Breanna Stewart Praises WNBA Rivals For Team USA Olympics Performances
One of the greatest parts about watching Team USA basketball playing in the Olympics is that fans get to see longtime rivals competing alongside one another.
This is especially pertinent in the WNBA, given that there are only 12 teams in the league who are matched up against each other ad nauseam.
Two teams who are extremely familiar are the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty. These elite squads played each other in the 2023 WNBA Finals, and boast some of the league's best players.
In fact, half of the Team USA women's squad is comprised of these two WNBA rosters.
And three of these players carried Team USA to victory during their quarterfinal win over Nigeria on Wednesday.
After the game, Liberty star and reigning WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart discussed the impact that Aces standouts Jackie Young and A'ja Wilson had on Wednesday's game.
"I think Jackie came to play, as she has any time she is representing Team USA," Stewart said, per ESPN. "Just the way that she's a great two-way player really kind of jumpstarted everything we wanted to do tonight."
Stewart and Young were two of Team USA's leading scorers against Nigeria, with Young scoring 15 points and Stewart adding 13.
But the game's leading scorer was Wilson, who finished with 20 points and 11 rebounds.
"I think that A'ja and I starting, we want to make sure that we set the tone," Stewart said when asked about her and Wilson's impact postgame.
Wilson and Stewart both play the forward position and have had some iconic WNBA battles over the years.
They'll get back to those battles when the WNBA resumes later this month. But for now, Stewart and Wilson are two teammates trying to secure gold for their home country.
GRANT YOUNG
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.