Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark (Photos via USA Today)
With stars like Caitlin Clark, Chelsea Gray, and Sabrina Ionescu set to make headlines this WNBA season, Paige Bueckers has a lot of work to put herself amongst the elites in backcourt play.

There have been a lot of comparisons between this year’s No. 1 overall WNBA Draft pick and last year’s.

Bueckers, who joined the Dallas Wings in 2025 after leading the UConn Huskies to the NCAA title and graduating from UConn, spoke about the “media-driven” narrative that has followed the pair at least since they were in high school.

When Bueckers won the national championship with UConn this past college basketball season, plenty of comments highlighted how she’s better because she had a title.

Clark reached the National Championship game two years in a row but failed to win it both times. She became the only top-five recruit from the 2020 high school recruiting class not to win a national championship.

As Bueckers starts her WNBA career, she has decided to share her honest thoughts on constantly being compared to Clark.

“That’s what the media cares about,” Paige Bueckers told Time Magazine.

“That’s what everybody who watches basketball cares about. I used to be bothered by it. But I’ve done so much work on myself and my approach. The ability to not run a race in comparison, to run my own race and worry about that. Caitlin’s a phenomenal player. We’re also completely different players.”

Bueckers further told Cluth Points reporter Joey Mistretta that she avoids the stories by focusing on “running my own race.”

“When it comes down to it, she continued, “I don’t think me and Caitlin play at all alike. But I understand growing up in the same class, the same generation, both guards… I don’t know, but I don’t think we play alike.”

“But also, too, it’s just not worrying about that and, like I said, running my own race and staying present every single day. Those comparisons are just media driven, narrative driven. And they’re good for the game in terms of getting people to talk about it, and it being a talking point. So I’m sure we both have gotten used to it,” she continued.”

Dallas Wings Sell Out Before They Even Drafted Paige Bueckers

Paige Bueckers (Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images)
Paige Bueckers raised the expectations and excitement level for the Dallas Wings and their fans many months before the WNBA team even drafted her.

Five months before the April 14 draft, the Wings had already sold out their season ticket allotment.

Bueckers is generating the same kind of buzz around the Wings that Caitlin Clark did as the No. 1 overall pick for the Indiana Fever last year.

She has the star power to change the franchise.