This year’s State Farm WNBA All-Star 3-Point Contest will go down in history; the Dallas Wings rookie Azzi Fudd made sure of that tonight. But what nobody expected was that one of its most memorable moments would come after the final shot had already fallen.
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As Fudd became the first rookie ever to win the contest, a fan-captured video showed the 23-year-old sharing a tight hug with her teammate Paige Bueckers as the pair celebrated. The two were seemingly saying something to each other before Fudd looked at Bueckers and tightly hugged the guard.
Fudd caught fire in the championship round of the event against Portland Fire’s Bridget Carleton and knocked down her first six and last eight shots to finish with 30 points. By doing so, she not only became the first rookie to win the 3-Point Contest but also posted the highest-scoring final round by a rookie in the event’s history.
To put things in perspective a little better, her total matched Sabrina Ionescu’s winning score from last season. But all of this was far from easy.
Azzi Fudd first booked her place in the championship round with 24 points, while Carleton led the opening round after pouring in 29 points by making 13 of her first 16 attempts.
However, the final belonged to the Dallas rookie as Carleton couldn’t recreate her first-round magic and finished with just 19 points.
“Just focusing. This is what you do every single day as a basketball player,” Fudd had said about her preparation for the night.
The Atlanta Dream’s Rhyne Howard, on the other hand, finished with 20 points, while Golden State Valkyries forward Janelle Salaün had 19, Toronto Tempo guard Marina Mabrey had 18, and Seattle Storm guard Natisha Hiedeman had 17.
So, under the WNBA’s new collective bargaining agreement, Azzi Fudd earned a $20,000 winner’s bonus from the league, while every participant received $10,000 just for competing.
Aflac, like the past two years, also added to the prize pool. Fudd got an extra $40,000, with runner-up Carleton taking home $30,000 and Howard receiving $15,000 for finishing third.
With Alysha Clark wearing her jersey and stars like Jayson Tatum, Russell Westbrook, Dwyane Wade and WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes rising on their feet to celebrate her fire in the opening round, Azzi Fudd couldn’t have asked for a better night.
But now that the 3-Point Contest is in the past, the spotlight will shift to Bueckers as she is all set to take the floor for Team Coop in the WNBA All-Star Game on Saturday.