Sports
The Breanna Stewart-A’ja Wilson rivalry lifts the entire WNBA – The Washington Post
During this women’s basketball growth spurt, A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart are flattering standard bearers. On their own, they stand as all-time great players still under 30. Together, as rivals and allies, they encapsulate every dimension of a sport stepping into its power.
Some superstars are tasked with maintaining their league. Others are born into eras that necessitate the audacity to inspire movement. Wilson and Stewart recognize the moment. Their moment. They hear the opportunity summoning them to step forward for the good of the league.
They have elevated the WNBA with their talent, but that was the baseline expectation when they arrived as No. 1 draft picks adorned with collegiate honors and championships. Since then, they have grown beyond their preternatural skills and become the game’s most important personalities.
They leverage themselves differently. Wilson is a whirlwind of energy and hilarity, a nonstop entertainer even when discussing weighty topics. Stewart exemplifies quiet intensity; when she chooses to raise her voice, it echoes. Combine their approaches, and they cover much of what the WNBA now represents: authenticity, empowerment, fearlessness, independence, style, culture, edge. The league is full of people who understand, better than most, the dexterity necessary to compete for and against each other.
This dynamic makes the latest round of Wilson vs. Stewart so much richer than a stereotypical rivalry. On Sunday, as a dream WNBA Finals begins, the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty will meet in a best-of-five series featuring superteams that won at least 80 percent of their contests in the first year of the league’s 40-game schedule. But for Wilson and Stewart, this is wonderfully repetitive: For the third time in four seasons, their path to a championship goes through each other.
During the 2020 bubble Finals, Stewart won her second title with the Seattle Storm, sweeping Wilson and the Aces. In the semifinals last season, Wilson led the Aces to a tightly contested 3-1 series victory over the Storm, ending Sue Bird’s legendary career and closing Stewart’s time in Seattle. Then the Aces defeated the Connecticut Sun in the 2022 Finals, sparking a Vegas-worthy celebratory binge from Wilson and her teammates.
Looking back, the Aces won that championship because Wilson confronted herself after a lackluster Game 1 loss to Seattle. After winning her second MVP award in 2022, Wilson scored just eight points and missed seven of 10 shots in a 76-73 home loss. At that moment, Wilson had faced Stewart four times in the postseason, and her team had lost all four games. After being swept in 2020 and leaving the bubble, Wilson experienced panic attacks and sought therapy. She has since championed mental health advocacy. During her toughest time last season, she found her peace again.
“I was hot,” Wilson recalled. “I was hot. I don’t think y’all understand how I felt after that game. That was just terrible by me. It ate me up. I didn’t sleep at night; that’s one time I didn’t sleep. I didn’t understand what was going on with me. I think I figured I just didn’t believe in myself. My confidence went away. And I’ve never seen that in A’ja — ever.”
She averaged 30 points, 12.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks for the rest of the series, engaging in an epic duel with Stewart, who went for 31.3 points and 9.7 rebounds in those games. But Vegas won all three games, one in overtime and the others decided by five points each. The Storm’s reign was about to end. The Aces were no longer trying to break through. Wilson rose from being the greatest challenger to Stewart’s best-player-in-the-game status to a transcendent star who deserves a share of the label.
“Coming in, I really wanted to establish myself in this league, and I try my best to do that every single game,” Wilson said. “After that game, I don’t know. I felt like I disrespected myself by not putting myself first, putting my mental [health] first. After that game, I took it very, very personal to understand and realize who I am.”
It might be impossible for any player to supplant Stewart as the defining player of this era. She had such a storybook college career; as a professional, she has been a sublime player and voice for social justice and for better pay, travel and support in the WNBA. She fights against the league, and she fights for it. She honors tradition and looks to forge new paths. But she’s not a star who hogs all the oxygen.
This sport has seen plenty of individual dominance. It needs a greater audience to respect its multiplicity. That’s where Stewart and Wilson signify a rivalry and a partnership, an intriguing matchup that they hope spreads attention throughout the league.
“We’re at a special place in women’s basketball,” Stewart said. “There are so many great players doing so many great things every single night.”
As with Magic Johnson and Larry Bird during the NBA’s ascension in the 1980s, it’s easier sometimes for one magnetic pair to connect everyone to the whole. For Wilson and Stewart, the stakes keep getting higher every time their teams meet.
Las Vegas finished the regular season with a remarkable 34-6 record, and the Aces look to enter the conversation as one of the league’s greatest teams by becoming the first repeat champion in 21 years. Despite being a founding WNBA franchise, the Liberty has yet to win a championship in the league’s 27 seasons. But the Northeast homecoming of Stewart, a North Syracuse, N.Y., native who played college basketball at Connecticut, has opened a new window of contention. She came back to New York as the most celebrated free agent acquisition in league history, and the Liberty formed a core that only the Aces can match by also signing star point guard Courtney Vandersloot and trading for 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones to partner with young superstar Sabrina Ionescu and Betnijah Laney, a 2021 all-star. With their balanced and explosive starting lineup, the Liberty finished 32-8, and they beat the Aces three times in five matchups if you include an 82-63 blowout in the Commissioner’s Cup final.
Will Stewart win her third WNBA title and finally deliver a trophy to New York? Or will Wilson collect a second and pull even in the hardware race?
“Someone’s making history,” Aces Coach Becky Hammon said.
Instead of fake and forced hatred, Wilson and Stewart share a competitive bond. Although Wilson admitted she was “hurt” over not winning MVP this season, she doesn’t knock Stewart for capitalizing on the Big Apple hype. They strive together, two power forwards with the versatility to operate as positionless players. Stewart does it with skill and length, her 6-foot-4 frame stretching into a 7-foot-1 wingspan. At the same height, Wilson is more of an athletic post presence who continues to expand her game and raise her efficiency. She shot 55.7 percent this season, an unprecedented number for a WNBA forward who averaged 22.8 points, slightly behind Stewart’s 23.0. Both are defensive factors; Wilson is the two-time reigning defensive player of the year.
The sport has never seen two evolutionary forwards meet so frequently for the championship. At the same time, they’re committed to anchoring Team USA for three more Olympics. They’re the right rivals — and allies — at the right time.
