TL;DR
- Azzi Fudd drafted #1 by Dallas Wings.
- Olivia Miles goes #2 to Minnesota Lynx.
- Both players are openly queer.
- Fudd reunites with girlfriend Paige Bueckers.
- Record number of queer players drafted.
The past two weeks of WNBA news have been dizzying, with an expansion draft and free agency period that has radically reshuffled the lineup of every single team in the league. It’s a monumental year for the W with its glorious, groundbreaking new CBA agreement that finally gives WNBA players the chance to make real money and teams a real budget with which to entice and retain talent. Last night’s WNBA college draft came only five days before teams will head to training camp, where rosters will be finalized as opening day approaches. It was a pretty dramatic evening full of unexpected events (the Flau’je Johnston trade!?), and a big one for the gays.
Out Queer U-Conn Guard Azzi Fudd Is the #1 Draft Pick To Dallas Wings
The lead story of draft night was, of course, the Dallas Wings selecting U Conn’s Azzi Fudd as its #1 pick. This move had been widely expected — Dallas had thus far been building a 2026 roster that seemed, by all accounts, to be ready for Azzi — but many still speculated Dallas could swing for Olivia Miles instead. Fudd will join her former U-Conn teammate / girlfriend Paige Bueckers, last year’s #1 draft pick, on the Dallas Wings. Paige beamed from the audience as Fudd took the stage. “I’m excited again to play again with Paige,” Fudd told ESPN. “She’s an incredible player and it’s going to be a lot of fun.”
For devoted fans of WNBA Gay Gossip, draft night could’ve been the last scene of an illustrated-cover romance novel that left some room for a sequel. Two basketball phenoms drift in and out of each other’s young lives, meeting every time the nation’s best are assembled to play, before they both attend undergrad at the University of Connecticut, falling for each other and leading their team to the 2025 NCAA championship. One graduates into the WNBA as that year’s #1 draft pick and the two eventually confirm their relationship publicly, giving sapphic fandom a moment of joy amid a world generally sliding towards hell in a handbasket. Then, the other is drafted #1 to the same WNBA team — a team that’s been struggling hard, a team that needs a comeback and might finally have assembled a group capable of delivering it.
Of course — breakup rumors have abounded over the past few months as the two have hung back from public displays of affection. But it feels to me personally based on my own personal feelings that Azzi Fudd and Paige Bueckers have just been making moves to re-privatize their relationship both as a reaction to the parasocial attention their relationship has garnered and in preparation for the glaring, complicated spotlight they’re about to be competing beneath, together.
If they’re still together, Fudd and Bueckers won’t be the first couple to play on the same WNBA team. NaLyssa Smith and Dijonai Carrington, who have since broken up, played together on the Dallas Wings for part of the 2025 season. Alyssa Thomas and Dewanna Bonner started dating as teammates on the Connecticut Sun, and both were traded elsewhere at the top of the 2025 season, but Bonner eventually landed back with Thomas on the Phoenix Mercury, where they’ve both signed to play in 2026. Previously, Bonner played on the Mercury with her now-ex wife, Candice Dupree. Natasha Cloud and Isabelle Harrison played together on the New York Liberty in 2025. Courtney Vandersloot and Allie Quigley started dating as Chicago Sky teammates, becoming the first married couple to win a professional sports championship together before Allie left the W in 2022. Wives Diana Taurasi and Penny Taylor met and began dating while playing on the Phoenix Mercury. But, Fudd would certainly be the first drafted right out of college to her girlfriend’s WNBA team. She’d be part of the first WNBA couple comprised of two #1 draft picks. She also joins an elite legacy of gay U-Conn alums who went at #1: Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, Diana Taurasi and Paige Bueckers before her. Under the new CBA, Azzi signed a $2.2 million dollar rookie contract. She wore a dress custom-designed for her by Coach on the orange carpet.
Olivia Miles Goes To The Minnesota Lynx At #2 and Other Gay Draft Picks
Olivia Miles was widely predicted to be the #2 pick at last year’s WNBA draft, after a spectacular career at Notre Dame. But Miles surprised everybody by opting out of the draft, entering the transfer portal instead, and ended up signing with TCU — the team that triumphed over Notre Dame in Olivia’s final NCAA tournament game with the Fighting Irish. Miles was dating Chicago Sky’s Maddy Westbeld last year, but it seems that romance may have run its course. Miles will join the Minnesota Lynx, a team still hungry for a championship. The Lynx recently traded one half of the Stud Budz, Natisha Hiedeman, to the Seattle Storm; and Dijonai Carrington to Team Baddie at the Chicago Sky. Lauren Betts, the 6’7″ two-time All-American who led UCLA to the NCAA championship literally last week, went at #4 to the Washington Mystics. Pride.com lists Lauren Betts as a queer player and she seems pretty gay based on vibes, but I can’t find confirmation elsewhere — anyhow, if she is gay, but also if she isn’t, she was one of a record six Bruins drafted last night. We love her regardless. A tall queen!
Furthermore, the Seattle Storm picked up Duke’s Taina Mar at #14, an out player who just had one of the greatest senior seasons in Duke history. Rori Harmon, an out guard from Texas, was selected by the Washington Mystics as the 34th overall pick in the third round — although many had expected her to get picked up much earlier. “With a team in an extreme rebuild and no true general manager, snagging Harmon is definitely the steal of the draft,” wrote Lauren Rosenberg at Out Sports.
Brittney Griner became the first openly gay player drafted into the WNBA in 2013 when she was the #1 pick out of Baylor. At least 14 gay players have snagged the top spot in the history of the WNBA draft, but few (if any? correct me if I’m wrong!) have been out at draft time. Now we’ve got two out players right at the top, and one of them is (probably) dating her teammate! We will face many gay struggles this year such as the aforementioned separation of the Stud Budz, but listen — it’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, and it’s a great time to love basketball and be gay.
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