PHOENIX – Following WNBA All-Star Weekend, members of Team USA will head to Paris, France for the 2024 Olympics and among them will be New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart.
For Breanna Stewart, this will be her fourth time suiting up for Team USA in Olympics competition. She was a part of the gold medal winning teams 2016 and 2020.
The WNBA is different from the NBA in that they are in season during the summer months. The Olympics are held during the summertime. Because of that, the WNBA takes a month long hiatus to allow players to compete in the Olympics either for Team USA or for their home countries.
As a veteran of Team USA, Stewart understands the situation WNBA players face in that they are hyper-focused on the regular season and then all of a sudden have to shift that focus on the Olympics. During a media availability session over WNBA All-Star Weekend, Stewart spoke about that in the context of building quick chemistry with her Team USA teammates.
“It's always tough because we're locked into our W team for the first 25 games of the season. And now that we've made it to the Olympic break, we can kind of switch gears a little bit and focus on Team USA,” Stewart said. “Just getting the chemistry, getting the feel, understanding that we're fine with people we don't always play with. The amount of respect between players makes it really exciting because we want to go out, we want to work and get everything firing on all cylinders and enjoy the experience.”
Breanna Stewart, Liberty look to contend for title following Olympics
The 2024 WNBA regular season does not resume until Aug. 15 and when it does, Breanna Stewart and the New York Liberty will be among the league's championship contenders. Last season, the Liberty reached the WNBA Finals but they were eliminated by the Las Vegas Aces in four games.
At the halfway point of the season, the Liberty currently hold a 21-4 record and are at the top of the WNBA standings. Heading into the break, they had won four consecutive games. The Liberty have never won a championship before, but Stewart has as part of the 2018 and 2020 Seattle Storm title teams.
She'll have Liberty teammate Sabrina Ionescu alongside her on Team USA, and she understands what it takes and what needs to happen the second half of the season for the Liberty to take that next step.
“For us and the Liberty, it's just making sure we take it one game at a time. Locking in on what we need to do and focusing on ourselves first,” Stewart said during her media availability over WNBA All-Star Weekend. “We're happy to be in the position that we're in, and now it's interesting because the Olympics and an Olympic year, we don't really think about the Liberty at this point because we have us on Team USA. Obviously JJ [Jonquel Jones] is an All-Star. . .Nyara [Sabally] and Leo [Leonie Fiebich] are representing Germany and Sandy [Brondello] is coaching Australia. We're just all over the place a little bit.”
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