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New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart has addressed the threatening and homophobic email that her wife, Marta Xargay Casademont, received prior to Game 1 of the WNBA Finals.
Stewart described the email as part of an escalating series of messages directed at the couple, according to The Athletic's Sabreena Merchant.
Speaking on Tuesday during WNBA Finals media availability in Minnesota, Stewart said Casademont reported the email to police.
“We made the team aware and the league aware, and there were some other things happening at the same time,” Stewart said. “With the spotlight of being in the Finals and everything like that, they said it makes the most sense to put [a report] in.”
Though the person who sent the threatening email has not been publicly named, the New York Post reports that NBA officials believe it was sent from an address that has been previously been “associated with other hateful missives, including death threats, bomb threats and more racist rhetoric.”
Stewart and Casademont, a former professional basketball player herself, married in 2021 and have two children.
“The fact that it came directly to Marta’s email is something that she couldn’t not see,” Stewart said. “So the level of closeness was a little bit different. And I think we just want to make sure, obviously myself and Marta are OK, but that our kids are the ones that are the safest.”
The family has been a mainstay courtside during the Liberty's playoff run, which now shifts to the Minnesota Lynx' home court in Minneapolis, tied at one game apiece.
Liberty star Breanna Stewart and commissioner Cathy Engelbert have addressed increase in hateful rhetoric around the WNBA
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert knows that racist and homophobic rhetoric around the WNBA has increased in recent months. She addressed the problem in a press conference prior to Game 1 of the Finals in Brooklyn.
“We stand united in condemning racism and all forms of hate,” she said. “The WNBA is one of the most inclusive and diverse professional sports leagues in the world, and we will continue to champion those values.”
The problem has escalated alongside a meteoric rise in popularity around the WNBA and women's sports as a whole. The WNBA and its stars have had to find the balance between welcoming in new fans and denouncing the trolls using the league to promote their racist or homophobic agendas.
“I think that threats continued to build after Game 1, which we love that people are engaged in our sport, but not to the point where there’s threats or harassment or homophobic comments being made,” Stewart said. “So we’re just continuing to let the league know, they’re handling it, but also for me just to continue to use this platform to make sure that everyone knows that it’s unacceptable to bring into our sport and really into the world.”
Stewart, who is unafraid of criticizing the WNBA when she feels it's warranted, urged Engelbert and the league to continue pursuing ways to address the problem.
“Cathy [Engelbert] and the league can just continue to make sure that they’re ahead of this,” Stewart said. “And really, everything that’s happened since Thursday, everyone has really kind of walked hand-in-hand, step-in-step with what to do going forward.”
The Liberty and Lynx will play Game 3 of the best-of-five WNBA Finals on Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET.
