Azzi Fudd goes No. 1 to Dallas Wings in WNBA draft as salaries skyrocket; UCLA makes history

Monday night time in New York didn’t really feel like a typical draft; it felt like a launchpad.

The 2026 WNBA draft class descended on The Shed at Hudson Yards right into a reworked monetary panorama, powered by the landmark seven-year labor deal struck simply final month.

For the second consecutive year, the Dallas Wings held the keys to the dominion with the No. 1 general decide.

This yr, the Wings chosen guard Azzi Fudd from UConn. As a results of the highest billing, Fudd is ready to earn $500,000 this upcoming season, which is sort of seven occasions what final yr’s prime decide, and now teammate, Paige Bueckers, made. Her rookie wage was $78,831.

The WNBA has leveled up.

That staggering soar isn’t only a pay elevate; it’s a mission assertion, and in accordance to Front Office Sports, each drafted participant who makes a staff’s roster this season will make greater than any WNBA participant earned final season.

The No. 2 (Minnesota Lynx’s Olivia Miles from TCU) and No. 3 (Seattle Storm’s Awa Fam Thiam from Spain) picks will get $466,913 and $436,016, respectively.

Fudd can be reunited with former UConn teammate Bueckers. The duo led the Huskies to a nationwide title in 2025; Fudd was named the Final Four Most Outstanding Player.

It’s the primary time since 2011 that back-to-back No. 1 selections had been from the identical faculty.

Fudd turns into the seventh No. 1 decide in UConn history. It’s the third time the Huskies have had back-to-back prime general picks in the WNBA draft.

(*1*)

The emotional heartbeat of the night time belonged to the UCLA Bruins.

They spent the final yr profitable UCLA’s first-ever ladies’s basketball nationwide title, and on Monday, they rewrote the file books. The Bruins set a brand new WNBA file for essentially the most first-round choices from a single faculty, seeing 5 gamers off the board in the opening spherical:

At No. 4, the Washington Mystics chosen middle Lauren Betts.

At No. 5, the Chicago Sky drafted guard Gabriela Jaquez.

At No. 6, the Toronto Tempo made history by choosing guard Kiki Rice as the franchise’s first-ever draft decide.

At No. 9, ahead Angela Dugalić joined Betts in the nation’s capital with the Mystics.

At No. 15, the Connecticut Sun capped the historic run by drafting guard Gianna Kneepkens, formally sealing the UCLA sweep.

The history-making didn’t cease there. In the second spherical, the Sun returned to the nicely, drafting UCLA guard Charliesse Leger-Walker. With that choice, UCLA grew to become the primary program in WNBA history to have six draftees in a single draft.

At No. 7, the Portland Fire — the league’s second new franchise — made their very own history. The Fire selected Iyana Martín Carrión, a dynamic guard from Spain, as their inaugural decide. Carrión is one among three worldwide gamers taken in the primary spherical.

During her pre-draft information convention, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert framed this second as a generational pivot level. “The past 30 years have been about building the foundation,” Engelbert instructed reporters. “The next 30 are about scaling the game, unlocking what’s possible for the entirety of women’s basketball and women’s sports.”

Engelbert revealed the league is now actively exploring a worldwide section, which can seemingly embody worldwide preseason video games, with a long-term imaginative and prescient of enjoying common season video games on worldwide soil.

The thirtieth version of the WNBA season ideas off on May 8.