DALLAS (AP) — Paige Bueckers has done her best to live in the present during a short period in which she went from winning a national championship with UConn earlier this month to being the No. 1 overall pick in the WNBA draft and now donning a Stetson cowboy hat on a podium in Dallas City Hall.
“It’s been insane. It’s been nonstop on the go, I’m either doing something or packing,” Bueckers said Wednesday. “That’s what it’s been like for the past couple weeks. But I’ve tried to stay present as much as I could, enjoy the last couple of days at UConn soaking in those relationships and those experiences, obviously enjoying the draft."
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Dallas Wings' Paige Bueckers, center, selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA basketball draft, and Aziaha James, selected No. 12 overall, sport a cowboy hats gifted to them while posing for photographs with Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson during an introductory press conference Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Wings' Paige Bueckers, selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA basketball draft, attends an introductory press conference Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Wings' WNBA basketball draft selections, from left, Paige Bueckers, Aziaha James, Madison Scott, JJ Quinerly and Aaronette Vonleh pose for photographs during an introductory press conference Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Wings' Paige Bueckers, selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA basketball draft, speaks during an introductory press conference Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Wings' Paige Bueckers, selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA basketball draft, sports a cowboy hat gifted to her during an introductory press conference Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
The next step is training camp with the Dallas Wings, which starts Sunday.
“Very excited for the next chapter,” the versatile 23-year-old guard said.
Bueckers and the other four players drafted by the Wings on April 14 were introduced in a packed lobby at Dallas City Hall that included the mayor, the city council and city workers, some watching from perches on the second and third floors.
“Well, it was Christmas nine days ago (at the draft). Certainly, today feels like New Year’s Eve or New Year’s Day with the optimism and all the momentum around the Dallas Wings,” new general manager Curt Miller said.
There was never a question for Miller or the Wings about who their top pick would be when they won the WNBA draft lottery.
“The big picture is that we knew what that meant ... exciting, exciting moment,” Miller said. “Paige obviously comes off a national championship, one of the most decorated collegiate players and one of the most efficient players in college basketball history.”
Along with proclamations from the mayor, there were also the cowboy hats for each of the Wings draftees: Bueckers, 12th overall pick Aziaha James from North Carolina State, 14th pick Madison Scott from Mississippi, 27th pick JJ Quinerly from West Virginia and 31st pick Aaronette Vonleh from Baylor.
“Everybody’s talked about just being a part of a new family, being a part of a new city. Dallas is a great sports city, you can feel the love and support already,” Bueckers said. "There's lot of new in this organization, so be a part of something and build with each other, and just create a new sisterhood.”
The introductory news conference was held a couple of blocks from the historic downtown arena being fully renovated to become the new home of the Wings next season.
But Bueckers’ home games in her first season with the Wings will be about 20 miles away at College Park Center at UT-Arlington, where they will play their 10th and final season since the franchise relocated from Tulsa, Oklahoma.
Except for one home game on June 27. The Wings that night will play Indiana and Caitlin Clark, last year’s No. 1 overall pick, at the home of the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks.
It was a year ago Thursday that the Dallas City Council approved a 15-year agreement worth $19 million to facilitate the team’s pending move to its namesake city. The council also approved a $7.7 million renovation to the arena that was once home to the Dallas Chaparrals of the American Basketball Association, who moved to San Antonio to become the Spurs in 1973, and joined the NBA when the ABA folded three years later.
“We stood right here in this building, and we proudly announced that the Dallas Wings would soon be making downtown Dallas their permanent home,” Mayor Eric Johnson said Wednesday. “And since then, the excitement has only grown, the fan base has rallied and today we’re taking the next big step forward. Welcome, everyone, to the future of Dallas sports.”
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
Dallas Wings' Paige Bueckers, center, selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA basketball draft, and Aziaha James, selected No. 12 overall, sport a cowboy hats gifted to them while posing for photographs with Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson during an introductory press conference Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Wings' Paige Bueckers, selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA basketball draft, attends an introductory press conference Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Wings' WNBA basketball draft selections, from left, Paige Bueckers, Aziaha James, Madison Scott, JJ Quinerly and Aaronette Vonleh pose for photographs during an introductory press conference Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Wings' Paige Bueckers, selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA basketball draft, speaks during an introductory press conference Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
Dallas Wings' Paige Bueckers, selected No. 1 overall in the WNBA basketball draft, sports a cowboy hat gifted to her during an introductory press conference Wednesday, April 23, 2025, in Dallas. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents carrying out immigration arrests in Minnesota's Twin Cities region already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman rammed the door of one home Sunday and pushed their way inside, part of what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest enforcement operation ever.
In a dramatic scene similar to those playing out across Minneapolis, agents captured a man in the home just minutes after pepper spraying protesters outside who had confronted the heavily armed federal agents. Along the residential street, protesters honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt the operation.
Video of the clash taken by The Associated Press showed some agents pushing back protesters while a distraught woman later emerged from the house with a document that federal agents presented to arrest the man. Signed by an immigration officer, the document — unlike a warrant signed by a judge — does not authorize forced entry into a private residence. A warrant signed by an immigration officer only authorizes arrest in a public area.
Immigrant advocacy groups have conducted extensive “know-your-rights” campaigns urging people not to open their doors unless agents have a court order signed by a judge.
But within minutes of ramming the door in a neighborhood filled with single-family homes, the handcuffed man was led away.
More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News on Sunday that the administration would send additional federal agents to Minnesota to protect immigration officers and continue enforcement.
The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — is bracing for what is next after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer on Wednesday.
“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”
Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.
People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners Sunday in the neighborhood where Good was killed, watching for any signs of federal agents.
More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .
“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.
The protests have been largely peaceful, but residents remained anxious. On Monday, Minneapolis public schools will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.
Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.
While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said that the investigation into Good's shooting death should not be overseen solely by the federal government.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.
“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."
The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.
Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”
"That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.
Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn't be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”
The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests in cities across the country over the weekend, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Oakland, California.
Contributing were Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis; Thomas Strong in Washington; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio.
A woman gets into an altercation with a federal immigration officer as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A federal immigration officer deploys pepper spray as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member, center, reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Bystanders are treated after being pepper sprayed as federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Federal agents look on after detaining a person during a patrol in Minneapolis, Minn., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Bystanders react after a man was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
People stand near a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
A man looks out of a car window after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Border Patrol agents detain a man, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
People shout toward Border Patrol agents making an arrest, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Protesters react as they visit a makeshift memorial during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
