Quote from Oladosun Joshua Segun on November 17, 2025, 2:05 PM

Pressure is merely an element of the play for Paige Bueckers. The WNBA Rookie of the Year winner just finished an incredible season full of personal highs, including the most points ever scored by a rookie, 44, in the Dallas Wings' loss to the Los Angeles Sparks on August 20.

However, those highlights have not come without difficulties, which the 24-year-old continues to face on a daily basis.

“It's been a learning process of learning how to stop caring about other people's opinions of you,” in a special conversation with USA Network, Bueckers acknowledged. “Don't look to the left, don't look to the right. Run your own race and just be super driven, super purpose-filled, and be super present-minded.”

Bueckers is not letting the clamor get to her, even if the Wings ended the season outside of postseason contention. She is instead concentrating on the guidance she would offer to any young person who aspires to be an athlete.

“Embrace the hard, embrace the adversity,” she clarified. “I feel like life is all about how you respond to challenges and how you may respond to stuff not going your way, whether that be an injury, a loss, everything should motivate you in a positive way.”

That attitude is what led her to accept her most recent off-court offer—a three-year deal with CarMax, the NBA and WNBA's official vehicle retailer—and it also reveals the tenacity she is bringing to the next stage of her career. She participates in the brand's “Wanna Drive?” campaign, which honors those who pursue their objectives on their own terms, alongside Donovan Mitchell of the Cleveland Cavaliers.

When Bueckers informed a reporter in July that she would “like to have a car dealership partnership, so I don’t have to pay for a car.” she may have been expressing this strategy.

Reflecting on those remarks, the University of Connecticut graduate jokingly expressed her hope that the remaining manifestations will materialize: “The other half of what my former manifestation was real estate or a realtor, or somebody willing to help me find a house!”

In addition, Bueckers is featured with other WNBA players like A'ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu in her new CarMax commercial, which she says has been essential to increasing the representation of female athletes on television.

"You can see it growing: the excitement, the accessibility, the representation,” she stated. “I feel like there's a ton of momentum that we want to continue to keep building for the next generation because the people before have paved the way for us to continue to build it. So, you just want to continue to build off the momentum and continue to watch it grow and rise.”

Furthermore, she is not slowing down. Bueckers will play in the second season of the three-on-three basketball league Unrivaled during the WNBA summer. She is also anticipating the upcoming WNBA season and the Dallas Wings' organizational changes, including the hiring of Jose Fernandez as head coach. Fernandez is a close associate of Bueckers' former UConn coach Geno Auriemma.

“I feel like the foundation that we built last year and the culture that we want to send, the people that we want to have in the building, and the people we want to build with is continuing to grow,” Bueckers thought about it. “I feel like there was a lot of new last year. There's going to be some new this year, so continuing how to do it together makes it a lot easier rather than trying to figure it out as individuals.”

In May 2026, USA Network will premiere the upcoming season of the WBNA.