Paige Bueckers didnt get what she wanted in the WNBA draft lottery

The Dallas Wings won the WNBA draft lottery that is widely presumed to be a selection of Paige Bueckers with the top overall pick, but the UConn star apparently coveted a different destination.ESPN’s Michael Voepel reported that Bueckers had another team she hoped to wind up with.“Sources around the league have indicated that the Los Angeles Sparks, who got the No.

2 pick in the lottery, would have been Bueckers’ preferred option,” Voepel wrote.“Like the Wings, the Sparks also currently don’t have a head coach.

But Los Angeles is a gigantic market and a team that could also have used a guard like Bueckers.”Unlike the NBA and men’s college basketball where seasons run concurrently, the women’s college basketball season and WNBA run essentially back-to-back.Bueckers will thus play her final season at UConn, get drafted in April and then be thrown into a whirlwind of a WNBA rookie season that kicks off in May.

With the worst record in the league at 25-55 the last two seasons, the Sparks had a 44.2 percent chance to win the WNBA draft lottery.However, the Wings actually had a slightly higher chance at winning the lottery — 45.4 percent — because they also held the rights to a pick swap with the Chicago Sky.

When the lottery results were announced, there was an audible groan at the Sparks’ watch party, as someone off-camera in the background asked, “Seriously?”Bueckers and the Huskies have +450 odds to win the women’s national championship this season, according to the latest odds on FanDuel.They trail only defending champion South Carolina, which has +200 odds....