Winning WNBA title was why Breanna Stewart left Storm for Liberty

After their somewhat unexpected and mildly contentious divorce last year, the smart money was always on Breanna Stewart to win a WNBA championship before her former team, the Storm.

Stewart’s career-defining decision to join the New York Liberty and leave Seattle in free agency, which was preceded by a series of cryptic tweets, reset the course of two of the league’s tentpole franchises.

Losing Stewart sent the Storm into an immediate tailspin that resulted in a dismal 11-29 record in 2023 – the most losses in team history – and a next-to-last finish.

Meanwhile, the Liberty doubled its win total from the previous season and finished 32-8. Still, bitter Storm fans no doubt took solace in New York’s meltdown in a season-ending loss in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals.

However, to borrow a phrase from her Liberty teammate Jonquel Jones, Stewart’s pursuit of a championship was simply delayed and not denied.

At the end of Sunday’s controversial Game 5, which capped a cinematic championship series and a historic, record-setting WNBA season, Stewart hit two free throws in the final seconds of regulation that forced overtime where New York beat the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 to claim its first-ever WNBA title.

“I’ve been manifesting this moment for a while,” said Stewart, who wore ski goggles and frequently took sips from an oversized Champagne bottle while onstage during a postgame interview. “There’s no feeling like it. Credit to Minnesota because they gave us a tough series and the fans have been amazing everywhere we’ve been.

“But to be able to bring a championship to New York – the first ever in franchise history – it’s an incredible feeling. And I can’t wait to celebrate with the city because I know it’s going to be bonkers.”

Storm fans are familiar with party-mode Stewart who led Seattle to league championships in 2018 and 2020 while winning Finals MVP.

This version of the 30-year-old Stewart that was on display the past week wasn’t nearly as dominant as the once-in-a-generation star who played her last game with the Storm on Aug. 14, 2022.

Few will ever forget her epic 42-point performance on 14-of-22 shooting, including 6 of 8 three-pointers and 8 of 10 free throws. She also had seven rebounds, three blocks, two assists and one steal while playing all 40 minutes of a Game 4 97-92 loss against the Las Vegas in the WNBA semifinals.

Admittedly, Stewart struggled offensively Sunday after scoring 13 points on 4-of-15 shooting. Still, the 6-foot-4 forward was dominant in other ways while tallying a game-high 15 rebounds, four assists and three blocks while logging 45 minutes.

“I came in with a game plan of it doesn’t matter,” she said. “I want to play defense. I want to rebound. I want to do the little things. I’ll continue to be aggressive and shoot my shots, but if they’re not falling, then they’re not falling and I’m not going to let that affect the way I do things.”

Stewart was far from perfect. For the second time in the Finals, she missed important free throws in the final seconds, which revived memories of her struggles to make clutch shots.

However, Stewart received a colossal reprieve while drawing what Lynx players said was a “phantom foul” and sinking two free throws with 5.2 seconds left in regulation.

“That was not a foul,” said Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, bemoaning a coach’s challenge that was denied and a 25-8 free throw disparity that favored the Liberty. “That call should have been reversed on that challenge. … If we would have turned that clip in [to the league], they would have told us that it was marginal contact. No foul. Guaranteed.”

Stewart seized on her second chance and sent the game into OT with a couple of free throws.

“Before I made the free throws, I missed two free throws,” she said. “I was like, no, I can’t do this again. I can’t. I have to be here. Me and [Liberty assistant] Olaf [Lange] have talked about being a python where it’s like you know your moment to strike and at that moment, I was just thinking about being a python.”

When it was over and when the raucous and sold out Barclays Center crowd of 18,090 danced to Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” beneath a downpour of confetti, it became apparent why Stewart ditched the Storm for the Liberty.

Following the postgame trophy presentation, she hugged everybody, including her wife Marta Xargay and two kids, Liberty celebrity fans Spike Lee and Jason Sudeikis and former Storm teammate Sue Bird.

“Winning in Seattle was amazing and nothing takes away from that, but to be able to bring the first ever [championship] to the Liberty … my first WNBA game that I ever went to was at MSG, was the Liberty,” Stewart said. “To have that be full circle was amazing.”

Looking back, it’s obvious now that there was no way the Storm could have kept Stewart even though the No. 1 pick in the 2016 WNBA draft spent the first seven mostly successful seasons in Seattle.

Paired with Bird and Jewell Loyd, Stewart became a superstar who captured the 2018 WNBA MVP, two Finals MVPs, the 2021 Commissioner’s Cup MVP and a slew of individual awards.

In theory, Stewart and Loyd could have attracted a big-name free agent who would have kept the Storm in championship contention. And it’s not far-fetched to believe Stewart could have followed Bird’s post-retirement pathway, which has included a stake in the Storm ownership group.

However, Stewart, the Syracuse, N.Y., native, had other plans.

“This is something that I’ll remember forever,” she said. “This is personal because I’m from New York. I’m from upstate and I came here for a reason and that’s to win a championship.”

Now the question is whether the Storm, who improved to 25-15 this year and rebuilt around Loyd, Nneka Ogwumike, Skylar Diggins-Smith, Ezi Magbegor and Gabby Williams, can win their first title in the post-Stewart era.