Azzi Fudd Just Made WNBA History — And She Made It Look Easy
Some rookies spend their first season just trying to find their footing. Azzi Fudd spent hers becoming the first rookie ever to win the WNBA All-Star 3-Point Contest. In the 13 times this competition has been held, nobody in their debut season had ever taken it down — until Friday night at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, when the Dallas Wings guard put on an absolute shooting clinic and left no doubt about who the best shooter in the building was.
Setting the Stage
Fudd came into the night as the No. 1 overall pick in the 2026 WNBA Draft, and while her rookie season had already been solid — she was averaging 13.2 points, 1.9 assists and 1.7 steals per game on 45.7% shooting from the field heading into the break — the 3-Point Contest was the first time all eyes in Chicago were locked entirely on her, one shot at a time.
The field was stacked. Fudd had to get through Atlanta's Rhyne Howard, Golden State's Janelle Salaün, Toronto's Marina Mabrey, and Seattle's Natisha Hiedeman just to make it out of the first round, and she needed at least 17 points to survive elimination. She delivered a statement instead — 24 points, hitting six of her final eight jumpers to punch her ticket to the final round.
The Final Round Was Basically Unfair
Waiting for her in the final was Portland Fire forward Bridget Carleton, who had put together the best first-round score of the night with 27 points, setting a genuinely high bar to clear. Fudd didn't just clear it — she demolished it.
She opened her final round by draining all five balls from her very first rack in the left corner and never really let up from there, finishing 20 of 26 shots for a final score of 30 points. For context, that mark matched the winning total that Liberty sharpshooter Sabrina Ionescu posted to win the event the year before. Carleton, needing 30 just to force a tiebreaker and 31 to win outright, finished with 19 — a strong performance on a normal night, but nowhere close to enough against what Fudd was doing.
How She Did It
Fudd credited pure repetition — the kind of unglamorous, day-in-day-out muscle memory that most people never see. "It's fun to do because — and I don't want to sound cocky — but it's easy to me, just the set shot," she explained afterward. "Take the ball from the rack; it really is muscle memory. It's what I've been doing since I was young."
There's actually a deeper story behind that comfort level. Fudd dealt with a string of injuries during her college career at UConn, and while those setbacks were obviously frustrating in the moment, she said the extended rehab stretches ended up sharpening exactly the skill that just won her this event. "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." In other words: the very thing that slowed her down in college quietly built the foundation for this exact moment.
She also gave credit where it was due on the mechanics side, pointing to her parents — and her mother in particular — for the shooting form that's now been validated on one of the sport's biggest stages. "My mother's shot is identical to mine," she said.
The Money, Because It's a Fun Detail
Every participant walked away with a $10,000 appearance fee, but the finishes came with real bonuses attached. Fudd picked up an additional $20,000, plus another $40,000 bonus from Aflac, bringing her total haul for one night of shooting to a genuinely nice payday. Carleton took home an extra $30,000 for her runner-up finish, and Howard collected $15,000 for her first-round performance.
Why This One Hits Different
Winning any WNBA event as a rookie is impressive on its own. Winning the 3-Point Contest specifically — an event that's been held 13 times without a single rookie champion — is a different level of statement. Fudd wasn't just good enough to compete with veterans who've spent years building reputations as elite shooters; she was better than every single one of them, on a stage with zero margin for error, in front of a full arena watching her every attempt.
Add in the fact that this came during a rookie season where she's already shown she can produce at a high level in actual games, and it's fair to start wondering just how high the ceiling is here. Dallas fans have to be thrilled with what they're watching unfold — because if this is what Fudd looks like in Year One, the rest of the league might want to start paying very close attention.