SEATTLE — Nearly 30 minutes after practice, Breanna Stewart was delivering a scouting report on the Storm’s upcoming WNBA playoff matchup against the Washington Mystics when she got distracted and lost her train of thought.
“Oh, my goodness,” she said. “I don’t know what that is.”
At the opposite end of the court, Stewart spotted her baby girl Ruby, who recently celebrated her first birthday, doing some sort of scooting/crawling maneuver while spearheading a basketball across the floor and playing with two similar-aged cousins who flew in from Spain.
Stewart is reminded of something she said at the start of the season about wanting to have it all and balancing the demands of family and being a professional superstar athlete.
“I’m learning that I can be a great mom and a great basketball player,” she said at the time.
Well, 11 months after an Achilles injury forced her to miss Seattle’s playoff loss last year, Stewart is back in the postseason where she’s dominated like few have in this league.
“When I’m healthy, I think that I’m able to be the best player in this league,” Stewart said Monday on the day it was announced she won the AP WNBA Player of the Year award. “I have that confidence and carry that to elevate myself and my team and the WNBA.”
If it sounds cocky or arrogant, it’s not.
It’s simply Stewart, the only person in NCAA history to win four national championships and four Most Outstanding Player of the Year awards, acknowledging her unparalleled resume and understanding what she means to the Storm, who are vying for the franchise’s fifth league championship.
The 27-year-old Stewart believes she’s playing better than she did when she led Seattle to WNBA titles in 2018 and 2020 while claiming WNBA Finals MVPs.
“I want to make sure that I’m continuing to grow and continuing to reach my potential and make sure that I don’t regret anything that I’ve done throughout the season,” Stewart said. “Just being confident in what I do. Trying to continue to learn and be better offensively and defensively and help my teammates in any way possible.”
During her first full season as a mother, Stewart put together one of her finest seasons while averaging a career-high tying 21.8 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 1.6 steals and 0.9 blocks while playing a personal-best tying 34 games.
Those statistics could win Stewart a second WNBA MVP award — it’s between her and Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson — but Stewart has always been driven by championships and not individual awards.
Perhaps that explains why she’s been able to elevate her game in the playoffs.
Including her first two seasons when the Storm lost a couple of single-elimination playoff games on the road in the first round, Stewart is 12-4 in the postseason.
Throw in the inaugural Commissioner’s Cup in 2021 and Stewart and the Storm are 13-4 when money is on the line.
“She’s different,” coach Noelle Quinn said. “Throughout the season, she’s very elite and high level, but there’s something about the playoffs and there’s another gear that she kicks into. Her focus is different. It is as if she — in my opinion — puts on her Superwoman’s cape. And not by any means is she trying to do it all by herself, but she knows the magnitude of the moment.
“If you look at her career, even going back to college. She excels in those moments and that says something about her mindset, which is very elite and different. In the playoffs, she blocks everything out and the focus is all the moment and how to get back to a championship.”
In some ways, it’s fitting that the No. 4 seeded Storm (22-14) are playing the No. 5 seed Washington Mystics (22-14) in the first round of the playoffs, which begin 7 p.m. Thursday at Climate Pledge Arena.
Seattle swept Washington in the 2018 WNBA Finals when the teams seemed poised for a bi-coastal rivalry over the next few years.
However, the Mystics captured their first league championship in 2019 when Stewart and Sue Bird sat out due to injuries. Then the Storm won it all in 2020 when the Mystics were hobbled and without injured star Elena Delle Donne.
“It feels like since 2018, one of our organizations has been competing or contending for a championship every year,” Stewart said. “It’s going to be tough. They have a lot of weapons.”
The same can be said about Seattle, which won the regular-season series 2-1 against Washington.
Stewart doesn’t spend much time reflecting on last year when she sat out the playoffs other than to say: “I wanted to play, but it wouldn’t have been the smartest thing. You can’t take for granted the opportunity to be in the playoffs because even though it’s happened for us every time I’ve been here, it doesn’t happen that way for everyone else.”
And the soon-to-be unrestricted free agent downplayed the possibility that these could be her last games with the Storm.
“There’s a possibility for everything,” Stewart said. “To be honest, I’m just trying to focus right now because it’s not even about me and free agency. It’s about I’m not going to be playing with Sue anymore. That hits deep and it hits home. (I just want) to make sure that we go out on the right note.”
