Paige Bueckers, like most of the basketball world, was very surprised on Monday night when the Dallas Mavericks won the NBA draft lottery. The Mavs beat the 1.8% odds to capture the No. 1 pick in next month's draft, and in turn locked in Duke's Cooper Flagg with the top selection.
Bueckers, who was just drafted by the Dallas Wings with the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft last month, admitted that she thought the news was fake when it was announced.
"That's another thing that I didn't think was real at first," Bueckers said, via Dallas Morning News' Myah Taylor. "But I believe God makes no mistakes, so that happened for a reason."
Dallas Wings No. 1 pick Paige Bueckers on the Mavs winning the NBA draft lottery and potentially securing Cooper Flagg: “…I didn’t think [it] was real at first … but I believe God makes no mistakes.” pic.twitter.com/F9egQ0FjGV
— Myah Taylor (@t_myah) May 13, 2025
This makes Dallas just the second city in NBA/WNBA history to win the lottery in both leagues in the same year. Bueckers will get to welcome Flagg to Dallas in about a month, as the Mavericks solidified the Duke forward as their top pick on Tuesday.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Paige Bueckers Didn't Think Mavericks Winning NBA Draft Lottery Was Real at First.
