Paige Bueckers Named 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year, Gets Surprised with Award in Video

After her incredible first year in the WNBA, Dallas Wings star Paige Bueckers is taking home some hardware.

Bueckers was named the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year on Tuesday. The league announced that she received 70 out of the 72 votes for the award, with Washington Mystics rookie Sonia Citron receiving the other two votes.

WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert surprised Bueckers with the award during her appearance on The Jennifer Hudson Show:

While the Wings finished the regular season tied for last place with a 10-34 record, Bueckers proved throughout the year that the future is bright in Dallas.

The former UConn star led the Wings with averages of 19.2 points, 5.4 assists and 1.6 steals while also adding 3.9 rebounds across 36 games. She closed out the year with 24 points, eight rebounds and seven assists in a 97-76 win over the Phoenix Mercury on Thursday.

Bueckers surpassed the 20-point mark 17 times this season, and her 692 total points rank third all-time in WNBA rookie history. She also ranked third all-time among WNBA rookies with 194 assists. Her best performance of the year came last month when she set a WNBA single-game rookie record with 44 points on 17-of-21 shooting in a loss to the Los Angeles Sparks.

Winning WNBA Rookie of the Year is particularly more meaningful for Bueckers when considering everything she overcame to reach this point. She endured multiple devastating injuries during her college career that delayed her ascent to stardom, but she refused to be denied as she continued to chase her WNBA dreams.

Despite the lack of team success in her rookie season, Bueckers expressed confidence that the Wings are building something special, drawing inspiration from Golden State Warriors star and two-time NBA MVP Stephen Curry.

"I remember Steph Curry, before the Warriors became the Warriors, like, he tweeted out… 'Just stick with us… we're gonna figure it out,'" she said last month. "That's the message."

Bueckers has all the makings of a future superstar in the WNBA, and her Rookie of the Year win is proof that this is just the beginning of a fruitful career.