{"id":17499,"date":"2025-06-26T23:01:08","date_gmt":"2025-06-26T23:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/17499\/"},"modified":"2025-06-26T23:01:08","modified_gmt":"2025-06-26T23:01:08","slug":"what-paige-bueckers-arike-ogunbowale-said-ahead-of-dallas-wings-indiana-fever-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/17499\/","title":{"rendered":"What Paige Bueckers, Arike Ogunbowale said ahead of Dallas Wings-Indiana Fever clash"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Dallas Wings<\/a> will welcome the Indiana Fever on Friday for a sold-out matchup<\/a> at American Airlines Center pitting rookie phenom Paige Bueckers<\/a> against last season\u2019s WNBA Rookie of the Year, Caitlin Clark.<\/a><\/p>\n

During practice at the arena Thursday, Wings CEO and managing partner Greg Bibb emphasized to the team the significance of the moment for the organization, which plays home games at UT Arlington\u2019s College Park Center.<\/p>\n

Players and coaches also spoke about the importance of playing the game, dubbed \u201cA Night in Dallas,\u201d at AAC<\/a>, which is home to the Mavericks and Stars but has never hosted a WNBA game. <\/p>\n

Related:Paige Bueckers wants to be the GOAT. To those who know her, that goes beyond stats<\/a><\/p>\n

Sports Roundup<\/p>\n

Get the latest D-FW sports news, analysis and opinion delivered straight to your inbox. Plus, Kevin Sherrington’s A La Carte.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur players deserve this. The women of this league deserve this,\u201d Wings coach Chris Koclanes said. \u201cIt will be fun tomorrow night.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wings All-Star guard Arike Ogunbowale<\/a>, who has played for Dallas since 2019, said competing on this stage shows how far the game has come.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere we\u2019ve been playing doesn\u2019t hold the amount of people that want to see us play every night,\u201d she said. \u201cSo just excited about this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bueckers, a pivotal part of the women\u2019s basketball boom, said she\u2019s thankful for the people who paved the way for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd so many people yet to come in the future that we\u2019re still trying to build for,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Related:WNBA has embraced next-gen pioneers Caitlin Clark, Paige Bueckers very differently<\/a>Just another game<\/p>\n

Friday\u2019s game has been heavily marketed as \u201cPaige vs. Caitlin<\/a>,\u201d but the Wings aren\u2019t approaching it that way.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is another basketball game,\u201d Ogunbowale said. \u201cObviously it\u2019s in a bigger venue. More fans. Two big-time names in Caitlin and Paige, but I think for myself, even for Paige, we\u2019re coming to play basketball as Dallas Wings.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bueckers said she\u2019s not approaching the game differently than any other.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery game … is circled for me,\u201d she said. \u201cEvery single time I get to go out there and play the game of basketball I love, it\u2019s a blessing and I never take it for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n

But she does recognize how crucial the star power is in this game. <\/p>\n

\u201cPeople come in and tune in for Caitlin and end up fans of so many other athletes,\u201d Bueckers said. \u201cSo to be able to play on this platform, to get more eyes on the game, to get more respect for the game, it\u2019s just a great opportunity for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Related:If Caitlin Clark can\u2019t play, will Wings-Fever have another shot at Dallas spotlight?<\/a>Seeking a fifth win, with or without Clark<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear whether Clark will be available for Friday\u2019s game. <\/p>\n

The guard was ruled out with a groin injury<\/a> Thursday for Indiana\u2019s game against the Los Angeles Sparks.<\/p>\n

Koclanes said the Wings (4-12), who started 1-11 and have won three of their last four games, will plan for Clark despite the uncertainty.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou go in preparing for her to be there,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd then you adjust accordingly … but you go in preparing for Caitlin to be on the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Find more Wings coverage from <\/b>The Dallas Morning News<\/b> here<\/b><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Dallas Wings will welcome the Indiana Fever on Friday for a sold-out matchup at American Airlines Center…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":17500,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[5229,2339,10478,1596,2470,2471,62,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,14378,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-17499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-arike-ogunbowale","10":"tag-chris-koclanes","11":"tag-dallas","12":"tag-dallas-wings","13":"tag-paige-bueckers","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-texas","16":"tag-tx","17":"tag-united-states","18":"tag-united-states-of-america","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","21":"tag-us","22":"tag-usa","23":"tag-wings","24":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114752158986783550","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17499"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17499\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}