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Dallas just signed a basketball star Nico Harrison isn’t allowed to trade

A week after the WNBA Draft, Paige Bueckers has signed her rookie-scale contract with the Dallas Wings. It’ll likely be her lowest source of income this year.

2025 WNBA Draft
2025 WNBA Draft
Photo by Elsa/Getty Images
Chelsea Leite has been writing about professional basketball since 2021, and covers both the Toronto Raptors and Toronto Tempo as a credentialed reporter for SB Nation.

On Tuesday, the expected was confirmed, as the WNBA transactions page updated to show that Paige Bueckers has officially signed her rookie-scale contract with the Dallas Wings. As with every rookie contract under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, Bueckers is now on an unguaranteed contract for three years, with a fourth-year team option.

Even when the new CBA is signed for the 2026 season, Bueckers will stay on this contract until it expires. Unless the Dallas Wings waive her before then... which would be a Luka-Doncic-trade-level outrage in Dallas, and thankfully is an ignominous fate Bueckers and Dallas fans are (likely) safe from, given that it’s unlikely another pro basketball team in Dallas (or anywhere else) will hire Harrison after the last four-or-so months.

So breathe easy, Dallas fans. After the last few months, you certainly deserve it.

Bueckers will make $78,831.00 with Dallas in her rookie year, with her salary increasing each year until she makes $100,510.00 in her fourth year. In total, her rookie contract is worth $348,198.00.

Her WNBA salary is likely her lowest income when you compare it to her other sources of revenue. It was reported weeks ago that her salary for Unrivaled next season will surpass the four-year total of her WNBA rookie contract — over $350,000 for just 10 weeks of playing basketball.

Bueckers also has endorsement deals with Nike, Gatorade, Bose, Chegg, Verizon and more, with her 2024-2025 NCAA season NIL profile being an estimated $1.4 million US dollars. As the No. 1 overall draft pick, more deals are sure to come as she enters the WNBA already ranked among the league’s best players... and one of its most recognizable.

For Dallas basketball fans, this signifies a new era in the city, with a star they can get attached to once again — and one that the infamous general manager of the city’s NBA franchise won’t be able to foil.

WNBA training camp starts next week, and Bueckers will be introduced to the Dallas media in a press conference being held Wednesday morning.

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