My first thought each week is to try to make this essay about a subject other than sports. I spent my entire professional life covering sports, and it would be boring for me and you to do sports stories every week. But I find I can't get away from it sometimes. So many societal issues — race, gender, sexism, privacy, economics — seem to be filtered through the prism of sports.
It happened again this week with the WNBA Draft. Now, I'm betting most of you don't care about which women's college stars end up on which women's teams, and that's fine. The NFL Draft is coming up on Thursday night, and despite the thousands of hours of pre-coverage it gets, I could care less about it. I follow the advice of my late, great Sports Illustrated colleague, Frank Deford, who some of you might remember from his NPR essays. Said Frank, with his tongue firmly placed in cheek, "Choose your friends in inverse proportion to how seriously they pay attention to the NFL Draft."
But back to the WNBA. With the first pick of the 2026 WNBA Draft, the Dallas Wings selected Azzi Fudd of the University of Connecticut. Fudd was a very good player at UConn, a first-team All-American, a great shooter, by all accounts a great person, and one with enormous endorsement potential.
But I was mildly surprised because I didn't think Fudd was the best fit for Dallas, whose best player, Paige Bueckers, has a similar set of offensive characteristics. They are both shooters, finesse players, and Fudd looked lost when she was shut down by a physical South Carolina team in the NCAA tournament.
Anyway, stories started to appear that Fudd may have been selected because she is the romantic partner of the aforementioned Paige Bueckers. They made it public on social media when they were at UConn together, though they have not shared much about it since then.
So, at a press conference to announce Fudd's selection, one of the first questions was, "Are you and Paige together as a couple?"
Fudd remained stone-faced, and I have no idea if she was going to answer the question, but a Dallas public relations person stepped in quickly and said, "I understand why you have to ask that question, but we're not going to get into personal lives." So it went unanswered and remains so today.
I've heard all sorts of reasons as to why the reporter's question was inappropriate, the main one being, relationships are nobody's business. Well, of course they are, particularly if they have an effect on team chemistry. Sports are all about relationships. Now, the second reason people said the question was out of bounds was, "Oh, it's a double standard. They would have never covered a male relationship like that." Oh, please. Have you ever seen the coverage when someone on a male sports team comes out of the closet? And then you would add in the factor of that person having a romantic partner on the team? The coverage would be nonstop.
Now, I understand why they didn't want to address the story. It's tough enough for women in the sports world what with social media trolls, and it's tough enough to conduct a relationship during a pressure-filled sports season, far less if you have to do it in public. But topics relative to team chemistry have to be discussed, and the team should have just gotten it out of the way. Do they think it won't come up again?
Frankly, I thought it was a big gamble for the Wings to choose Fudd, given her history with Bueckers. And let me be clear, I think you should be allowed to love who you love. But in the pressure-filled world of pro sports, where games and conflicts and locker room drama are covered on a daily basis, you better be a strong couple. It will be fascinating to watch this story unfold, and I hope for the sake of both women and their teammates, it doesn't define their season.
