Dallas Mavericks legend Dirk Nowitzki was courtside at College Park Center on Monday night to watch No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings take on the Seattle Storm in her second WNBA game.
The Wings lost 79-71 to fall to 0-2, but Bueckers led the team with 19 points and eight assists in 37 minutes. She also had five rebounds, two steals and a block in the loss.
Although she is still at the beginning of her rookie season, the Hall of Famer already sees a lot of potential Bueckers.
“It’s going to take a while to get used to the physicality in the WNBA, but I think she’s got the talent,” Nowitzki said on the WNBA broadcast. “She’s going to be amazing for us. And she is just going to get better from game to game, from season to season. You already can see now she’s gotten more comfortable out there from Game 1, so she’s going to be tremendous for this organization for a long time.”
Nowitzki, a 14-time All-Star, was the franchise player for the Mavericks and helped them win a championship in 2011. He retired in 2019 and left Luka Dončić as the face of Dallas basketball until he was controversially traded to the Los Angeles Lakers in February. But he city didn’t have to wait long for the next young superstar to arrive as Bueckers was drafted in April fresh off a national championship with UConn.
The Wings are trying to bounce back from a 9–31 season, and adding Bueckers to the roster was certainly a strong building block. Nowitzki pointed out that the future of Dallas is bright in both the NBA and WNBA because the Mavericks also have the No. 1 pick after improbably winning the NBA Draft Lottery.
“It’s great to have good young talent coming in for your franchise,” Nowitzki said. “In most cases it could turn your franchise around, so hopefully that’s the case in both teams.”
Nowitzki was not the only basketball star in the crowd on Monday with San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama also in attendance. His home country of France was well represented on the court with Dominique Malonga, the No. 2 pick in the WNBA Draft, suiting up for the Storm and scoring two points in her brief action.