There was a time when Paige Bueckers couldn’t help but feel jealous of women’s basketball moving on without her. While the NCAA women’s basketball national championship game had record viewership in 2023, she instead spent almost the entire season in rehabilitation.
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Speaking on Friday’s episode of Sue Bird’s podcast, the Dallas Wings star opened up about the toll of watching women’s basketball reach unprecedented heights in 2023, with the finals between Louisiana State and Iowa drawing 9.9 million viewers on average (103% more than 2022). At the same time, devastating knee injuries at UConn sidelined her. Bueckers admitted that, despite genuinely wanting others to succeed, she couldn’t shake feelings of jealousy and fear that the game’s meteoric rise had passed her by.
“I played pretty well my freshman year and I just wanted to win,” Bueckers said. “Like we came up short, definitely, according to coach. And then it just felt like women’s basketball just took the world by storm and rightfully so. 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 where I don’t want other people to succeed.”
What Paige Bueckers was referring to were the severe knee injuries during her time at the University of Connecticut. Early in her sophomore season, Bueckers suffered an anterior tibial plateau fracture and lateral meniscus tear. After returning briefly, she tore her ACL in August 2022, forcing her to miss the entire 2022–23 season.
They forced her out of the sport right as her fame and the national hype around women’s basketball were exploding. As Sue Bird pointed out during their conversation, Bueckers had entered college with massive hype. She delivered on that hype immediately, sweeping major National Player of the Year honors and leading UConn to the Final Four as a freshman.
It was during that period she was out injured that women’s college basketball gained additional popularity and media coverage. Because she was sidelined in rehab, Paige Bueckers was physically removed from the massive spotlight that came with that moment.
According to Bueckers, even though she has always been the type of person who wanted others to succeed, she still couldn’t help but feel like that moment was passing her by. She feared that by the time she returned, everyone would have forgotten her caliber. But fortunately, she returned and achieved the ultimate collegiate redemption by leading the UConn Huskies to the NCAA national championship in 2025.
She then went on to be the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA Draft. Since then, she has delivered strong performances at the professional level, averaging 19.9 points over her two seasons in the W. It really did turn out to be a redemption story that proved her fears wrong. But that doesn’t prevent her from being extra cautious of injuries on the court now.
Paige Bueckers Admits She’s Still Fighting Injury Trauma Three Years Later
While Paige Bueckers obviously came back from that dreadful stretch of injuries and has continued to put up great performances to this day, it did leave a lasting impact – one that she’s still working to overcome.
“People get mad because I don’t attack the rim as often,” Bueckers said. “And part of that is trauma of playing in crowded areas, having to land on one leg. Like, so I’m still fighting that three years later. But it helped me really learn how to get to my spots efficiently and work smarter and not harder. Like how can I be more efficient in my cuts, in my movement, in my load.”
Just as she said, there has really been concern about Paige Bueckers not attacking the rim more often. In fact, she now has a reputation for her elite mid-range pull-up and surgical playmaking. She frequently prefers to pull up for a jumper rather than absorbing heavy contact directly at the rim. That style of play also shows in the number of free throws she gets. In fact, so far this season, she’s averaging 3.6 free throw attempts per game, which is notably low for an elite scoring guard averaging over 20.9 points per game.
Apart from the impact on her gameplay, that long stretch of injuries has also changed her perspective on taking care of her body. She now takes the gym much more seriously than she did before and sees that aspect of the game as being just as important as being on the court and hooping.
As Bueckers explained, she used to simply show up, tie her shoes, and start playing. Now, her routine includes stretching, Pilates, activation exercises, and other body-preparation work before she even steps onto the court.
Regardless of her injury history, Bueckers and the Wings are currently fourth in the league rankings, with a record of 18-9. Bueckers is leading the team in both points and assists, refusing to let her injuries stop her from achieving her potential.