“Me and Sue are pretty close”: Paige Bueckers expresses gratitude for Sue Bird’s impact and teachings

Paige Bueckers is in her fifth season with the UConn Huskies this year, and during this time, the guard has built a close relationship with some of the alumni of the program. During a chat with the media before the Huskies game against Farleigh Dickinson on Wednesday, the guard was asked to name the person she reached out to the most.

"Probably Sue (Bird)," Bueckers said (3:05). "We saw each other a lot this offseason. Sue's been a great person that I can look to for leadership advice. Just her qualities as a person, as a player, is something that I look up to as well.

"So I think me and Sue are pretty close, but we each all have a unique relationship with each other."

In the same interview, Paige Bueckers also spoke about the nature of the relationship between the current players and alumni like Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, Tina Charles and Maya Moore.

"I'm intimidated by them, but to get to know them as people, they're very welcoming," she said. "It's really a sisterhood here at UConn. They'll be there when you need them, when you need words of advice, when you need words of encouragement ... and just if you need anything they're always there to communicate with you and be there with you every step of the way."

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Sue Bird praises Paige Bueckers for making women's basketball 'cool'

Women's sports are sometimes under or misrepresented by the media, and women's basketball was no different. In a recent episode of "The Deal" podcast with Alex Rodriguez and Jason Kelly, Sue Bird recalled the time when the WNBA was the subject of many jokes in popular media and Paige Bueckers was the reason this changed.

"If you bring it back around to seeing Paige Bueckers getting that attention in high school, I was like 'Oh, something is changing,'" Bird said. "For me, what that said was society is changing.

Younger people are into... girl's basketball... And that all speaks to the cultural cache that I feel like pro sports usually have with women's basketball for some reason. We weren't cool just yet. And Paige to me marked this moment of coolness."

Along with Paige Bueckers, players like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have also played a crucial role in elevating women's basketball and bringing more eyes to the games. While Clark and Reese are already in the WNBA, Bueckers is set to join them next season.

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