Culture
WNBA Draft confidential: GMs anonymously scout Paige Bueckers and more March Madness guards
The 2025 WNBA Draft will be headlined by UConn’s Paige Bueckers, who has been penciled in as the top pick ever since she decided to exercise her fifth year of eligibility. But beyond Bueckers, there is a deep pool of lead guards, scorers, and wings who are eager to make their impact at the next level.
Bueckers and several of her fellow draftees, including the Notre Dame and NC State duos, are still competing in the NCAA Tournament. UConn is seeking its first national championship since 2016 and first title for Bueckers. With so much left to accomplish, the draft seems far away, but the April 14 date in New York city is fast approaching, just eight days after the national championship.
Six WNBA general managers shared their candid opinions about the upcoming draft class with The Athletic before the NCAA Tournament began. They were granted anonymity to allow them to speak openly. On Wednesday, we’ll run another installment that includes their evaluations of frontcourt players such as Aneesah Morrow, Kiki Iriafen and Dominique Malonga.
(Players are listed in alphabetical order. Statistics current through Monday. Asterisks indicate a player has an additional year of college eligibility.)
Georgia Amoore | 5-6 guard | Kentucky
19.6 ppg, 6.9 apg, 36.7 mpg
“Great college basketball player. Can she do enough to be a rotational WNBA player who makes it to a second contract?”
“Georgia Amoore’s game will translate due to her ability to run a team and put her teammates in easy scoring situations due to her passing. She will excel in pick-and-roll situations and is a player with a very high basketball IQ.”
“It’s hard to succeed as a tiny, tiny guard, so size is just the main thing. If she can be an insane shooter off the dribble and with range, she has a chance.”
“She’s heady, does a ton of the (Steve) Nash stuff. She’s pretty smart in terms of knowing her limitations from a size perspective.”
“There’s no doubt she’s a scorer, she can shoot, she’s a playmaker. Point guards are at a premium. They’re hard to find.”
Georgia Amoore’s college career was outstanding 👏
🏀 First triple-double in VT history
🏀 Led Hokies to first ACC title and Final Four appearance
🏀 All-time assists leader for VT (656)
🏀 Tied Kentucky record for most points in a game (43)
🏀 2x First-team All-ACC & 1x… pic.twitter.com/mLxsboWkSH— espnW (@espnW) March 23, 2025
Paige Bueckers* | 5-11 guard | UConn
18.7 ppg, 4.8 apg, 63.4 TS%
“My only concerns with Paige are physical. If she can stay healthy, I think she’s an All-Star level talent. She can play with or without the ball which makes her super valuable. She scores at all three levels. She’s big and tall and long enough to survive defensively. I think her offense is better than her defense, but it’s hard to find things not to like about Paige.”
“Despite the fact that people always want to seem to talk about some potential flaws, (she’s)
still the most sure thing today in this draft.”
“The adjustment to the speed and physicality of the game will determine her immediate impact.”
“Great leader. She’s incredibly poised. She’s prepared, pro-ready and so impressive, on and off the court. A franchise foundational player.”
Sonia Citron | 6-1 wing | Notre Dame
14.2 ppg, 5.4 rpg, 38.1 3-PT%
“Total package player. … She’s got three layers to her scoring, she can defend multiple positions, her IQ is off the charts.”
“Hard to not like her in terms of what the game needs, the 3-and-D. “
“Very, very poised. Obviously shoots the ball tremendously well. She’s got the whole package. The game seems to have slowed down for her.”
“Big fan, don’t know the ceiling, don’t know the star power, but in terms of being a productive player on a winning team and raising the floor of your team, pretty big fan.”
Azzi Fudd* | 5-11 guard | UConn
13.2 ppg, 1.2 spg, 44.8 3-PT%
“She shoots it well but the sample size is so small. Not sure how she impacts the game outside of the threat of her shooting, and I don’t think her shooting numbers are off the charts either, so I’m a little worried about her having a bigger reputation than the actual impact.”
“Health is the No. 1 thing for Azzi. She has all the tools to be a great pro. It really comes down to her health. Great shooting, great defender.”
“She could be a really interesting complementary rotation player who can stretch it. Three-and-D potential player.”
Aziaha James | 5-9 guard | NC State
17.8 ppg, 4.9 rpg, 2.7 apg
“Really dynamic. Great finisher. Just gets downhill. Great defender. I think she’s going to be a really, really good guard in this league for a long time.”
“I could see her turning out to have an eight-year career. I could see her fizzling out and it just not working. I see her as a microwave scorer off the bench and those are necessary.”
“Her ability to adapt to defensive game plans against her when she gets to this next level will decide if she makes it or not.”
“A good combo guard, but might need to become more physical and stronger to be able to compete night in and night out in the WNBA.”
Olivia Miles* | 5-10 guard | Notre Dame
15.5 ppg, 5.9 apg, 40.1 3-PT%
“The second safest pick after Paige.”
“She’s definitely an exceptional passer. Her court vision in small spaces as well as full court is really, really special.”
“Big fan, especially if the shooting can continue to be where it’s at. I love the wiggle she has in her game. She’s got great feel, she’s got great change of pace. I love the combination of dribble, pass, shoot. I love her size at point guard. I think she can also probably play on and off the ball.”
“Incredibly dynamic. One of the best scorers I’ve seen in many years. At times, she’s taken out of the end of games defensively, but I think the defensive end is where she still has room to grow. Offensively, an absolute dynamo.”
Will Te-Hina Paopao become the latest Gamecocks player to be a first-round draft pick? (Aurelien Meunier / Getty Images)
Te-Hina Paopao | 5-9 guard | South Carolina
9.7 ppg, 2.9 apg, 37.1 3-PT %
“Solid college player. Clear 3-point shooter. Does she have enough to get by people and create at the next level?”
“Paopao has the ability to hit from long range. She has strong leadership qualities and is another high IQ player who can distribute the basketball.”
“Paopao is efficient offensively. Defends really well. You know Dawn (Staley)’s kids are going to come in and play their role, whatever they’re asked to do, no matter how big or how little. She really impacts the game on both ends of the floor.”
Saniya Rivers | 6-1 guard/wing | NC State
11.8 ppg, 6.6 rpg, 3.6 apg
“The good news for her is she can be a point guard. And if you can’t shoot, you better be playing point guard cause then you have the ball in your hands and you can survive a little bit more. A lot to like and a lot to question, but amazing tools to work with.”
“The most athletic guard-wing in the draft, but is there a place for a non-3-point shooter guard-wing in the WNBA?”
“The athleticism is mesmerizing. At times she gets a little bit out of control, so it’s just harnessing that and continuing to get better at just picking her shots, picking when she’s gonna drive, when she’s gonna shoot the 3.”
“Great length from the wing position and the possibility of being an elite defender with her length and athleticism.”
🚨: NC State advances to the SWEET SIXTEEN for the sixth time in seven seasons‼️
No. 2 NC State defeated No. 7 Michigan State, 83-49.
Saniya Rivers became the first player in NC State program history to post a point-assist double-double in an NCAA tournament game, while Aziaha… pic.twitter.com/EYB86AsF8I
— Posther Hoops (@postherhoops) March 24, 2025
Shyanne Sellers | 6-2 wing | Maryland
14.2 ppg, 4.2 apg, 41.8 3-pt%
“I love her size, I love her athleticism. She’s got all the tools, she just sort of at times, comes in and out. Any kid that’s playing for Brenda Freese for four years you know is disciplined on both ends of the floor.”
“She’s a scorer, she can play probably the two and the three and (stretch) four. Availability is often the best ability, and she’s had a little bit of a rocky year with some of the injuries that she’s had. But she’s also shown a really great resiliency in being able to bounce back.”
“Is she reliable or dependable with her scoring ability at the next level? Questions about her current health may have her drop in the draft, and ultimately, what is her best position at the W level?”
Hailey Van Lith | 5-7 guard | TCU
17.7 ppg, 5.5 apg, 1.2 spg
“A tough kid with a high basketball IQ. She can score from all three levels and is a player who, in clutch moments, you can get her the basketball and she can make something happen.”
“Hailey had success being a high-usage player. What will her role look like when she gets small windows in the W? How effective can she be in limited minutes early in her career, when she doesn’t have the ball?”
“So much grit. I love the fire that she brings when she steps onto the court. You know what you’re gonna get from her every single night. The question mark continues to be on the defensive end. She’s going to have to continue to get better. She’s never going to be the best athlete or the quickest, so she’s got to figure out how to pick her spots and be strategic in a way when she’s guarding players that might be a little bit bigger and faster than her.”
“She’s helped herself this year. She’s showing she can impact the game in different areas.”
(Illustration: Will Tullos / The Athletic; Photos of Hailey Van Lith, Paige Bueckers and Olivia Miles: Ron Jenkins, Michael Reaves, Joe Buglewicz / Getty Images)
Whatever you do, don’t think of a bird.
Now: What kind of bird are you not thinking about? A pigeon? A bald eagle? Something more poetic, like a skylark or a nightingale? In any case, would you say that this bird you aren’t thinking about is real?
Before you answer, read this poem, which is quite literally about not thinking of a bird.
Human consciousness is full of riddles. Neuroscientists, philosophers and dorm-room stoners argue continually about what it is and whether it even exists. For Wallace Stevens, the experience of having a mind was a perpetual source of wonder, puzzlement and delight — perfectly ordinary and utterly transcendent at the same time. He explored the mysteries and pleasures of consciousness in countless poems over the course of his long poetic career. It was arguably his great theme.
Stevens was born in 1879 and published his first book, “Harmonium,” in 1923, making him something of a late bloomer among American modernists. For much of his adult life, he worked as an executive for the Hartford Accident and Indemnity Company, rising to the rank of vice president. He viewed insurance less as a day job to support his poetry than as a parallel vocation. He pursued both activities with quiet diligence, spending his days at the office and composing poems in his head as he walked to and from work.
As a young man, Stevens dreamed of traveling to Europe, though he never crossed the Atlantic. In middle age he made regular trips to Florida, and his poems are frequently infused with ideas of Paris and Rome and memories of Key West. Others partake of the stringent beauty of New England. But the landscapes he explores, wintry or tropical, provincial or cosmopolitan, are above all mental landscapes, created by and in the imagination.
Are those worlds real?
Let’s return to the palm tree and its avian inhabitant, in that tranquil Key West sunset of the mind.
Until then, we find consolation in fangles.
When the director Rob Reiner cast his leads in the 1986 film “Stand by Me,” he looked for young actors who were as close as possible to the personalities of the four children they’d be playing. There was the wise beyond his years kid from a rough family (River Phoenix), the slightly dim worrywart (Jerry O’Connell), the cutup with a temper (Corey Feldman) and the sensitive, bookish boy.
Wil Wheaton was perfect for that last one, Gordie Lachance, a doe-eyed child who is ignored by his family in favor of his late older brother. Now, 40 years later, he’s traveling the country to attend anniversary screenings of the film, alongside O’Connell and Feldman, which has thrown him back into the turmoil that he felt as an adolescent.
Wheaton has channeled those emotions and his on-set memories into his latest project: narrating a new audiobook version of “The Body,” the 1982 Stephen King novella on which the film was based.
A few years ago, Wheaton started to float the idea of returning to the story that gave him his big break — that of a quartet of boys in 1959 Oregon, in their last days before high school, setting out to find a classmate’s dead body. “I’ve been telling the story of ‘Stand By Me’ since I was 12 years old,” he said.
But this time was different. Wheaton, who has narrated dozens of audiobooks, including Andy Weir’s “The Martian” and Ernest Cline’s “Ready Player One,” says he has come to enjoy narration more than screen acting. “I’m safe, I’m in the booth, nobody’s looking at me and I can just tell you a story.”
The fact that he, an older man looking back on his younger years, is narrating a story about an older man looking back on his younger years, is not lost on Wheaton. King’s original story is bathed in nostalgia. Coming to terms with death and loss is one of its primary themes.
Two days after appearing on stage at the Academy Awards as part of a tribute to Reiner — who was murdered in 2025 alongside his wife, Michele — Wheaton got on the phone to talk about recording the audiobook, reliving his favorite scenes from the film and reexamining a quintessential story of childhood loss through the lens of his own.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
“I felt really close to him, and my memory of him.”
Wheaton on channeling a co-star’s performance.
There’s this wonderful scene in “Stand By Me.” Gordie and Chris are walking down the tracks talking about junior high. Chris is telling Gordie, “I wish to hell I was your dad, because I care about you, and he obviously doesn’t.”
It’s just so honest and direct, in a way that kids talk to each other that adults don’t. And I think that one of the reasons that really sticks with people, and that piece really lands on a lot of audiences, and has for 40 years, is, just too many people have been Gordie in that scene.
That scene is virtually word for word taken from the text of the book. And when I was narrating that, I made a deliberate choice to do my best to recreate what River did in that scene.
“You’re just a kid,
Gordie–”
“I wish to fuck
I was your father!”
he said angrily.
“You wouldn’t go around
talking about takin those stupid shop courses if I was!
It’s like
God gave you something,
all those stories
you can make up, and He said:
This is what we got for you, kid.
Try not to lose it.
But kids lose everything
unless somebody looks out for them and if your folks
are too fucked up to do it
then maybe I ought to.”
I watched that scene a couple of times because I really wanted — I don’t know why it was so important to me to — well, I know: because I loved him, and I miss him. And I wanted to bring him into this as best as I could, right?
So I was reading that scene, and the words are identical to the script. And I had this very powerful flashback to being on the train tracks that day in Cottage Grove, Oregon. And I could see River standing next to them. They’re shooting my side of the scene and there’s River, right next to the camera, doing his off-camera dialogue, and there’s the sound guy, and there’s the boom operator. There’s my key light.
I could hear and feel it. It was the weirdest thing. It’s like I was right back there.
I was able to really take in the emotional memory of being Gordie in all of those scenes. So when I was narrating him and I’m me and I’m old with all of this experience, I just drew on what I remembered from being that little boy and what I remember of those friendships and what they meant to me and what they mean to me today.
“Rob gave me a gift. Rob gave me a career.”
Wheaton recalls the “Stand By Me” director’s way with kids on set, as well as his recent Oscars tribute.
Rob really encouraged us to be kids.
Jerry tells the most amazing story about that scene, where we were all sitting around, and doing our bit, and he improvised. He was just goofing around — we were just playing — and he said something about spitting water at the fat kid.
We get to the end of the scene, and he hears Rob. Rob comes around from behind the thing, and he goes, “Jerry!” And Jerry thinks, “Oh no, I’m in trouble. I’m in trouble because I improvised, and I’m not supposed to improvise.”
The context for Jerry is that he had been told by the adults in his life, “Sit on your hands and shut up. Stop trying to be a cutup. Stop trying to be funny. Stop disrupting people. Just be quiet.” And Jerry thinks, “Oh my God. I didn’t shut up. I’m in trouble. I’m gonna get fired.”
Rob leans in to all of us, and Rob says, “Hey, guys, do you see that? More of that. Do that!”
The whole time when you’re a kid actor, you’re just around all these adults who are constantly telling you to grow up. They’re mad that you’re being a kid. Rob just created an environment where not only was it supported that we would be kids — and have fun, and follow those kid instincts and do what was natural — it was expected. It was encouraged. We were supposed to do it.
They chanted together:
“I don’t shut up,
I grow up.
And when I look at you I throw up.”
“Then your mother goes around the corner
and licks it up,”
I said, and hauled ass out of there,
giving them the finger over my shoulder as I went.
I never had any friends later on
like the ones I had when I was twelve.
Jesus, did you?
When we were at the Oscars, I looked at Jerry. And we looked at this remarkable assemblage of the most amazingly talented, beautiful artists and storytellers. We looked around, and Jerry leans down, and he said, “We all got our start with Rob Reiner. He trusted every single one of us.”
And to stand there for him, when I really thought that I would be standing with him to talk about this stuff — it was a lot.
“I was really really really excited — like jumping up and down.”
The scene Wheaton was most looking forward to narrating: the tale of Lard Ass Hogan.
I was so excited to narrate it. It’s a great story! It’s a funny story. It’s such a lovely break — it’s an emotional and tonal shift from what’s happening in the movie.
I know this as a writer: You work to increase and release tension throughout a narrative, and Stephen King uses humor really effectively to release that tension. But it also raises the stakes, because we have these moments of joy and these moments of things being very silly in the midst of a lot of intensity.
That’s why the story of Lard Ass Hogan is so fun for me to tell. Because in the middle of that, we stop to do something that’s very, very fun, and very silly and very celebratory.
“Will you shut up and let him tell it?”
Teddy hollered.
Vern blinked.
“Sure. Yeah.
Okay.”
“Go on, Gordie,”
Chris said. “It’s not really much—”
“Naw,
we don’t expect much from a wet end like you,”
Teddy said,
“but tell it anyway.”
I cleared my throat. “So anyway.
It’s Pioneer Days,
and on the last night
they have these three big events.
There’s an egg-roll for the little kids and a sack-race for kids that are like eight or nine,
and then there’s the pie-eating contest.
And the main guy of the story
is this fat kid nobody likes
named Davie Hogan.”
When I narrate this story — whenever there is a moment of levity or humor, whenever there are those brief little moments that are the seasoning of the meal that makes it all so real and relatable — yes, it was very important to me to capture those moments.
I’m shifting in my chair, so I can feel each of those characters. It’s something that doesn’t exist in live action. It doesn’t exist in any other media.
“I feel the loss.”
Wheaton remembers River Phoenix.
The novella “The Body” is very much about Gordie remembering Chris. It’s darker, and it’s more painful, than the movie is.
I’ve been watching the movie on this tour and seeing River a lot. I remember him as a 14- and 15-year-old kid who just seemed so much older, and so much more experienced and so much wiser than me, and I’m only a year younger than him.
What hurts me now, and what I really felt when I was narrating this, is knowing what River was going through then. We didn’t know. I still don’t know the extent of how he was mistreated, but I know that he was. I know that adults failed him. That he should have been protected in every way that matters. And he just wasn’t.
And I, like Gordie, remember a boy who was loving. So loving, and generous and cared deeply about everyone around him, all the time. Who deserved to live a full life. Who had so much to offer the world. And it’s so unfair that he’s gone and taken from us. I had to go through a decades-long grieving process to come to terms with him dying.
Near the end
of 1971,
Chris
went into a Chicken Delight in Portland
to get a three-piece Snack Bucket.
Just ahead of him,
two men started arguing
about which one had been first in line. One of them pulled a knife.
Chris,
who had always been the best of us
at making peace,
stepped between them and was stabbed in the throat.
The man with the knife had spent time in four different institutions;
he had been released from Shawshank State Prison
only the week before.
Chris died almost instantly.
It is a privilege that I was allowed to tell this story. I get to tell Gordie Lachance’s story as originally imagined by Stephen King, with all of the experience of having lived my whole adult life with the memory of spending three months in Gordie Lachance’s skin.
Welcome to Great Adaptations, the Book Review’s regular multiple-choice quiz about printed works that have gone on to find new life as movies, television shows, theatrical productions and more. This week’s challenge highlights offbeat television shows that began as comic books. Just tap or click your answers to the five questions below. And scroll down after you finish the last question for links to the comics and their screen versions.
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