Auriemma: Paige Bueckers is the ‘perfect person’ for endorsements
UConn coach Geno Auriemma and associate head coach Chris Dailey, long aware of their point guard’s nickname but amused nonetheless by the earning potential it now actually represents, recently struck up a conversation with Paige Bueckers.
“CD and I just both said to her, ‘Paige Buckets, seriously? I mean, Paige Buckets?’” Auriemma said. “And to Paige’s credit, she said, ‘Yeah, one game I go 0-for-10 and it’s Paige Brickers.’ I said, ‘You’ve got that right. You’re going to go from Paige Buckets to Paige The Brick.’”
“Paige Buckets” is trademark application No. 90826196 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, filed July 13 so Bueckers — and no one else — can profit by applying it to athletic apparel.
This young woman — this really famous
young woman — is thriving through the most compelling time in college sports history. She’s a dominant player, all business when she needs to be, yet all jokes when she can be, magnetic for her play and playfulness. We are one year into what will wind up as the most lucrative, and probably the most interesting, individual chapters in UConn basketball history.
It’s still new and surreal, all now at the fingertips of college athletes free to make a living off their name, image and likeness. They can represent brands, make appearances, be featured in advertising campaigns and more.
No one, regardless of sport or gender, is in a place of better earning potential than Bueckers, who around Gampel Pavilion and the Werth Champions Center is simply the sophomore point guard who had a heck of a debut season, the kid from Minnesota who is fun to rib, the plucky teenager who is never shy to give it back.
She’s also, in this age of social media influence, aligned to connect with diverse audiences that industry sees such value in, all the while becoming a socially significant figure, trying to effect change with the same motivation she is looking to cash in on it while becoming more the fascination of a global basketball community.
She is 19. She is a celebrity. And she is now represented by Wasserman, the same agency representing other former Huskies including Sue Bird and Breanna Stewart.
“When I coached the Olympic team I knew I was coaching a bunch of celebrities and if I ever forgot it they reminded me of it,” Auriemma said. “But I don’t think of coaching Paige as coaching a celebrity. I do laugh at her a lot of times in that it’s incredible, the world she’s growing up in. It’s great for her, great for kids, great for women’s basketball that all this happening and she’s kind of the perfect person to take advantage of all the things that are available.”
Bueckers won every national player of the year award for which she was eligible last season, and her personality broke through the walls of a pandemic. So much so that Opendorse, a sports technology company now hired by UConn to help navigate the name, image and likeness waters, estimated she could make nearly $400,000 annually while in school.
She had already gained unprecedented attention at Hopkins High, where she appeared on magazine covers, signed hundreds of autographs after games and made every move of her senior season with a documentary film crew in tow. Moms and dads drove hours from different parts of Minnesota, bringing sons and daughters to wedge into the
bleachers of packed gyms.
Rebecca Lobo and Jen Rizzotti didn’t have cell phones during the first title run in 1994-95, and even the internet was in its infancy. Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird had Nokias or flip phones as the Huskies chased down Tennessee as the class of the sport and became one of the most successful programs in college sports history.
Now here is Bueckers — Paige Buckets — with nearly a million followers on Instagram and 336,000 more on TikTok. She is one of the most popular basketball players on the planet, in position at UConn to easily earn more money than most WNBA players.
Why are people so captivated by Bueckers?
“There’s something she’s doing on the court that comes across on the TV screen,” Auriemma said of Taurasi. “There’s the way she plays the game or there’s the way she manages the game, handles the game, the way the game comes to her. Some people just have that ability without even trying. I don’t know that she gets up in the morning and says, ‘I’m going to try to be a media sensation.’ I think there’s just something that some people just gravitate to.”
Bueckers plays selflessly, even while playing flashy. She is a calming presence, yet throws no-look passes. She’s unflappable, clutch. The ankle injury she sustained at Tennessee last season forced her out of the game and, months later, onto the operating table. Yet she returned to that game, hobbling, and made the clinching 3-pointer.
Bueckers led UConn to a 13th consecutive Final Four, spoke eloquently along the way, always preferring to discuss her teammates. She even slapped Auriemma on the butt while retreating after a UConn basket in a Sweet 16 victory over Iowa.
She stops by Auriemma’s office nearly every day to engage in a war of words. Recently, Bueckers and Nika Muhl approached, talking about their “Twin power,” how it will overwhelm the combined power of Auriemma and Dailey. Auriemma barely knew what they were talking about and ended the conversation with, “You guys are headcases,” and everybody laughed.
Bueckers, in that conversation, asked Auriemma if he planned to attend the ESPYs in New York. He did not. But he watched that night as Maya Moore and Bueckers — two culturally transformative players and people, one from his past, one from his present — owned the night with acceptance speeches that showcased the power and polish of young women famous first for their athletic ability.
Moore, arguably the best player in the world when she stepped away from the WNBA to work toward freeing a wrongfully convicted man she would go on to marry, received the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. She told the gathered crowd and an ABC audience, “If you want to say I have courage, I’d say my courage has not been me not playing, but in the emotional and mental and spiritual outpouring into love, and fighting against injustice.”
Bueckers was honored as best college athlete in women’s sports and used the stage to promote others.
“As a white woman who leads a Black-led sport, I want to show a light on Black women,” Bueckers said. “They don’t get the media coverage they deserve . ... Sports media and sponsors tell us who’s valuable and you have told the world I matter today. I think we should use this power, together, to also celebrate Black women.”
This approach to life, this insight from a young women whose words resonate profoundly, endears her to the public and any marketing campaigns that explore the intersection of athletics and society. And there are many.
Auriemma called these speeches, “Another reminder that there’s another side to these players. Then you see them in that light, and you hear their stories and hear what they stand for and what they believe in. You can see already [Paige] is going down that road of wanting to effect some sort of change in the world she’s growing up in. So I can’t wait for the next person who says, ‘Shut up and dribble,’ and you can show them the clip of those kids and what they stand for and what they hope to accomplish off the court.”