2018 WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart becomes a free agent on Saturday night at midnight ET. After six seasons with the Seattle Storm, the two-time WNBA Finals MVP is testing the free agency waters and meeting with four teams to determine where she’ll play next season.
According to ESPN, Stewart will meet with the Storm, New York Liberty, Minnesota Lynx, and Washington Mystics in Istanbul, Turkey, where she currently plays for Fenerbahce.
Landing the 28-year-old would be a massive coup for any club that is able to pry her away from the Storm. The 2016 WNBA Rookie of the Year and 2018 MVP was also named an All-Star in 2017, 2018, and 2021. She’s led the Storm to two championships and was named one of the top 25 players of the WNBA’s first 25 years.
She’s also coming off a season in which she averaged 21-8 points and 7.6 rebounds across 30.9 minutes per game, appearing in 34 regular season games and six playoff games, in which she averaged a career-best 27 points per game.
Stewart hasn’t said much about her plans other than to tweet some cryptic messages involving emojis. On January 19, she tweeted a calendar and red pepper, alluding to the “spicy” day of the year that was approaching.
🗓️🌶️
— Breanna Stewart (@breannastewart) January 19, 2023
On the 20th, she tweeted a whole slew of emojis that could mean just about anything (which was perhaps the point).
🚨😈🧃🧊📌♻️🏁🍣
— Breanna Stewart (@breannastewart) January 20, 2023
And then she seemingly confirmed the four teams she would be speaking with once the free-agency period began.
⛈️ 🐺 🏛️🗽
— Breanna Stewart (@breannastewart) January 20, 2023
We’ll keep an eye out for any further cryptic tweets that might tell us which way Stewart is leaning. Wherever she ends up, that team is going to have a huge advantage next season.
[ESPN]
