College Basketball Star Paige Bueckers Is Using Her Platform to Speak Out Against Discrimination
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Paige Bueckers was ranked as the number one recruit in the country by ESPN when she graduated from Hopkins High School in Minnetonka, Minnesota, in 2020. That summer, an uprising broke out across Minneapolis and throughout the rest of the country after George Floyd was brutally murdered at the hands of Minneapolis police. Paige, who grew up in a city neighboring Minneapolis, jumped into action, using social media as a tool to support and raise awareness among her one million Instagram followers about the social injustices many Black and other minorities of color face at the hands of police. Unfazed by the threat of potential backlash in her incoming year as a guard at her dream school, the University of Connecticut, Paige even hit the streets to protest the killing.
She took her activism a step forward when she was named the best college athlete in women's sports at the 2021 ESPYS. Paige used her acceptance speech to celebrate Black women in basketball, who influenced the game and paved the way for her. "With the light that I have now as a White woman who leads a Black-led sport and celebrated here, I want to shed a light on Black women," she said. "To Maria Taylor, Robin Roberts, Maya Moore, Odicci Alexander. To all the incredible Black women in my life and on my teams. To Breonna Taylor and all the lives lost, and to those names who are not yet learned but I hope to share, I stand behind you, and I continue to follow you, follow your lead and fight for you guys, so I just want to say thank you for everything."
The UConn guard has since inked NIL (name, image, and likeness) partnerships with brands like Gatorade, Cash App, and StockX, where she continues to raise awareness about gender disparities in basketball and provides children from impoverished communities with access to the sport that she's known and loved. Paige has made such a lasting impact since 2020, and this is only the beginning for the college junior, with not even a sky serving as a limit to what she can do next.
Seventeen: What inspired you to speak out about social justice?
Paige Bueckers: I grew up right around Minneapolis, and in the news, everybody has seen police brutality and the mistreatment of minorities in the city. I've seen how it's impacted the community and everything that's been going on in the city that I basically grew up in. That inspired me to try to better this world and do whatever I can to make the world a better place with the platform that God has given me.
I have a huge following on social media, so using my voice on those platforms advocating Black Lives Matter and for those people that are facing injustices has been a big thing for me. The ESPY's speech was a great platform to give a speech like that. With all the deals and the NIL partnerships that I've had, the main part of those are giving back to communities and kids that weren't as fortunate as I was growing up and then continuing to work with minority groups and lower class areas to have that access to sports because basketball really changed my life. Having younger kids and younger people experience that has been really important for me.
17: From basketball to social justice and philanthropy, which accomplishments are you most proud of achieving?
PB: It's extremely hard to choose one. I've been so blessed playing on the court and off the court. This summer, I partnered with StockX and Jamad [Fiin] to create a basketball court in my hometown at the elementary school that I went to. Just to be a part of something like that and having a court where I grew up in a platform for these kids to play on and where I started, it's really awesome just to have that. In terms of on the court, probably making the Junior Olympic team when I was a freshman in high school was really awesome. Obviously, winning a state championship and then being able to come to my dream school in UConn was a really big thing for me.
17: How have you grown since first getting involved in activism?
PB: I've matured in a lot of ways, especially in my recent years of being injured. I was a kid who just wanted to lace up my shoes and play basketball, but I realized that being a basketball player is so much more than that. You have to take care of your body, have good nutrition, and get great sleep. I've matured in those things, where I'm caring about my sleep, caring about what I'm eating. I'm doing Pilates and stretching and doing a lot of things that'll make me better on the court, and then off the court, I'm continuing to use my platform and find different ways to make positive impacts in the community.
17: What challenges did you learn from the most?
PB: I'm a people pleaser, and when people don't necessarily agree with what I'm saying, or they have opposite opinions, or they have different ideals than what I have... A lot of people can be negative and disagree with what I'm saying. I always want to please everyone and want everyone to like me, but that's not necessarily the case. Just knowing what I'm standing up for is something I care a lot about and that I'm doing the right thing, [and that] the people around me in my circle agree as well, that's all that matters.
17: What does the future look like for you?
PB: Winning a national championship here at UConn is the closest thing I can picture, but further into the future, I want to make it to the WNBA. I want to be an Olympian, and I want to continue to work with great organizations and great people and sign deals that continue to help this world become a better place, and continue to grow who I am on and off the court.
17: What inspires you to keep advocating for others?
PB: Perfection is something you can never attain, so there's always stuff to get better at. There are always places to improve, and as long as you keep pushing it, keep talking about [social justice], and keep making sure it's a topic that never gets lost and never gets faded away... There's always going to be something to improve on, and we've seen improvement, but there's still a long way to go. We know that we can do it, but [we have to] continue to push forward and advocate for it. That's what keeps me going.
Parts of this interview have been edited and condensed for clarity.
Photo courtesy of Bose. Photo courtesy of StockX (Photog: Madison Koster, Stylist: Sasha Elena, Makeup: Natalie Cardona, Hair: Andrita Renee; Photog: Christian Najjar, Art Direction: Lizzie Kassab, Stylist: Brittany Hampton, Makeup: Natalie Cardona, Hair: Andrita Renee). Design by Yoora Kim.
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