ARLINGTON, Texas -- Paige Bueckers' hometown of Hopkins, Minn., pop. 18,589, went all in for the WNBA debut Friday of its most famous citizen, changing its name to "Paige Bueckers" for the day. Main Street, too. Local merchants bought in, hawking Bueckers beer, Bueckers ice cream, even a Bueckers sushi roll.
Seems like Hopkins Pro Towing and Recovery ought to go with "Bueckers' Wreckers" just to save space.
Changing the name of your hometown?
"That's crazy," Bueckers said.
Before she's through, it'll get crazier, promise, even if her 10 points, seven rebounds and a couple of assists in the Wings' 99-84 loss to Minnesota at College Park Center made for a fairly inauspicious start.
Bueckers' chances of changing the landscape in her WNBA business address will be considerably harder than it was in her hometown. The Wings, who pulled a half-full turnout Friday, are doing better this season, as is the WNBA in general. Revenues are up across the league. General interest in women's pro basketball is at an all-time high.
Even if they still aren't in the same orbit as the Cowboys, Mavs, Rangers, Stars and FC Dallas, the Wings have taken flight, in no small part because of a rookie more famous than any of the other teams in this paragraph can boast.
At least until Cooper Flagg hits town.
Right, Nico?
Tyler Booker is certainly the biggest rookie in Dallas, and he might turn out to be the best player they could have taken with the 12th pick. But, until further notice, it remains up for debate. Bueckers, on the other hand, was a no-brainer at No. 1. Not only was she the best player in women's college basketball, she brings star power to an organization that desperately needs it to hang in this market.
Since the Cowboys played in a mostly empty Cotton Bowl in the '60s through the Rangers ruining David Clyde to sell tickets right up to the epic backlash from the Luka Doncic deal, Dallas has been a front-runner's town, bedazzled as much by star power as a winner.
Win or lose -- and they won a lot more than the general manager seems willing to concede -- Mavs fans always knew at least they had Luka.
Can Bueckers fill that same role for Wings fans?
Probably not a fair comparison, given the nature of Bueckers' game. Caitlin Clark captured the imagination of hoops fans because of the range of her jumper, as pretty at the point of release as anything Steph Curry paints. Clark's embrace of celebrity has been just as effortless, which might account for some of the shots she's suffered from opponents.
Bueckers' celebrity didn't seem to get under anyone's skin Friday. Didn't run into brick walls on the floor, anyway. Could be because she considers herself less a celebrity than a gym rat.
Like Flagg, she can do pretty much anything on the floor. Plays beyond her years. Smart, efficient, fundamentally flawless. Always in -- and under -- control.
Bueckers is so good, she kept a team that went 9-31 last year in the game through three quarters against one of last year's finalists before the Lynx blew the game open in the fourth. Going into Friday's debut, ESPN ranked Minnesota second in the 13-team league and the Wings eighth. Judging by Friday's game, the difference seems about right.
Give Bueckers and first-year coach Chris Koclanes, a head coach for the first time in college or the pros, a little time. Koclanes is preaching defense and trying to assimilate a world-class rookie. He says the latter doesn't add to the pressure he already feels, but you have to think it doesn't help.
Not every coach gets a generational player as a gift in his first season. Wings fans were certainly appreciative Friday, though Arike Ogunbowale, the team's best player last year, got a bigger ovation.
Bueckers got the Wings started by driving the lane, going behind her back ... and missing a point-blank shot. She made up for it by rebounding her own miss and banking it in.
How did it feel to make her first professional points?
"Should have made the first shot," she said, smiling.
Otherwise, she said they won't put too much into a 15-point loss. This was a start and only that. But some see more to it than that.
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who led the U.S. women to a gold medal in Paris in her other job, has been around the WNBA longer than just about anyone. She's seen it grow not by leaps and bounds but inch by inch. She knows what Clark and Bueckers mean to the league's development.
"I just want us to be ready," she said of the league in general.
"Hopefully Dallas is ready."
Time will tell if that's the case, but certainly Hopkins, Minn., was.
Wasn't a town changing its name to an opponent's hard to take?
"Not at all," Reeve said. "That's her hometown. I think that's what should happen.
"She deserves it."
©2025 The Dallas Morning News. Visit dallasnews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.