NCAA champion with a history of fall and redemption. A fabulous base that points to the number one of the draft. Sponsorship agreements with top -level brands such as Nike and Gatorade. After Caitlin Clark, the WNBA extends its red carpet to Paige Bueckers.
WNBA lives days of glory. The Caitlin Clark phenomenon changed it absolutely all last year and for the future other extraordinarily promising players such as Juju Watkins (now seriously injured in the knee) appear.
But in just three days the landing of another call to be a great league star: Paige Bueckers will be confirmed.
The WNBA draft, which will be held on Monday, April 14 in New York, will crown all likely Bueckers with the number one on the way to the Dallas Wings.
Orphans of Luka Doncic in the Mavericks, Dallas Basketball fans, although still with a broken heart, will at least have the option to excite themselves with this base that comes from proclaiming the NCAA champion with UConn.
23 years old and 1.83, Bueckers closed its university era with a degree that had already caressed in 2022, when Uconn lost in the final against South Carolina.
Revenge was especially sweet for Huskies under the controls of a myth of the NCAA as Geno Auriemma, since this year they defeated South Carolina for 17 points, 6 rebounds and 3 bueckers assists.
The player born in Edina (Minesota, EU) shone in the “march Madness” with an average of 24.8 points per game, including recitals such as 40 points against Oklahoma or 34 points against South Dakota State.
In addition, this title sealed a history of perfect redemption for Bueckers, which came from recovering from a very hard lesion of anterior cross ligament that took it from the tracks in the 2022-23 campaign.
“It has been a dream to play here, a dream to wear this shirt and a dream play in this environment,” Buckers said in his last game at UConn before embarking on his imminent adventure in the WNBA.
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Not only WNBA, brands also put the eye on Bueckers
For those who do not live closely or follow the university competition in the United States, it is difficult to understand that the NCAA figures are already sports stars in the country without having to wait for their arrival at the professional leagues.
Something like this is already with a good bueckers that this week walked along US televisions celebrating its title with UConn. For example, the player was invited surprise in “The Tonight Show” by Jimmy Fallon.
The brands do not miss that pull and exploit it through the so -called NIL contracts (contracts of name, image and likeness), which since 2021 have revolutionized the sport in the EU allowing companies to do business with youth athletes through sponsorships.
In the case of Bueckers, which has 2.3 million followers on Instagram, the top -level brands (Nike, Gatorade, Bose, Verizon …) are piled up at their door without even having yet stepped on a WNBA court.
Not only the best basketball league on the planet has set his eyes on the base, who also has an agreement with Unrivaled, the new 3 × 3 basketball competition that began this year during the months that there is no WNBA.
With Breanna Stewart (New York Liberty) and Napheesa Collier (Minnesota Lynx) as founders, Unrivaled debuted in January with a large number of WNBA stars and has already signed a NIL contract with Bueckers, which is understood as a previous step that also competes in this league.
With EFE information
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