Breanna Stewart - The Hero
BASKETBALL - FORWARD - WNBA - SEATTLE STORM - TEAM USA
ARCHETYPE: THE HERO
Day 69/135
HAPPY FIRST DAY OF THE WNBA SEASON, Y’ALL!
You can catch the season opener schedule here.
To watch Breanna Stewart and the Seattle Storm face off against their WNBA Finals opponents—the Las Vegas Aces—make sure to tune into ABC tomorrow at 3:00pm EST.
Athletic Accomplishments
Breanna Stewart is a 6’4” power forward for the WNBA champion Seattle Storm. Widely regarded as the best college player of all time, Stewie has only continued to outperform expectations and the competition in her pro career.
But let’s take it back, shall we? Though Stewart was always tall for her age, her stepfather urged her to develop a handle, too. So, she used to run a mile around her block every day while dribbling a basketball.
By high school, Stewart was a national standout. As a senior, she was the National Gatorade Player of the Year, the Gatorade Female Athlete of the Year, and a McDonald's All-American.
To say Stewie was a four-year starter at UConn is a grotesque understatement. She was a high impact player from the jump, leading the Huskies to four consecutive national championships, and being named the Most Outstanding Player of the Final Four all four times. Still not good enough? How about being named the consensus National Player of the Year three times? It’s an impeccable, and almost untouchable resume.
In 2014 Stewart was selected to the senior U.S. National Team, the only college player who made the 12-person roster to compete for the gold medal-winning USA Basketball team in the FIBA World Championship.
Not surprisingly, Stewart headed to the Seattle Storm as the No. 1 pick in the 2016 WNBA Draft, winning Rookie of the Year for the season. Domestically, here’s just a quick snapshot of her accolades.
(REMINDER: She’s only 24, and lost the entire 2019 WNBA season to recover from a torn achilles tendon.)
2× WNBA champion (2018, 2020)
2× WNBA Finals MVP (2018, 2020)
WNBA MVP (2018)
2× WNBA All-Star (2017, 2018)
WNBA Rookie of the Year (2016)
WNBA All-Rookie Team (2016)
2× All-WNBA First Team (2018, 2020)
All-WNBA Second Team (2016)
2× WNBA All-Defensive Second Team (2016, 2020)
Sports Illustrated Sportsperson of the Year (2020)
For Team USA, Stewie has won two World Championship gold medals and an Olympic gold medal.
In international leagues, Stewie is just as dominant, leading her teams to countless titles, and racking up MVP honors:
Euroleague Women champion (2021)
EuroLeague Women regular season MVP (2019)
Euroleague Women final four MVP (2021)
Russian Women's Basketball Premier League champion (2021)
Character Archetype: The Hero
How amazing is Stewie? Girrrl, how much time do you have?
I could list off all her championship rings and gold medals, all the times she’s been selected as MVP and All-Star, all her Player of the Year awards, her UConn pedigree. But if you don’t already know all the hardware she has collected all these years, that’s really on you.
Stewie is a superhero, and not just on the basketball court. In 2016, after winning the ESPY for Best Female Athlete, she used her speech as an opportunity to call out the media for failing to cover women’s sports.
In 2018, she wrote a remarkable piece in The Players Tribune about being a survivor of sexual assault during her childhood.
In 2019, she tore her achilles tendon while playing overseas—that’s right, the MVP of the WNBA has to play overseas to maximize her earning potential—and missed the entire WNBA season. Then, in 2020, she was back at full force, having improved in nearly every statistical measure, and leading the Seattle Storm who swept the Aces in the WNBA Finals.
She has marched against the Muslim ban, and in support of the LGBTQ+ community and Black Lives Matter. And last week, she got engaged to WNBA player Marta Xargay.
She is of the best basketball players on the face of the Earth. Sometimes, it seems like she can’t stop winning. Stewie is a bonafide superhero.