As Cameron Brink gets ready for the next season of Unrivaled, she has made a brave personal choice. The star of the Los Angeles Sparks, who spent most of this year fighting to get back on the court, is doing something unexpected to protect something important to her. This is what she said about what’s next.

And that choice came from a painful moment that everyone noticed. “I’ll be in this mask for a year—not risking breaking my nose again before my wedding!!!!!” she wrote with a video of herself getting fitted for the gear.

The announcement came after she broke her nose in September during the Sparks’ last regular-season game against the Las Vegas Aces. NaLyssa Smith’s elbow hit her in the face and made her bleed, so she had to leave the court.

But this story isn’t over yet. Brink was already having a hard time. She missed the first half of the season because she had to recover from an ACL tear, and then she only played 19 games. She was still rebuilding and trying to prove herself again when her nose broke. But she showed why she was the second pick in the draft by blocking five shots against Indiana and playing great defense when she was healthy.

Cameron Brink’s safety measure makes it easy for her to make her Unrivaled debut with the Miami-based Breeze BC alongside guard Paige Bueckers. The reunion means a lot to both athletes. Bueckers said that their partnership was important, saying, “I haven’t played with Cam since we were like 17 years old. We’ve always supported each other, and we’ve always talked about being teammates in the future. I’ve always enjoyed being with Cam and all that she does on the basketball court and who she is as a human.”

This feeling shows how long the two players have been friends, even before either of them became famous. With the start of Unrivaled Season 2 on January 5, Brink is more determined than ever to join the league.

Paige Bueckers and the Dallas Wings chase a UConn reunion

When Cameron Brink and Paige Bueckers reunite on Breeze BC in Unrivaled’s second season, it raises the question: can pre-college or youth teammates recapture their chemistry in the pros?

The pair, who last played together on USA Basketball youth teams around the age of 17, have expressed excitement about teaming up again after taking separate college paths (Brink at Stanford and Bueckers at UConn).

Bueckers won the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year award with the Dallas Wings, showcasing how prior familiarity and trust—whether from youth, college, or other shared experiences—can accelerate success at the professional level, as seen in other WNBA examples, such as former UConn teammates Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier.

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Their case suggests that early chemistry can be a meaningful, but not sole, predictor of pro success.

New Dallas Wings head coach Jose Fernandez is already laying groundwork for how to build around star guard Paige Bueckers as the franchise moves toward the 2026 WNBA Draft, where Dallas holds the No. 1 overall pick. His recent visit to UConn doubled as both a scouting trip and a study session on maximizing Bueckers’ strengths.

On the December 19 episode of No Offseason: The Athletic Women’s Basketball Show, Fernandez detailed a multi‑day visit with Geno Auriemma and the Huskies. “I just ran into all of them in Connecticut, which was very good to be able to do that,” Fernandez said.

“[Geno and I] went out to dinner the night before. One of my visits was to go see a young lady that everybody’s talking about as a prospective draft pick. I was there for three days, watched them practice, watched them play Ohio State, and spent a lot of time with Geno.”

From there, the conversation turned directly to Bueckers’ usage. “Of course, we had conversations in regards to schemes, Paige with the ball inside pick and roll, in the slot, in the middle of the floor, when it comes off the glass, and she gets denied and someone else brings it up, and her off the ball,” Fernandez continued. “It was great to get his perspective on things, because he cares deeply about her, and he cares deeply about her success in the future.”

The “prospective draft pick” Fernandez referenced is widely understood to be Azzi Fudd, UConn’s star guard and one of the leading candidates to go No. 1 in 2026.

Dallas’ interest in Fudd is not guaranteed to translate into a selection, but the fit on paper is obvious: Fudd and Bueckers are already a proven backcourt that powered UConn to the 2025 national championship and have shown elite offensive chemistry together.

For a Wings team coming off a 10–34 season and trying to accelerate a rebuild around Bueckers, reuniting her with Fudd would offer rare continuity and instant cohesion, rather than the usual adjustment period that most young backcourts require.

While Dallas has other top prospects to consider at No. 1, Fernandez’s UConn trip, his detailed scheme conversations with Auriemma, and his public acknowledgment of a “prospective draft pick” at UConn underscore why a Bueckers–Fudd reunion will remain one of the most compelling and logically grounded storylines heading into the 2026 WNBA Draft.​