Paige Bueckers Wins WNBA Rookie of the Year Award
Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers has been awarded the WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2025, the league announced this Tuesday.
Bueckers, who was the first pick of the April draft, led the Huskies to their 12th national championship that same month.
The player received 70 of the 72 first-place votes from a media panel. Sonia Citron, guard for the Washington Mystics, received the remaining two votes.
Bueckers, a starter in her 36 appearances with the Wings, averaged 19.2 points, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds, and 1.6 steals, with 47.4% field goal efficiency and 88.8% from the free throw line. She led all WNBA rookies in total points (692), points per game, total assists (194), and assists per game. She was the only WNBA player this season to finish in the top 10 in points, assists, and steals per game.
Her 44-point performance against the Los Angeles Sparks on August 20th set a WNBA record for a rookie in a single game. Bueckers made 17 of 21 field goals (81%), becoming the first player in WNBA history to score 40 or more points and have at least 80% field goal accuracy in a game.
The Wings, although they failed to qualify for the playoffs with a 10-30 record, will be in the draft lottery again next season.
Bueckers joins Diana Taurasi (2004), Tina Charles (2010), Maya Moore (2011), Breanna Stewart (2016), Napheesa Collier (2019), and Crystal Dangerfield (2020) as UConn players who have won this prestigious award.
The Rookie of the Year award has been given since 1998, the second year of the WNBA. Bueckers is the sixteenth player selected at the number 1 draft position to be named Rookie of the Year.
