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Love & Basketball Masterlist

Synopsis: 4 quarters. 1 game. 15 years of history. They say sports reflect life. So what happens when the championship game starts playing out like it’s the basketball translation of Paige and Azzi’s love story? It’s time for the former duo leave it all out on the floor.

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Prologue — Pregame

Chapter 1 — First Quarter

Chapter 2 — Second Quarter

Chapter 3 — Third Quarter

Chapter 4 — Fourth Quarter

Love & Basketball

Prologue — ‘Pregame’

word count: 690 ish author’s note: very short but it’ll show you a glimpse into the bigger story <3 first chapter will come soon i promise! comment to be added to the taglist

masterlist // ao3 link

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CHAMPIONSHIP PRE-GAME SHOW — OCTOBER 29TH 2027

Ryan Ruocco and Rebecca Lobo have been covering the WNBA championship game for years. Today is no different.

“After being sidelined with a knee strain for the past 6 games, AKA the entirety of the Finals series thus fair — Wings star Paige Bueckers will finally make her WNBA finals debut tonight, back in the state…” Ryan paused, voice trailing off, as the broadcast screen transitioned into another set of colors— different photos coming into clear view. 

It starts with images of a young blonde in a high school uniform, flashed on the broadcast. Media day headshots. A back to back picture with a girl with a curly ponytail, both in royal blue uniforms. An action image of her scoring a layup. 

Then, the broadcast pauses on one singular image: an even younger version of the girl standing in the middle of a courtyard. It’s a scrappy picture, slightly blurry and so against the light you can barely see her face. Her hair is barely pulled back into a ponytail, wearing a faded purple Minnesota Vikings shirt to go along with black basketball shorts that barely went below the knee. There’s clearly an arm around her shoulder, but the image is cropped just enough to conceal whoever it was on the other side.

“...Where it all started,” he finishes. 

“Let’s not forget Ryan,” Rebecca looks over to her left, clasping her arms on the desk. “Minnesota isn’t only the home of Paige Bueckers. It’s the place her and Azzi Fudd built a girls’ basketball legacy.”

The cropped image expands, revealing a young girl with tan skin and two frizzy french braids, wearing a bright yellow LA Sparks shirt so big it almost swallows her whole. They have their arms around eachother, smiles almost as bright as the sun behind them. 

Then, from being merely a screen behind the bodies of Ryan Ruocco and Rebecca Lobo, the camera zooms in, fading into playing the full screen on broadcast, no blur, no pixel.

The picture fades as a pre-edited video begins to play. 

A clip of the young blonde and the girl with french braids in what looks to be their younger years of high school. You can immediately spot the light wood court with blue accents, the blue colored stands, a sold out crowd screaming behind them — and the excited voice of the commentator. 

“Bueckers dribbles down the court, fakes the shot, passes to the corner…. Bueckers to FUDD… YES!”

Flash forward to an interview with the two girls, now grown up, wearing UCONN jerseys across their chests. 

Paige faces the camera, a smile growing on her face. “Yeah, she’s like my best friend,” she says. Azzi nods, and smiles back, facing Paige this time.

“We do everything together.”

An old video from 2019 during the Overtime Girls Basketball season; a split screen. The game on the left, the broadcast room featuring Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu on the right. Sabrina turns to her left. 

“Paige and Azzi are a pretty damn good duo, don’t you think?” Stewie nods.

“Oh, definitely. Best backcourt in the nation, no doubt about it.”

Just then, the clip shows Paige weaving a pass to a cutting Azzi backdoor between two defenders. Azzi gets to the rim for a reverse, just as the opponent reaches her hand too far in an attempt to block the shot. It gets called for a foul. And-1. 

“They’re unstoppable,” Stewart says. 

And as she watches the two girls celebrate the And-1, with Paige’s arm slinged around Azzi, both having big bright smiles on their faces — she adds, almost in a whisper, a combination of shock and awe: “Something undeniable.”

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That’s when Paige shuts off the broadcast. She doesn’t need to listen to a story she already lived. Interviews she remembers getting ready for, quotes that were echoed to her during family dinners, internet commentary she used to replay constantly, pictures with memories she can’t bring herself to revisit. 

I'm so geeked dude no one's asked me this before LMAO. been reading pazzi fanfics for over a year & i can only remember so much but 💔 i wish I kept a true list so I could look back on everything. I'm not gonna include the popular ones that are either ongoing or just finished since i'm sure people have read it already haha but nevertheless here's bucketbreaks ™️ pazzi fanfic recommendations / recs list !

if I can convince anyone to read anything,,,, it would be the oneshot 'letters from paige bueckers and azzi fudd' by @azzinator. it's my favorite fic of all time ☹️❤️ tennis star!paige x actress!azzi, set in the 1950s, a love story written all in hidden correspondences over years time... just beautiful.

- liars by @azzinator | cia agent!paige x radical group feminist!azzi in the 80s

- sherry bomb by @azzinator | rockstar!paige x journalist!azzi in the 90s ish~

- @azzinator's ENTIRE list of work is incredible honestly, each and every one. you can find their fics on ao3 by the same name and their tumblr masterlist here! i'm her number 1 fan i swear

- firsts by @lupinqs | series of different 'firsts' in paige and azzi's relationship

- safe and sound by @lupinqs | hunger games au

- detention diaries by @sowerpatch | schoolgirl azzi falls for a 'rebel' paige after they get sent to detention (highschool fic)

- break our ice by @pazziescapism | hockey!paige x ice skater!azzi + fake dating to lovers + situationship

- golden hour by @imaginespazzi | exes to lovers, major time jumps, paige signs to the valkyries 10~ ish years after her and azzi break up, also azzi has a kid

- sweet by @azzibuckets | situationship, friends to lovers

- for the love of the game by @azzibuckets | fake dating trope

- sweet on you by @eclipscee | dentist school au

- fighting for the love (of the game) by @crazziforazzi | exes to lovers

- you gonna come to my senses? by @peach4pazzi | rivals to lovers

- matcha made in heaven by @lloeysol | paige is a barista, azzi is a blushing idiot lol. meet cute fic

- weren't we the salt in the sea? by @lloeysol | famous singer!azzi x basketball player!paige + exes to lovers

- champion by @ferstuff535 | situationship