Paige Bueckers is probably going to play in next year’s WNBA All-Star game as the presumptive No. 1 overall pick in the 2025 draft. In the meantime, she continues to support the league at every opportunity and sat courtside with Flau’jae Johnson on Saturday night.
However, the LSU guard was not the biggest star sitting next to her!
Three-time MVP Sheryl Swoopes sat to the left Bueckers throughout the extremely competitive exhibition game between Team USA and the remaining WNBA All-Stars. And when the camera cut to the crowd, UConn’s fifth-year senior quickly deflected the attention to the legend instead of herself.
We have a Paige Bueckers sighting 👀#WNBALLSTAR pic.twitter.com/uAFrxknhOr
— Sara Jane Gamelli (@SaraJGamelli) July 21, 2024
The hilariously humble moment brought a wild year for women’s basketball full-circle.
Swoopes went on an uninformed rant about the all-time college basketball scoring record back in February and was mocked by Caitlin Clark’s boyfriend for her humiliating comments. She later buried the hatchet while trying to explain her mistake. Everybody has since moved on.
Even though the air was cleared prior to Clark’s first year in the WNBA, there was a clear disconnect between the rookie and veterans during the early going. The latter wanted to squash the former at every opportunity. They went out of their way to bully the No. 1 overall pick and Swoopes’ comments prior to the season undoubtedly helped to fuel that fire.
Bueckers doesn’t care. She made sure to respect the legend who came before her and intentionally conceded the spotlight to her seatmate.
Clark also had some beef with Angel Reese. The two high-profile rookies are cordial, which we saw during the game on Saturday, but the rivalry is real. There is often a palpable tension between them.
Next year’s rookie class will be far less dramatic. Bueckers and Johnson were straight chilling.
They even hopped on IG Live together, where someone hilariously referred to them as Tupac and Eminem.
Not they called Flau’jae Johnson and Paige bueckers Tupac and Eminem 😂😂 pic.twitter.com/ZF1tXqptVD
— womensbasketballtingz (@wbbtingz) July 21, 2024
All of this goes to say that all of the theatrics surrounding Caitlin Clark don’t apply to anyone else. Paige Bueckers got along just fine with Sheryl Swoopes and one of her biggest on-court adversaries.
That’s not to say that Clark doesn’t— but the optics are certainly very different!