A gold medal was the highlight of Paige Bueckers’ 2017 Argentina trip. But the elevator ride home left a memory far darker than basketball. Bueckers and Team USA won the FIBA Americas Under-16 Championship, but years later, the Dallas Wings star revealed the traumatic elevator experience that stayed with her.
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“It was like 12 of us packed into a six-person elevator. We clicked up to go to level three or something. We started going down,” Bueckers told USA Basketball on YouTube. “I was like, ‘we’re supposed to be going up.’ So, we got rescued, thankfully. But that was an interesting moment for sure.”
Paige Bueckers described the moment as “traumatic” and spoke about how she was already a “little claustrophobic”. Bueckers still avoids using elevators. The WNBA star further revealed that she and her teammates were stuck in the elevator for 10-15 minutes before being rescued.
“We started going down. Then we got stuck. So, it wasn’t totally bad, but I thought we were going to run out of oxygen, so I almost had a panic attack,” she added during her interview.
During her international debut almost a decade ago, Bueckers, Aliyah Boston and Caitlin Clark were teammates. In 2026, it has become a full-circle moment for the WNBA star, playing alongside her former World Cup teammates. Moreover, this WC has not been just about playing at the international level, but something bigger for Bueckers.
“As a basketball player, you feel like representing your country at the World Cup level, at the Olympic level, on the senior national team. That’s the highest honor you could have. So being one of 12 for the USA, to see that they see me as a fit and see that they think that I can contribute to winning basketball with the team, that means everything,” Bueckers added. “It’s a dream come true, and you never want to take it for granted.”
Paige Bueckers is now playing alongside some of the WNBA’s greatest players like Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier in her true World Cup debut at the senior level. They have represented their country at the highest level, even leading their team to an Olympic gold medal win over France. But Bueckers has also shown a lot of promise too.
As the Americans have won all of their three games at the group stage, Bueckers has claimed the status of one of the best players in the WNBA. In three games against China, Italy and Czechia, she has averaged 10.3 points, 2.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, 1.3 steals and 1.3 blocks per game. She has been a consistent performer for her team through the group stage.
Bueckers has represented her country at the U-17 FIBA World Cup in Belarus. She was part of the U-19 FIBA World Cup in Thailand. She was also part of the 3×3 team at the Youth Olympic Games in 2018. In all of the aforementioned competitions, she led her team to gold medals.
She also won the MVP award at the U-19 in Thailand. During the same year, she was also named the USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year.
Team USA is the favorite to win the World Cup in Berlin. They are set to face either Japan or Hungary in the quarterfinals. Bueckers and Co. are still the deepest team in the World Cup.
But Americans will have a serious challenge from other teams, especially France. Italy exposed a lot of holes in their game. With A’ja Wilson, arguably the best player in the world, out of the tournament, Team USA’s throne might face a serious challenge after four consecutive gold medals.