My favorite piece to come out of my first season on the Dallas Wings beat in 2025, this Paige Bueckers profile captured the basketball phenom’s greatness on and off the court. Love and light. That’s who Bueckers is.

Reid Ouse had never seen Paige Bueckers so frustrated.

In the short time he’d been her skills development coach, Ouse had known an 18-year-old who had mastered emotional regulation.

But that day, as she struggled with a concept he was teaching her in one of their first workouts together, the basketball phenom who would go on to win a national championship at UConn and become the Dallas Wings’ No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA draft wasn’t her calm and collected self.

Ouse started to list her accolades: USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year. The No. 1 recruit in the Class of 2020. A UConn pledge. A Slam magazine and Sports Illustrated cover girl.

“And you’re in the gym pissed off,” Ouse said, recounting the conversation he had with Bueckers to The Dallas Morning News. “What drives you?”