Brianna Stewart wanted this and all of this.
The mantle of a superstar among the stars of Liberty. The responsibility of winning the original WNBA franchise's first title and bringing the first professional basketball championship to New York City since the likes of Clyde, Dollar Bill, and the Pearl.
He was at fault for going down in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals and missing two shots. Worship when she pastes it.
Plus, a chartered flight, an overflowing audience, a slot on national TV, and the eyes of the sports world on her.
Stewart was a force to be reckoned with in Liberty's series-tying 80-66 victory in Game 2 on Sunday. She recorded 21 points, 8 rebounds, 5 assists, and a Finals record 7 steals, leaving a ferocious impression of never giving up. Her team loses.
“I couldn’t wait to come back and change the narrative,” Stewart said.
Stewart missed the game-winning free throw at the end of regulation in Game 1 and failed to convert a potential game-clinching driving layup on the final possession of overtime.
With a Liberty team that instantly turned into a favorite the moment Stewart agreed to sign as a free agent before the 2023 season, Brooklyn's chance to bring a trophy to the Finals for the second year in a row appears to be slipping away. I saw it.
“Just not letting history repeat itself and, you know, Game 1 happened,” Stewart said of his mindset. “But now, how do we control the second leg?”
Liberty won the second game late on, building a 17-point lead. But the ghosts of the first battle were gone, and creepy skeletons roamed the gardens, with 18,046 living souls inside nervously shouting “Oh!”
With the Lynx cutting the lead against Liberty to four points late in the third quarter, Stewart made two free throws, blocked a shot at the other end, then stepped back and hit a jumper to push the lead back to eight points.
When the Lynx were within two points with less than five minutes remaining (a turning point in Game 1), Stewart made three steals in the next three-plus minutes. It's my balls, she seemed to say.
“When you have a great player, a great leader, playing as hard as she does night in and night out and impacting the game in more ways than just scoring and rebounding, that's great,” Liberty guard Connie Vandersloot said. It's a great motivation for everyone.” And she sets the standard for us. ”
And how fitting Stewart's last hoop of the afternoon, a 57-second dagger, made up for her own mistake.
“Making or missing shots, free throws…we've been doing this long enough and things like that happen,” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said. “She's resilient. She played exactly as we expected.”
Back then, we liked to say about Carmelo Anthony the same way we say about Jalen Brunson now: “When the Knicks were down, they chose New York.”
That all applies to Stewart. Additionally, she chose New York's spotlight, took advantage of free agent discounts, and helped revitalize a historic franchise that should be the league's flagship.
In fact, Liberty reported Sunday that a record 18,040 spectators were courtside at Barclays, including Geno Auriemma, the coach with whom Stewart won four national titles at UW. (“I emailed him and he was like, 'Look, this is about your time,'” Stewart said).
And now she heads to Minnesota for Game 3 on Wednesday, with Liberty within two wins of a breakthrough crown.
I couldn't ask for more.
