Breanna Stewart Is Motivated By Becky Hammon Disrespect In Liberty-Aces Rematch
Breanna Stewart did not forget being mocked after last year's WNBA Finals.
Stewart shot just 3-17 from the floor in the decisive game that saw the Las Vegas Aces win the championship at the expense of the New York Liberty.
Something Becky Hammon reminded the 2023 MVP of at the victory parade.
Hammon ended a celebratory exchange by throwing Stewart some shade, stating, "3 for 17 is you need to talk about it."
Becky Hammon mocked Breanna Stewart for shooting 3/17 during the playoffs, even though she was dealing with personal issues. pic.twitter.com/gOXKCSwBsY
— ♕ (@hrtwomensports) September 29, 2024
But Stewart didn't talk about it, she was about it in Game 1 of the semi-finals between the Liberty and Aces this time around.
Breanna dropped 20 points in the first half and finished with 34, while clearly outplaying this year's unanimous MVP A'ja Wilson.
And it was confirmed that Stewie was indeed motivated by the slight. ESPN broadcaster Holly Rowe revealed as much during a reporting segment in the game.
Stewart's teammate Sabrina Ionescu may have also had a chip on her shoulder, since the Aces mocked her for doing the famous "night night" celebration at the parade as well.
Sabrina cooked Las Vegas in the second half, tallying a total of 21 points, and sinking several crowd pleasing threes.
This also led to an exchange with New York icon Spike Lee, who Ionescu now seems to be buddy buddy with.
It was only one win for the Liberty, but in some ways it served as a measure of revenge. Next up for New York would of course be winning the series.
More performances like the one on Sunday from Stewart, and Ionescu, will make that a likely proposition for the team that boasted the best record in the WNBA all season.
Robin Lundberg is a media veteran and hoops head who has spent the bulk of his career with iconic brands like Sports Illustrated and ESPN. His insights have also been featured on platforms such as Fox and CNN and he can currently be heard hosting shows for Sirius XM and on his burgeoning YouTube show. And now he brings his basketball expertise to Women's Fastbreak on SI!