Dallas Wings rookie guard Azzi Fudd entered the record books on Friday by winning the WNBA All-Star three-point shooting contest in Chicago.
The No. 1 pick in the 2026 draft, Fudd beat Portland Fire forward Bridget Carleton, who had 19 points in the final round. Fudd has been long known for her three-point shooting prowess, but she didn’t have a monopoly among the league’s statistical leaders.
Fudd actually came into the contest with the 23rd-best three-point percentage in the league, and Carleton was 31st at .374 from beyond the arc this season. Despite the percentage, Fudd is one of the most dangerous three-point shooters in the league with the 10th-most three-pointers made this season.
A Virginia native, Fudd became a national prep star at St. John’s College High School in Washington, D.C., and she won Gatorade National Player of the Year as a sophomore in 2019. Her three-point shooting skills also took center stage early, when she won the three-point contest at the SC30 Select Camp in 2018.
Fudd won the three-point contest again at the Steph Curry-run camp in 2019 despite her ACL and MCL injuries during the FIBA U18 3x3 World Cup that summer. She was cleared by doctors to walk between the ball racks to compete in the contest.
That wasn’t the first time she kept shooting strong from beyond the arc despite debilitating injuries. She sustained ACL and MCL tears again in her collegiate sophomore season at UConn, but she found a way to keep shooting three-pointers, which has only made her sharper to this day.
"That was a lot of chair shooting, a lot of stationary shots, so you get really good at shooting off of a rack and being stationary and robotic and having to knock your shot down,” Fudd said.
Fudd had a dynamic five-year career with the Huskies, as she averaged 14.7 points, 2.1 assists, 1.7 steals and 2.3 rebounds per game in 115 career games. She helped the Huskies win a 12th national title in 2025 and reach the women’s Final Four again in 2026.
As much as UConn has dominated women’s basketball and sent many players to the WNBA, a former Huskies star had never won the WNBA three-pointer contest until Friday. Fudd became the seventh Huskies star to be taken with the top pick, and it marked the second straight year the Wings took a former UConn star with the No. 1 pick.
Paige Bueckers went to Dallas with the top pick the year before after her stellar UConn career. Bueckers won Rookie of the Year in 2025 with 19.2 points, 5.4 assists, 3.9 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game.
Fudd averages 13.2 points, 1.7 rebounds, 1.9 assists and 1.7 steals per game through 26 contests. She is among the contenders for Rookie of the Year, but Fudd faces an uphill climb to surpass Olivia Miles of the Minnesota Lynx for the award.
Miles averages 19.3 points, 4.7 rebounds, 5.9 assists and 1.3 steals per game. While Fudd may not catch Miles for that award, the Wings rookie can relish Friday’s three-point contest win, even with six shots missed.
"You say 'only' six shots, but I feel like that was a lot," Fudd said. "But honestly, I was really nervous. I was excited."