“Hey, Cooper, it’s Paige here from the Dallas Wings. From one No. 1 pick to another, just wanted to say congratulations,” said Paige Bueckers in a message after the 2025 NBA Draft. Not only do Bueckers and Cooper Flagg boast of being the No. 1 picks in a 2025 Draft, but they also represent two separate Dallas basketball franchises. The duo has held mutual respect for many years, with Flagg once revealing that he used to go to UConn to watch the WNBA rookie play. Now, with Bueckers’ rookie season over, the WNBA star is reciprocating that gesture by watching Flagg begin his rookie season.

A few hours ago, the Dallas Mavericks held their first game of the preseason. Instead of the usual American Airlines Center, however, this matchup against the Oklahoma City Thunder took place at the Dickies Arena. Nevertheless, Paige Bueckers still made the trip and occupied one of the courtside seats. When she was shown on the arena’s Jumbotron, the crowd cheered and applauded. Bueckers used the chance to also meet up and have a conversation with Dallas Mavericks star Kyrie Irving, whose return timeline continues to remain uncertain as he recovers from the torn ACL he sustained back in March. Later, she joined the game commentators and engaged in a conversation with them while the game kept going on.

The matchup marked Cooper Flagg’s preseason debut. While he wasn’t the highest leading scorer for his team, the young Mavs star still scored 10 points, along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists, over the course of 14 minutes. He sank 2 of his 3 3-pointers, along with 3 of his 6 field goals, while not committing a single turnover despite reportedly operating, essentially, as Dallas’ point guard. Flagg was on the court for less than a minute before making an impression by flying in for a weak-side block to ignite a Dallas fast break, which Anthony Davis finished with an alley-oop slam. Overall, Cooper Flagg left a good impression and showed that the Dallas Mavericks and Paige Bueckers have a lot to look forward to.

The WNBA star made an appearance almost a month after the Dallas Wings’ regular season run came to an end. Despite her presence, the team only won 10 of their 44 games, which wasn’t enough to qualify them for the playoffs. Even if the Wings didn’t leave a mark, the same couldn’t have been said about Paige Bueckers. After all, she still averaged 19.2 points, 3.9 rebounds, and 5.4 assists over the course of 33 games. Her popularity and prowess eventually allowed her to receive 70 votes, from a national panel of 72 sportswriters, and win the WNBA Rookie of the Year award (Washington Mystics guard Sonia Citron received 2 votes).

When Flagg heard about this, he told the media, “Congratulations to her, obviously. You know, she did her thing, the whole year, was balling out. So, that was really cool to see, but yeah, I think it would be cool, you know, obviously, both of us being in the Dallas area, I think that’d be incredible”.

It’s not every day that the No. 1 draft picks go to the same NBA and WNBA team. However, for Bueckers, the same wasn’t just a coincidence.

Paige Bueckers Believed the Dallas Mavericks Getting Cooper Flagg Was Part Of God’s Plan

The 2025 NBA Draft Lottery certainly took basketball fans by surprise. There weren’t many who expected the Dallas Mavericks to get the No. 1 Draft Pick. After all, the last time the Mavs had the No. 1 pick was when the team selected Mark Aguirre back in 1981. This was the same team that traded off its star player, Luka Doncic, in February, and was holding the 10th seed by mid-April. In fact, according to ESPN’s Anthony Gharib, Dallas entered the lottery with just a 1.8% chance of landing the No. 1 spot.

Despite mixed reactions from other basketball fans, Paige Bueckers was happy over the news. When asked about her thoughts on the same during a media session, the WNBA rookie said, “Yeah, that’s another thing that I didn’t think was real at first… But I believe God makes no mistakes, and so that happened for a reason.”

By that point, it was apparent to every hardcore basketball fan that Cooper Flagg was going to be the 1st overall pick in the 2025 WNBA Draft. After all, standing at 6-foot-9, the player had led Duke as a freshman in points (19.2 ppg), rebounds (7.5), assists (4.2), blocks (1.4), and steals (1.4), and helped the Blue Devils to a 35-4 record as Duke led the nation with a 20.4-point average scoring margin. He was part of the roster that dominated the ACC with a 19-1 regular-season record and tournament championship, allowing them to enter the NCAA tournament as a No. 1 seed.

When asked about the potential of Flagg being the No. 1 overall pick, Bueckers said, “That’ll be super exciting for that entire organization whose not in a rebuild and already has a great team in front of them. So, adding him to a championship-level team is a very nice addition.”

Paige Bueckers has won the RPOY title, but can Cooper Flagg as well? The only way to know is to keep tracking the NBA star’s performance as the 2025-26 season progresses.