monday. And listen, you may have never watched the WNBA or women’s basketball in your life. I won’t shame you for that, although you’re missing out. But if you haven’t tuned in, or your interest is casual at best, hear me out— Paige Bueckers is a game changer. She is going to inject basketball life into this community while winning the hearts of millions along the way. And it won’t be because of her prodigious talent on the court.
Make no mistake, Bueckers is the real deal as a player. I’ve talked ad nauseam for four years about what makes Bueckers a generational prospect. After the Wings won the draft lottery, I wrote about her otherworldly talent and malleability in any system. She is a perfect offensive player, a hyper-efficient, three-level monster, a pick-and-roll maestro who reads the floor better than almost anyone in the game’s history. Defensively, she uses plus positional size, tenacity, and event creation to guard multiple positions at an above-average level. Health permitting, she will win an MVP award in the WNBA.
But aside from her incredible gifts, Paige Bueckers is destined to become the next DFW sports icon because she shares all the same qualities that made us fall in love with Dirk Nowitzki. She is humble, unselfish, kind, hilarious, hardworking and the ultimate teammate. At every possible instance, she is quick to downplay her own achievements while uplifting those around her. And it isn’t a PR gimmick, it isn’t telling the media what they want to hear. She just cares about others and recognizes how important it is to provide recognition to those who don’t always get the spotlight. Listen to any interview with her, and sincerity is coursing through every word.
During UConn’s 2025 tournament run, Bueckers’ freshman teammate Jana El Alfy was observing Ramadan during a college basketball season for the first time. Bueckers recognized how difficult, unfamiliar, and isolating fasting under these conditions could be and decided to routinely wake up early and cook breakfast for El Alfy at 5 AM. The message from Bueckers was clear: “It’s a lot better when you’re going through something with somebody.” That’s leadership. That’s empathy. And that’s Paige Bueckers.
After winning her first and only national title, Bueckers immediately credited the success to her teammates, coaching staff, training staff, managers, and practice players. Two weeks later, after being selected first overall in the WNBA draft, Bueckers used her post-pick interview to implore teams to draft her UConn teammates, Kaitlyn Chen and Aubrey Griffin. Bueckers wasn’t just trying to do them a favor; she genuinely believed they could help WNBA teams like they helped her. And Chen and Griffin, who both admitted they did not anticipate being drafted and were in attendance solely to support Bueckers, got to experience the thrill of hearing their names called in the third round. This is the uplifting power of Paige Bueckers— everything she touches turns to gold.
The Dallas Wings have been mired in dysfunction and irrelevance for most of their history. Since moving to Dallas in 2016, they have won just three playoff games. So many star players have forced their way out, and for a while, it seemed like Bueckers could do the same. But she didn’t, instead handing the Wings the opportunity of a lifetime. As Bueckers said herself on draft night, it’s a fresh start for the organization. There’s a new general manager, a new coach, and a new roster. Perhaps most importantly, the Wings will move out of College Park Center at the University of Texas at Arlington and into the downtown Kay Bailey Hutchison Center in 2026. And this year, they’ll break ground on a state-of-the-art practice facility next door. All of these changes are immensely important to creating the kind of winning culture that Bueckers demands.
One line from Bueckers’ post-draft press conference really stuck with me. She said that in communicating with Wings brass, they’d “established that there’s new levels of standards that are going to be set in play.” It seems the organization understands the magnitude of adding a player like Bueckers and how much commitment and change it will take to keep her happy. That’s good, because the Paige Bueckers effect is certain to be revolutionary.
The Wings are about to jump from relative obscurity to prime time. Bueckers has an army of fans; not to be an “Instagram followers” guy, but she has over 2.3 million. As the kids say, she has a crazy motion. She is a global superstar and one of the most recognizable female athletes today. It’s not quite Caitlin Clark-level fame, but it’s close. Her arrival in Dallas coinciding with the exponential growth of women’s basketball and the aftermath of the Luka Dončić trade is kismet. All these factors will come together to create a perfect storm of popularity, and I’m not sure many understand how seismic an event this is.
I’ve already heard from many Maverick fans who are repurposing their energy into following Bueckers and the Wings this upcoming season. And if you’re still reeling from the Dončić saga and desperate for something to reinvigorate your love for the game, I’m asking you to give Paige Bueckers a chance. She is our next basketball heroine, and she’s going to be great. Her story has already been one for the history books, but her next chapter will be the most compelling of all. We’re lucky it’s being written in Dallas. Buy a ticket, take the ride.