paige bueckers: “Paige Bueckers is my Max Verstappen”: Fans celebrate as ex-UConn star wins Honda Sport Award

Paige Bueckers is preparing for the 2025 WNBA season, but in the meantime, she received her final college basketball award. Bueckers was named the Honda Sport Award winner on Monday.

As the UConn Huskies women's basketball Instagram account shared the accolade, fans expressed their admiration for the Dallas Wings guard, even comparing her to greats in other sports.

"Paige is my Max Verstappen 👏," a fan wrote.

"Atp retire the number 🙏," another fan said.

"GOAT🐐," a fan said.

The Honda Sport Award is given to the top athlete in 12 college women's sports. It is one of the most prestigious awards any college athlete can achieve. Fans reacted to the fact that she is still earning awards for UConn, while also expressing that they miss the former Huskies star.

"What has she not won in college," a fan mentioned

"Shes in dallas and is still winning awards at Uconn anymore," another fan added.

"I miss uconn paige," a fan wrote.

Reactions to Bueckers winning the Honda Sports Award. - Source: Instagram/@uconnwbb

Bueckers became the 13th UConn player to win the award, joining the greats like Breanna Stewart (three times), Sue Bird, Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, and Rebecca Lobo.

In her last season at UConn, Paige Bueckers averaged 19.9 points, 4.4 rebounds, and 4.6 assists. She also led the Huskies to their first national title since the 2016 season and was the first overall selection in the WNBA Draft.

Paige Bueckers addresses Caitlin Clark comparisons

While Paige Bueckers has become one of the most popular basketball players, Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark still amasses as much interest as possibly any current athlete, regardless of the sport.

On Monday, Bueckers shared her thoughts on the comparisons with the Indiana Fever superstar in an interview with Time, saying it doesn't bother her at this point.

“That’s what the media cares about. That’s what everybody who watches basketball cares about. I used to be bothered by it. But I’ve done so much work on myself and my approach. The ability to not run a race in comparison, to run my own race and worry about that. Caitlin’s a phenomenal player. We’re also completely different players,” Paige Bueckers said.

In her preseason debut last week, Paige Bueckers scored 10 points and grabbed four rebounds against the Las Vegas Aces. The Wings will open the season on May 16 against the Minnesota Lynx.

About the author

Allan Wolburg Robles is a College Sports journalist at Sportskeeda with over 17 years of experience in the field writing for publications including Reforma, Yahoo! OddsShark and Apuesta. Allan studied Communications at Anáhuac University, where he learned what would become the basis of a trade that was already a dream of his before starting college.

His favorite team is Army West Point as when he was young, Allan lived in West Point for a couple of years, went to pretty much every home game, a couple of Army-Navy games and even got to meet some of the players.

Allan's favorite players of all time include Tommie Frazier, who was unbelievable during the Nebraska dynasty of the early 90's. Tim Tebow was also a favorite, mainly because of his leadership skills, although he was also awesome on the football field. As a fan of defensive football, (or what's left of it), Sean Taylor could take over a game for Miami.

Allan has always considered himself a student of the game more than a fan of it. So the historical part and evolution of the game, as well as the ins and outs of what happens on the field, and being able to put it into words for the audience, are his biggest strengths.

Besides sports, Allan enjoys reading books, watching movies and spending time with his dogs.

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Edited by Chaitanya Prakash