Liberty’s Breanna Stewart named 2023 WNBA MVP
Liberty forward Breanna Stewart has been named the WNBA’s Most Valuable Player for the 2023 season in one of the closest votes in league history.
Stewart took home the award by seven points with 446, edging out her nearest competitor by receiving more second-place votes as the New York forward won the award despite having just 20 first-place votes behind Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas' 23 first-place votes (439 total points). Las Vegas Aces forward A'ja Wilson, who won MVP a season ago, finished third with 17 first-place votes (433 total points).
The 29-year-old forward averaged 23.0 points, 9.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.6 blocks and 1.5 steals in 34.1 minutes over 40 games this season, her first in New York.
Stewart won the award for the second time in her career, after taking home MVP honors in 2018 en route to winning the first of her two WNBA titles and two WNBA Finals MVP awards with the Seattle Storm.
“Since I entered this league, I probably demanded more of myself than anyone and I wanna be great every day,” Stewart said at a news conference Tuesday. “I’ve been that way ever since I dribbled around the block over and over again as a tall lanky kid growing up in Syracuse, New York.”
She added: "Consistency is hard. And competing in the best women’s basketball league in the world is hard, but I take pride in showing up every day and doing the hard things because that's what it takes.”
The Liberty have already taken home the Commissioner’s Cup Championship and finished the regular season with the second-best record in the league, 32-8, just two games behind Las Vegas.
The Liberty dropped the opening game of the best-of-five semifinal series against Connecticut after sweeping the Washington Mystics in the first round. In three games, Stewart is averaging 18.7 points, 7.7 rebounds and 3.0 assists in 39.7 minutes in the playoffs.
New York and Connecticut play Game 2 on Tuesday at 8 p.m. in Brooklyn.
Stewart was the first overall pick in 2016 after a four-year career at UConn that saw her win four NCAA titles and four NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player awards.
