It’s been, shall we say, a rough few weeks, but despite all the various forces at play at home and abroad, there is one bright shimmering light on the horizon — WNBA All-Star Weekend, which is being live-streamed by my favorite platonic duo, Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman. That situation is enough joy for one lifetime, but then, last night, we were further blessed: a month or so after hard-launching their relationship through Azzi Fudd taking a selfie with a phone case that said “Paige Bueckers’ Girlfriend” on it, tiktoker wagtalk went ahead and interviewed Paige Bueckers on the orange carpet on the topic of, “How well do you know your D1 girlfriend?”

Fans of Azzi and Paige — so called “Pazzis” — had anticipated spending the rest of their lives enjoying random, incidental confirmations of the relationship here and there — spotting meaningful jewelry, screaming about the aforementioned phone case, framing photos like this one from a recent Bueckers slideshow of life lately…

— but then this brave little wagtalker just straight-up asked Paige who her girlfriend was and Paige literally said “Azzi Fudd.”

@wagtalk

Ask and you shall receive- PAIGE BUECKERS EVERYONE @isomaddy @WNBA #WNBAAllStar2025 #paigbueckers #azzifudd #uconn #WNBA #couplegoals

♬ original sound – wagtalk

Typically, Wagtalk shows up at NBA games, interviewing basketball wives and girlfriends about their athletic man-partners. But followers had been clamoring for them to flip the script and grab a few minutes with WNBA star Paige Bueckers.

Maddy: What high school did she go to?
Paige: St. John’s.
Maddy: What year did she win player of the year?
Paige: [thinks hard] 2019?
Maddy: Good job! Where was the ranked in the class of 2021?
Paige: Number one.
Maddy: What year did she get her first collegiate start?
Paige: What year? Freshman year.
Maddy: What slogan did her mom’s t-shirt have on it at the championship game?
Paige: How about we fudd around and find out.
Maddy: What WNBA team drafted her mom?
Paige: Ooo that’s a tough one. Was it a team that no longer exists?
Maddy: Yes.
Paige: I wanna say…. was it like, The Sting?
[someone off-camera says Sacramento]
Paige: Sacramento! what’s the team?
Maddy: Monarchs?
Paige: The Monarchs, yeah
Maddy: What college basketball team did her Dad play for?
Paige: American University.
Maddy: What basketball player was she named after?
Paige: Jennifer Azzi
Maddy: What award did she win for national championship performing?
Paige: MOP.
Maddy: What does her phone case say on it?
Paige: It says… [acts like she’s thinking] Paige Bueckers’ girlfriend?
Maddy: Girlfriend reveal?
Paige: Azzi Fudd.

The comments of the clip were flooded with ecstasy, delight and enthusiasm.

“Bro never did I ever think GIRLFRIEND would come out of Paige’s mouth,” wrote Amber.

“This interview deserves a raise… I dream for nights like this,” wrote cbthatgirl.

Former teammate Nalyssa Smith, who used to play for the Wings with Paige and with Smith’s girlfriend Dijonai Carrington before being traded mid-season to the Aces, commented, “awwww my baby’s all grown up.”

The reaction vids came flooding in:

Paige and Azzi join a strong legion of lesbian couples in which both people in the couple are excellent basketball players and at least one is currently or formerly of the WNBA.

Finally, an embarrassment of riches for me personally: Paige chatting with the Stud Budz on the orange carpet. We dreamed of days like these for a long while, after all.

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Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She’s Jewish. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3344 articles for us.

After many eons of speculation and countless fan edits, U-Conn basketball star Azzi Fudd has gone ahead and made it clear that she is indeed in a relationship with Dallas Wings rookie and #1 draft pick Paige Bueckers. On Fudd’s Instagram stories today she posted a mirror selfie while getting her hair done. Her phone case reads: “Paige Bueckers’ Girlfriend.” Fudd has also consistently sported a rainbow emoji in her insta bio.

honestly, huge for @haylesloganhair

“I’m so happy!” said Coach Jackie on TikTok. “They were best friends and then obviously started dating and I think because they were friends they did all the things that two girlfriends would do and every single time they did those things, everyone would be like awww BFFs! Like they literally could kiss on the mouth, and everyone would be like, that is so nice that they do that for each other as friends.”

Way back in May, many fans noticed what appeared to be a Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd soft launch. Shyanne Sellers and her fiancee, Faith Masonius, participated in the dinner bill meme, and then on May 23rd, Azzi posted her and Paige doing the same meme. Azzi asks Paige, “how much was it?” Paige says “$200,” Azzi says, “that’s not that bad,” and then Paige gives her a look because of course she is the one paying, not Azzi. Azzi captioned the video, “princess treatment every time I’m with her.” In the comments, Paige favorited fans who shared sentiments such as “at least Paige is winning off the court” and “sooo thoughtful azzi’s former teammate paid for their bill she’s so kind.”

Elsewhere on #wagtok, Dallas Wings player Tyasha Harris’s girlfriend, Autumn Patrice, jumped on the meme as well.

On Tiktok, women’s sports creator Shenae posted about her deep investment in Paige and Azzi’s relationship and how it made her wish she was a lesbian, and a commenter wrote, “I hope this blows up so Azzi sees it and sneaky favorited it LOL” and indeed, it did blow up, and Azzi did, in fact, sneaky favorite it.

Across the web, self-identified “Pazziators” celebrated what they saw as a hard launch of their favorite and most beloved partnership. “They’re always together, they’re always making content together, they were always giving ‘we’re a couple’ without saying ‘we’re a couple,” explained TikToker @thebaddiegalore.

To sportscasters, Azzi is simply Paige’s “former teammate.” To straight people, Azzi and Paige are “best friends.” But many wondered, what constitutes a hard launch or even a soft launch? Is it a girl taking another to the WNBA draft as, seemingly, her date? Is it that same date wearing a golden necklace, featuring a heart and the player’s number, around your neck? Is it participating in a couples-oriented meme on TikTok? Well, it definitely is a phone case that literally says “Paige Bueckers’ girlfriend.”

The two exceptional basketball players have been best friends for years, having met in high school at a USA basketball camp and played together on youth national teams. Bueckers, who hails from Minnesota, headed to the University of Connecticut for college, where Azzi, who grew up in the D.C. area, joined her a year later. “We’re similar, but at the same time very different,” Fudd told the CT Insider in 2021. “I’m quieter, she’s louder, but we have a lot of the same qualities: our work ethic, our goals.”

The longevity and depth of this friendship, their ages, and the amount of time they’ve spent together as young basketball phenoms, traveling across the country and being teammates on a championship team — this is a friends-and-lovers story for the ages. We look forward to seeing them go on double dates with Buecker’s teammates D’Jonai Carrington and Nalyssa Smith, wouldn’t that be cute?

Before you go! Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen, will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?

Join AF+!

Riese

Riese is the 43-year-old Co-Founder of Autostraddle.com as well as an award-winning writer, video-maker, LGBTQ+ Marketing consultant and aspiring cyber-performance artist who grew up in Michigan, lost her mind in New York and now lives in Los Angeles. Her work has appeared in nine books, magazines including Marie Claire and Curve, and all over the web including Nylon, Queerty, Nerve, Bitch, Emily Books and Jezebel. She had a very popular personal blog once upon a time, and then she recapped The L Word, and then she had the idea to make this place, and now here we all are! In 2016, she was nominated for a GLAAD Award for Outstanding Digital Journalism. She’s Jewish. Follow her on twitter and instagram.

Riese has written 3332 articles for us.