Just ahead of the All-Star Game, Paige Bueckers appeared on Sue Bird’s podcast, the Bird’s Eye View. During her conversation with the WNBA legend, the Dallas Wings star confessed to feeling something she wasn’t proud of. While answering how it felt when women’s basketball took off after her stellar freshman year, while she was out of the picture with an injury, Bueckers admitted to feeling jealous.
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“I felt bad because I felt like jealous in a way, and I felt like envious. And I’ve never been that type of person. I was like, ‘What about me though?’ And ’cause I had worked so hard. I just wanted to play, and I just wanted to be a part of it. And part of me felt bad because I felt jealous,” said Bueckers. Now, independent WNBA analyst and podcast host Ben Daniel believes Bueckers’ admission is indicative of a bigger confession.
“Paige Bueckers admits her jealousy, her envy of Caitlin Clark. It’s finally out in the open.” Daniel said on his podcast. “If Paige is envious that Caitlin Clark’s the one that took the WNBA to the next level, imagine how the rest of the league feels. Paige and Caitlin came up with each other. Paige is looking at Caitlin, saying, ‘That should have been me.’
“If Paige is saying that, imagine what those old veterans are thinking to themselves. They probably are jealous and envious times ten when it comes to how jealous and envious Paige was.”
Daniels’ broader theory is based on the fact that Paige Bueckers and Caitlin Clark were actually originally on track to enter the WNBA at the same time. Both were members of the same 2020 high school recruiting class, and were collegiate basketball stars. However, Buecker’s injury delayed her WNBA debut by a year.
By then, the Caitlin Clark effect was in full swing. With CC joining the Indiana Fever in the WNBA, the league saw historic viewership numbers, and most of those games featured CC.
From selling out stadiums to boosting WNBA merchandise sales, Clark’s debut in 2024 powered the massive surge in the WNBA’s popularity. Clark’s debut game drew over 2.1 million viewers on ESPN2, while the 2024 All-Star game featuring Clark drew 3.442 million viewers on ABC.
Even today, the Caitlin Clark effect is going strong, with the Indiana Fever vs. Golden State Valkyries on July 15, 2026, becoming the most-watched game in USA Sports Network’s history.
While Paige Bueckers never explicitly stated Clark’s name, her confession fueled his theory, in light of all the controversy the hard contacts on the Indiana Fever star have generated since Alyssa Thomas’s flagrant foul on Clark during their June 24 clash.