Paige Bueckers Getting Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese Treatment
As the last two No. 1 overall draft picks, both players made history in college basketball before bringing legions of fans from the UConn Huskies to the Dallas Wings and from the Iowa Hawkeyes to the Indiana Fever, respectively.
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Both entertaining guards will feature prominently in the WNBA's opening weekend of the 2025 regular season. Bueckers makes her professional debut on Friday night against the Minnesota Lynx at 7:30 p.m. ET on ION.
Clark follows on Saturday with Indiana's season opener at 3 p.m. ET on ABC against another WNBA showstopper — Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky.
Paige Bueckers is interviewed by ESPN after being selected with the number one overall pick to the Dallas Wings in the 2025 WNBA Draft.Vincent Carchietta-Imagn Images
Amid the Fever-Sky showdown and other marquee contests like the Golden State Valkyries' first game against the Los Angeles Sparks and the rematch of the past two WNBA champs between the Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty, SLAM magazine left little doubt what it is looking forward to this weekend.
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The famous hoops publication awarded Bueckers and her Wings teammates a special edition cover for its 2025 WNBA season preview, putting her star power in orbit much like Clark and Reese early in their pro careers.
Bueckers may not be the best player on the team — that would be all-WNBA guard Arike Ogunbowale, who is rightfully front and center of the SLAM cover. All three players, including free agent pickup DiJonai Carrington, got their own unique digital covers as well.
The truth is, Ogunbowale was not putting the 9-31 Wings on news stands last season. Fairly or not, that kind of marketing power has followed some of the league's youngest stars.
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Clark and Reese are joint cover stars of Athlon Sports' 2025 WNBA Preview, following the commemorative edition Athlon made to celebrate Clark's record-breaking 2024 Rookie of the Year campaign.
The Fever star also graced the cover of TIME as its 2024 Athlete of the Year, while Reese's catalogue of cover shoots includes Vogue and SLAM's 250th edition.
"It's crazy, I went from being the oldest and I guess the vet on the UConn team to being the youngest here, or one of the youngest,' Bueckers told SLAM ahead of her WNBA Debut. 'I'm [continuing] to stay humble, stay hungry and working to be the best teammate, best leader I can be, [and] working to find my voice. Obviously, I don't have as much experience, but I still feel like I have a lot of knowledge and wisdom for the game and a lot of love for it.'
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Related: Fans Waste No Time Comparing Paige Bueckers to Caitlin Clark
Related: Caitlin Clark Gets Big Reality Check From Indiana Fever Coach
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