HARTFORD, Conn. — Breanna Stewart’s emojis carry a lot of weight.
The UConn women’s basketball legend, two-time WNBA champ and 2018 league MVP is the biggest name in free agency this offseason, and her pending decision on where to play could shape the league for years to come.
Stewart has spent the first six years of her career with the Seattle Storm, playing alongside fellow Huskies legend Sue Bird, but there has been plenty of buzz this offseason that she could join the New York Liberty.
Stewart met with the Liberty when she was a free agent last offseason before signing a one-year supermax deal to remain with the Storm. It’s no secret that the Liberty want her in New York, and on Monday, the team made a move towards enticing her by trading for fellow WNBA MVP and former Connecticut Sun superstar Jonquel Jones.
It was a move straight out of an NBA team’s offseason playbook, trying to put together a potential “big three” of Jones, Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu, who is one of the WNBA’s brightest young stars.
Later that day, Stewart tweeted out a succession of emojis that had WNBA fans looking like Charlie Kelly on “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” desperately trying to figure out what the cryptic message meant.
(Editor’s Note: It appears the animals and the construction emoji might be a reference to the Concrete Jungle, a.k.a New York... you never know. Just saying).
Outside of that emoji-filled tweet, the 28-year-old Stewart has remained quiet on her free-agency decision. Before signing her one-year supermax to remain with the Storm last season, she made clear that playing alongside Sue Bird in her final WNBA season was a priority. Of course, that is no longer a factor. Stewart is originally from Syracuse, N.Y., and her wife, Spanish basketball star Marta Xargay, has family in Spain, which is a much quicker plane ride from the East Coast. It remains to be seen whether or not she would want to leave Seattle, though, where she won WNBA titles in 2018 and 2020.
“Seattle has always been my home,” Stewart told reporters last September, according to the Seattle Times. “It’s where I’ve grown up. It’s where my career has continued to blossom.”
Stewart recently joined Turkish basketball club Fenerbahçe, so there’s a chance the tweet has, at least in part, to do with that. Their season runs through March, and with Stewart on board, the team is considered one of the favorites to win the EuroLeague title.
Besides New York and Seattle, the Los Angeles Sparks have also been considered a possible landing spot for Stewart, who averaged 21.8 points, 7.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game last season while being named an All-Star for the fourth time.
The WNBA free-agency period began Jan. 11, as teams were able to begin extending qualifying offers to players. Negotiations can officially begin on Jan. 21, and teams can officially sign players starting on Feb. 1.
Whatever Stewie’s next move is, there’s no doubt UConn fans will continue to follow her every step of the way.
