The Liberty’s Breanna Stewart ruptured her achilles, somehow got better, and is in the GOAT conversation.
SB Nation is introducing each of the 12 members of the US Olympic Women’s Basketball team this week. Here’s what you need to know about Breanna Stewart, one of the most decorated players in the WNBA.
Team: New York Liberty (21-4)
2024 Regular Season Stats: 19.3 points (45.4%), 9 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals
Position: Forward
Draft Class: 2016, Pick #1
All-Star Selections: 6 (2017, 2018, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2024)
Previous Olympic Appearances: N/A
College: University of Connecticut – won four national championships (2013-2016)
Few resumes — in any sports — rival Breanna Stewart. Stewart — often referred to as “Stewie” — has two WNBA championships under her belt (2018, 2020) and two accompanying Finals MVPs. She’s won league MVP twice (2018, 2023) and been named to the All-WNBA First Team five times (2018, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023).
Prior to becoming a professional, she led UConn to four consecutive national championships, the type of sustained dominance we very well might not see again in college basketball. In all four runs, Stewart was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player as the Huskies achieved a rare four-peat.
Her transition to the pros was pretty seamless; she was named Rookie of the Year in her first year and was an All-Star by her second. Just a few years after that, Stewie was firmly placed in women’s basketball GOAT debate.
Perhaps the wildest part is — she’s only 29. So, the lengthy and nearly unrivaled list of accomplishments is still growing.
Breanna Stewart ruptured her achilles playing in Russia ahead of the 2019 WNBA season, and missed the entire year. She was in the midst of playing the best basketball of her career, and was just a few months removed from her first Finals MVP and WNBA title.
But Stewie didn’t miss a beat, coming back in 2020 and leading the Storm to a second championship. In 2018, she averaged 24.6 points on 46.6% shooting en route to her first championship. In 2020, she actually improved those numbers, averaging 25.7 points on 53.8% shooting.
After she won her second championship, Stewart reflected on the scary initial moments following the injury.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen after rupturing my Achilles,” she later said. “You see all the worst things. You see all the worst and then I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to be back to where I was.”
But, her performance in 2020 signaled that she had more than just bounced back.
“What I’m the most proud of is just the fact that I think I’m better now than I was before,” Stewart told Holly Rowe several months into her return.
Ahead of the 2023 season, Stewart left the Seattle Storm and headed to the Liberty, where she teamed up with Courtney Vandersloot, Jonquel Jones, Sabrina Ionesco, and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton. In their first season together, the Liberty excelled by ultimately fell to the Aces 3-1 in the WNBA Finals. Stewart uncharacteristically struggled throughout that playoff run, shooting just 35.8% from the field en route to 18.4 points per game.
This season, Stewie is averaging 19.3 points, 9 rebounds, and 4 assists per game, while also anchoring the Liberty’s defense. She’s not having a career year, but she and her teammates have done enough to keep the Liberty at the top of the standings.
At 21-4, New York currently holds the best record in the league, and Stewart seems poised to compete for her third championship.
Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier are co-launching Unrivaled, a three-on-three basketball league set to tip off in January and keep the WNBA’s best players in the US during the offseason. The league will be based in Miami, and include 30 of the league’s stars, ten of whom have already been announced, and already promises a minimum $100,000 salary.
“The need for Unrivaled is because we have a seven-month gap in our season and a way to keep players home, continue to build brands and be in a different market than a ‘W’ team and just build off of that,” Stewart told Fox NY. “You see the moment and the movement that’s happening behind women’s sports — specifically the WNBA and women’s basketball, continuing to just make sure that people can find us wherever they want.”
