As one of the greatest women’s basketball players to ever live, Breanna Stewart is not one for excuses. On a quiet August Friday afternoon, the New York Liberty superstar has missed two weeks of action from a bone bruise in her right knee that’s kept her out since July 26. Stewart reportedly hopes to return in time for her 31st birthday on Aug. 27, but by the time the defending WNBA champions play Washington on the 28th, she’d have missed 15 games.
The three-time W champion, two-time MVP, two-time Finals MVP, and seven-time All-Star had previously missed just two total regular-season games since signing with the Liberty from the Seattle Storm following the 2022 season. The WNBA schedule expanded from 40 to 44 games this season for the first time, without changing the regular season’s start and end dates, which remain unchanged.
“The most important issue in the WNBA is looking at how crazy and condensed our schedule is,” Stewart told Boardroom in promoting her partnership with Ally, the presenting sponsor of the recently completed Rivals Week in the W. “And you see the fatigue, you see the injury setting in. So, I want the league to be a little bit smarter with the schedule, making more days off in between or things like that. Just making it make sense a little bit more.”
