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ARLINGTON, TX — Paige Bueckers may not consider herself a celebrity, but the sports world thinks otherwise. Bueckers is one of the biggest names in all of sports right now. As a result, Bueckers, the 2025 No. 1 overall pick, has drawn consistent comparisons to Caitlin Clark. In an exclusive interview with ClutchPoints, the Dallas Wings rookie addressed the comparisons as well as a number of other topics.
Without further ado, here is ClutchPoints' exclusive interview with Paige Bueckers.
*This interview has been lightly edited for clarity
The Paige Bueckers interview
Joey Mistretta: When was the moment that you knew that you loved basketball and when was the moment you knew you could go pro?
Paige Bueckers: I would say when I was five (when she fell in love with basketball). I picked up the basketball, it always felt a little bit different than kicking the soccer ball, throwing a baseball around, throwing a football around. It was just something about basketball that really stood out to me. I just organically fell in love with it as I continued to keep playing… For me, I didn't ever know I was going pro until I made the pro leagues… But just seeing how, like, my dream was to go to UConn. And seeing how much they produce pros and then seeing how hard it is, how much is not given to you, how much you have to earn it as soon as you step on that campus… They produce professionals on and off the court, so you just try to prepare yourself as best as you can to live up to that and do everything they talk about and they teach you to get yourself able to be a professional.
Mistretta: Going to UConn, you suffered the (ACL) injury… I was watching an ESPN thing from over a year ago and it was you talking about reading the Kobe Bryant book, Mamba Mentality book. What did that book mean to you while you were recovering from that injury and what did Kobe's impact mean to you?
Bueckers: It meant a lot because, I mean, Kobe was also a player who went through a lot, he never let any injury derail him, beat him, get him down. Just for him to, like, the thing that stuck with me the most was for everything that happened to him, he took it as a new challenge. He was late in his career when he tore his Achilles, everybody wrote him off. Everybody thought this injury would be the one that sent him to retirement. He just looked at it as a new challenge, and something, obviously, you don't need any external motivation, but it doesn't hurt. So to have that internal drive to want to continue to be where you are and have things that set people back really make you better.
Mistretta: What WNBA player would you say you play most like, whether past or present?
Bueckers: I don't know. I really don't think… I don't really have a comparison. I try to take bits and pieces, but I think everybody is their own unique player, and everybody has different things.
Paige Bueckers reveals how she deals with the Caitlin Clark comparisons
Mistretta: Going off that, there's been a lot of comparisons to you and Caitlin (Clark), and I don't want to ask you about it. I want to ask you, how have you been dealing with those comparisons? Kind of tuning those out and focusing on your game?
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Bueckers: Yeah, I think, running my own race, not running a race in comparison. Because in all honesty, 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. I used to think about it and internalize it a little bit more, but now working on myself, working on being present and embracing the people around me and just working on getting better every single day has kind of helped me… Just like any comparison to anything, any expectations, any pressures, any external things that people think I have to live up to.
Mistretta: Going back to UConn, this is actually a fan question, they want to know what happened to the net from the national championship game. Where is that net right now?
Bueckers: It's here with me in Dallas. I got to bring it through storage. It's still here and present.
Mistretta: Is it going to be hung up in, like, your living room or something? Where is it going?
Bueckers: Yeah, it's definitely gotta be framed or something and put somewhere nice in the new place.
What Bueckers wants to accomplish in Dallas
Mistretta: The draft happens, you hear it's Dallas. You're obviously soaking it in, ‘I'm going to Dallas, okay.' What do you see yourself accomplishing in this city?
Bueckers: Being a great teammate, being a great leader. Trying to bring as much happiness, positive energy, joy to a new place and set the new foundation of what we wanna look like in the future. That starts now, it starts in the present. It starts every single day. But, like I've talked about before, there's a lot of new in the organization, so to continue to keep growing, keep bonding and keep feeding off everybody.
Mistretta: Last question, what do you think is the most underrated part of your game?
Bueckers: Underrated part (Bueckers stops and thinks before giving her answer with a smile on her face)… Defense.
