by Dollita Okine, Face2FaceAfrica.com
The Dallas Wings made Azzi Fudd the No. 1 pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft on Monday night in New York City, officially confirming the most highly anticipated selection in this year’s class.
Fudd will reportedly earn a rookie salary of $500,000, seven times the $78,831 that Dallas Wings player Paige Bueckers reportedly made as the top pick last year. This substantial increase is due to the league’s new collective bargaining agreement that gives huge pay raises to rookies. The No. 2 and No. 3 picks will get $466,913 and $436,016, respectively.
The draft selection creates a backcourt reunion in Dallas for Fudd and Bueckers, who were close teammates at UConn and won a national championship together in 2025.
Fudd has repeatedly expressed her belief that she is joining the league at the perfect time. Speaking to Essence, she remarked, “This is the best time to be a women’s basketball player, and I can’t really emphasize enough how grateful I am to be a part of it at this time and also how grateful I am for everyone that’s come before and really laid that foundation.”
Fudd concluded her UConn career with an outstanding final season, earning first-team All-American honors. Averaging 17.3 points per game, her exceptional three-point shooting was a major factor in her selection, as she led the nation with 117 three-pointers made on 262 attempts.
She is currently the seventh UConn player to be drafted first overall, following in the footsteps of players such as Sue Bird, Diana Taurasi, Maya Moore, Breanna Stewart, and Bueckers.
Despite winning a national championship in 2025 and earning the Most Outstanding Player award at the Final Four, she opted to return to Storrs for another season rather than entering last year’s draft, where she would have likely been a top pick.
“My goal this year was to be super present,” she explained to Essence. “I know how easy it is to get caught up in all the exciting things that are coming up. But I’m also very aware that this is my last time in college.”
The Wings are counting on her to bring that same level of commitment to Dallas when the season starts on May 8, a feeling reinforced by the way she played.
Fudd’s talent was never in doubt. She first arrived at UConn in 2021 as the nation’s top recruit, a McDonald’s All-American from St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C. Fudd had already made history before joining the campus, having become the first sophomore ever to be named the Gatorade National Player of the Year in 2019.
Fudd’s college career was, however, severely hampered by a series of injuries, particularly to the foot and knee. The most devastating injury was a torn ACL and meniscus just two games into her junior season in November 2023. This was her second overall ACL tear and kept her off the court for almost the entire year.
Despite these tremendous obstacles, she returned for her senior year, helped UConn secure the championship, and demonstrated her resilience by valuing every moment of her final season.
She told Self, “It’s just surreal to think I really am living out my dreams. And it’s all because of a sport. It’s all because I like to put a ball in a basket.”
She added, “I could have been born in any time frame, in any era. What are the odds I’m here, alive now, playing basketball when women’s sports—women’s basketball, especially—is on the rise and on a trajectory like never seen before?”
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