Five years after Paige Bueckers used an ESPYs speech to uplift Black women, her message is still the same

NEW YORK — Five years after delivering one of the more memorable speeches in ESPYs history, in which she called out the coverage disparity for Black women athletes in the media, Dallas Wings star guard Paige Bueckers said the problem still exists.

“I feel like that’s a fight that we fight every single day, a fight for equal coverage, a fight for equality in general, justice, and just no discrimination for sex, for color, for sexuality — like who you like, who you love,” Bueckers said Tuesday ahead of a regular-season contest against the New York Liberty at Barclays Center.

“It’s just something that we continue to fight for as a world every single day to just live in love, live in peace, live in a judgment-free environment and let everybody live their lives for themselves. So I think that’s just a fight that continues to exist.” 

Just over the Brooklyn Bridge, in 2021, during an outdoor ESPYs ceremony that took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, Bueckers accepted the award for best female college athlete of the year. Two months prior, Bueckers won the Naismith Trophy, given annually to the country’s top women’s college basketball player, as a freshman — a first in the award’s then 39-year history.

She began her speech thanking God, her coaches, UConn teammates and family. Bueckers, who had undergone an ankle surgery a few months prior, then paused to catch her breath. When she continued, the tone of her speech shifted dramatically as she started to speak about the lack of coverage for Black women athletes in the media.

“With the light that I have now, as a white woman who leads a Black-led sport and is celebrated here, I want to shine a light on Black women. They don’t get the media coverage that they deserve,” Bueckers said. “They’ve given so much to this sport and community and society as a whole. Their value is undeniable. 

“In the WNBA last season, the postseason awards, 80% of the winners were Black, but they got half the amount of coverage as the white athletes, so I think it’s time for change.”

The message resonated on social media. Bueckers, just 19 years old at the time, was applauded for her courage in the moment to deliver such a speech in front of her peers and a national audience.

Much has changed for Bueckers in the five years since the speech.

She ended her college career at UConn as a three-time All-American and a 2025 national champion. Last April, the Dallas Wings selected Bueckers as the No. 1 pick in the 2025 WNBA draft. She has since been named Rookie of the Year, was selected to the All-WNBA second team and will make her second WNBA All-Star Game appearance later this month in Chicago.

Something that hasn’t changed for Bueckers, now a budding face of the WNBA, has been her willingness to use her platform to advocate for issues important to her.

Tuesday night was no exception.

“At that time, I was very popular in the media. I got a lot of attention, so I felt like I just wanted to do that,” Bueckers said while reflecting on her ESPYs moment. “It’s something that meant something to me to be able to spread the light on others, as I’ve gotten a lot my entire career playing basketball.”

The post Five years after Paige Bueckers used an ESPYs speech to uplift Black women, her message is still the same appeared first on Andscape.