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As records keep getting broken by New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart, it's in the effort of capturing championships, which she and the team did in 2024 against the Minnesota Lynx. With Stewart along with Sabrina Ionescu leading the Liberty to possibly a second straight title, she would rewind the clock and speak about the championship series against the Lynx.
Despite the victory at the end, Stewart would reveal how “exhausting” the series was and how it was a rough patch, and only having one day of recovery between Games 4 and 5, with the latter being a winner-takes-all all contest. She would also acknowledge to Sue Bird on her podcast “Bird's Eye View” about the “drama” on and off the court.
“It was exhausting, and I feel what’s one of the biggest pain points and what needs to be kind of figured out is like between Game Four and Game Five was one day,” Stewart said. “Literally one day in between games for you to rest and recover your body and your mind and get back out. And it’s Game Five, winner take all.”
“But it was hard because it was like drama in everything,” Stewart continued. “On the court, off the court, game winners here, game winners there, controversial calls. Game Four same situation. But I remember being in Game Five, first of all, we were down like 15 points or something, but you could feel that we were going to come back and we needed to keep our cool when we were down and fight through it.”
Liberty's Breanna Stewart on facing the Lynx in WNBA Finals
The former MVP in the Liberty's Stewart would also speak about the added pressure for the team with the series against the Lynx since they were in the WNBA Finals the year prior, but lost to the Las Vegas Aces in four games. Then, looking at her specifically, she would harken back to the missed free throws she had that led to tough moments in games and how she battled after.
“All the things are running through your mind, how the finals went last year,” Stewart said. “Missing these free throws again. These are going to be the biggest free throws of my career up to this point, and I remember just like thinking, all right, I'm going to just do my routine. I'm going to make the first one and then I'm going to make the second one.”
“And like it was so quiet in that gym,” Stewart continued. “It was so quiet it but I was like I'm going to just do my routine and shoot the ball confidently and whatever is going to happen is going to happen and I'm going to know like I did everything that I could have done.”
At any rate, New York is 10-2, which puts them first in the Eastern Conference, as their next game is against the Seattle Storm on Sunday.
