For Paige Bueckers, pressure is just part of the play.
The reigning WNBA Rookie of the Year is coming off a standout season filled with personal highs, including a record-breaking 44-point performance during the Dallas Wings’ Aug. 20 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks—the most ever by a rookie.
But those highlights haven’t been without challenges, which the 24-year-old is still working through every day.
“It's been a learning process of learning how to stop caring about other people's opinions of you,” Bueckers admitted in an exclusive interview with USA Network. “Don't look to the left, don't look to the right. Run your own race and just be super driven, super purpose-filled, and be super present-minded.”
Though the Wings ultimately finished the season outside of playoff contention, Bueckers isn’t letting the noise distract her. Instead, she’s focused on the advice she’d give to any young aspiring athlete.
“Embrace the hard, embrace the adversity,” she explained. “I feel like life is all about how you respond to challenges and how you may respond to stuff not going your way, whether that be an injury, a loss, everything should motivate you in a positive way.”
That mindset is a glimpse into the determination she’s bringing into the next phase of her WNBA journey, and also what made her say yes to her latest off-court move: a three-year partnership with CarMax, the official auto retailer of the NBA and WNBA. She joins Cleveland Cavaliers star Donovan Mitchell in the brand’s “Wanna Drive?” campaign, which celebrates people pursuing their goals on their own terms.
It’s also a move that Bueckers herself may have manifested in July when she told a reporter she’d “like to have a car dealership partnership, so I don’t have to pay for a car.”
Looking back at those comments, the University of Connecticut alum joked that she hopes the rest of her manifestations come true: “The other half of what my former manifestation was real estate or a realtor, or somebody willing to help me find a house!”
Bueckers’ new commercial with CarMax also puts her in the company of fellow WNBA stars like A’ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu, which she believes has been crucial to growing female athlete representation on TV.
You can see it growing: the excitement, the accessibility, the representation,” she said. “I feel like there's a ton of momentum that we want to continue to keep building for the next generation because the people before have paved the way for us to continue to build it. So you just want to continue to build off the momentum and continue to watch it grow and rise.”
And her own momentum isn’t slowing down. During the WNBA offseason, Bueckers will compete in the second season of three-on-three basketball league Unrivaled. Plus, she’s looking ahead to the next WNBA season and changes within the Dallas Wings organization—including a new head coach in Jose Fernandez, a close friend of Bueckers’ former UConn coach Geno Auriemma.
“I feel like the foundation that we built last year and the culture that we want to send, the people that we want to have in the building, and the people we want to build with is continuing to grow,” Bueckers reflected. “I feel like there was a lot of new last year. There's going to be some new this year, so continuing how to do it together makes it a lot easier rather than trying to figure it out as individuals.”
The next season of the WBNA is coming to USA Network in May 2026.
(E! and USA Network are both part of the NBCUniversal family.)