The WNBA has a new rivalry. The playoff series between the Sparks and Wings escalates between their two guards. One particular moment between Paige Bueckers and Kelsey Plum showed why the W is the most entertaining spectacle in basketball right now. Even Dwyane Wade couldn’t miss it. And watching Paige Buckets do her thing has been the highlight of his WNBA experience this year.

Bueckers won Rookie of the Year, which wasn’t all that surprising. Even Dwyane Wade spent the better part of the Timeout podcast this week on the Paige Buckets hype train. “She’s had one awesome year,” he made the understatement of the year. “You’re talking about somebody winning in life,” is how Wade and his co-host Bob Metelus phrase Paige’s NCAA comeback last year, winning the NCAA championship, going no.1 in the WNBA draft, and having a RoTY campaign.

Wade would like to emphasize there’s nothing personal about his opinion. Even though he’s close friends with WNBA players like Angel Reese and Candace Parker, he says, “I’m just a fan [of Bueckers]. I don’t know Paige Bueckers, everybody… But, like, she just looks cool to me, bro. I want to be her friend.”

We want to be Paige’s friends, too. But Wade has better odds than we could ever have, being a co-owner of the Chicago Sky and all. Wade has a close friendship with Reese through Sky. He’s been Parker’s colleague since they did TNT Tuesdays, and now will reunite on Amazon Prime. Wade is almost friends with A’ja Wilson through Bam Adabeyo. But the kid-like urge to want to be friends with Paige is definitely adorable.

Bueckers, for her part, has that sweet persona, too. Till she shows her mean streak.

Dwyane Wade was impressed with Paige Bueckers’ fierceness

Like a lot of these WNBA stars, Bueckers stands on business, which Dwyane Wade loves to see. She just brings a little more flair to it. Because very few would’ve expected her to butt heads with Kelsey Plum that way.

Even Wade couldn’t resist talking about that viral moment. “Now, I remember the clip that went viral where she was talking to Kelsey Plum about, ‘When I, if I, I will put you right there on that block, and I’m going to hit you and I’m going to go over top of you on the shoulder,’ right? She was letting her know; ‘You’re too small.’ And then they played each other in the playoffs, and she did exactly what she told us she was going to do.”

Wade obviously caught every second of the biggest rivalry in the WNBA brewing over the past two months to know this detail. It started during a regular-season game between the Sparks and Wings in August. It was the night Paige Bueckers made history with a 44-point outing, a rookie record of her own. Kelsey Plum did not make those 44 points easy for her and even ruined the finale with the game-winning shot. Her buzzer-beater ended the game 81-80 in Los Angeles’ favor.

After the game, Bueckers linked up with Plum and engaged in some friendly banter, where Paige said something about taking Plum on her shoulder. Kelsey wasn’t mad, but played along with the rookie’s boldness.

Wade recalled that exact moment when he said, “She put her little bitty self on that block and she hit her with the ‘boom boom fade.’ ‘You too little.’ And I was like… and so it was really cool because at the time it was like, who is this little cocky rookie coming in telling Kelsey that, ‘I’ll put your little bitty a– on that block?’ ‘Let me show you. Let me get this. I’ll put your a– on that block.’ Smelled so cold to me, bro.”

The following month, the two teams were face-to-face again. And it was more physical than last time. Paige did exactly what she said when she ran into Plum and sent her to the ground. Plum brought out that fierce side in Bueckers that we didn’t get enough of during her Huskies era, mostly because she was injured a lot. It was refreshing when she played coach on the sidelines. It’s not very surprising when Bueckers argues with refs. But this kind of rivalry is new. Especially because she was outside the peak of the Angel Reese-Caitlin Clark rivalry and hasn’t had that matchup this season with both stars injured.

We can see why D-Wade is loving this side of Paige Buckets.