Breanna Stewart tore herAchilles tendon in April of 2019, casting doubt on her future inbasketball .- Since returning to the court for the 2020
WNBA season, Stewart has won 5 championships and 5 MVPs. - Her haul includes 3 league titles, a WNBA Commissioner's Cup, an Olympic gold medal, and MVP honors for each.
On April 14, 2019, Breanna Stewart suffered one of the most gruesome injuries a competitive athlete can sustain.
The 6-foot-4 superstar tore her Achilles tendon during that year's EuroLeague final, forcing her off the court for 15 months and casting doubt on her bright future in professional basketball.
But since then, she's defied logic and expectations by posting one of the most impressive year-long campaigns in all of athletics. Somehow, Stewart has rebounded to win five championships and five MVP awards in a 10-month span.
The most recent of the 26-year-old's impressive haul is her WNBA Commissioner's Cup title and MVP award, which she won with the
In earning MVP honors, the three-time WNBA All-Star took home an extra $5,000 on top of the $30,000 she and each of her teammates received for the Commissioner's Cup victory.
But perhaps more impressive than Stewart's performance itself are the circumstances surrounding the showing; she and Storm teammates Sue Bird and Jewell Loyd were just five days removed from winning a gold medal in Tokyo with Team USA. They were likely still fighting jet lag and physical fatigue from their Olympics campaign when they took the floor for the Commissioner's Cup final.
Still, Stewart was the most dominant player on the floor Thursday night.
And while she was only the third-leading scorer for Team USA throughout the games - which gave Stewart the second gold medal of her still-young basketball career - her 15 points and 10 rebounds per game were enough to earn MVP honors for the Olympic tournament.
Three months before the Olympics kicked off in Japan, Stewart found herself in Russia competing for European powerhouse UMMC Ekaterinburg. She led the star-studded squad to the 2021 EuroLeague title with 14.5 points, seven rebounds, and three assists per game throughout the tournament.
And once again, she earned Final Four MVP honors on her way to her first championship in an overseas competition. Nine days later, she went ahead and won another championship and another Finals MVP award.
Stewart led UMMC Ekaterinburg to a 3-0 series sweep of fellow Russian heavyweight squad Dynamo Kursk in the Russian Premier League Finals. After averaging 18.7 points through the three game and finishing the series with a 15-point, 10-rebound double-double, Stewart once again earned Finals MVP honors for her second championship effort in as many weeks.
The impressive feats comes just six months after the do-it-all forward led Seattle past A'ja Wilson and her Las Vegas Aces in a three-game WNBA Finals sweep in the WNBA's COVID-19 bubble in Florida. Stewart's 28.3 points per game on 65% shooting from beyond with arc with 7.7 rebounds per game to boot made her the easy choice as Finals MVP honors, marking the second time in her four WNBA seasons she's won the award en route to a championship.
And she celebrated accordingly.
Fans and analysts alike were skeptical that Stewart could return to peak form quickly - if ever - when she returned to the WNBA after a full season recovering from her injury. Instead, she immediately picked up where she left off - treating the league like her playground and dominating her competition like she never left the hardwood.
She ranked fourth in the WNBA with 19.7 points per game as well as sixth in blocks per game, ninth in steals per game, 10th in rebounds per game, 14th in free-throw percentage, and 16th in assists per game to earn first-team All-WNBA honors for the second time in her career.
Just five years into her career as a professional basketball player, Stewart boasts a resume on par with those of basketball's greatest legends. Her bonafides now include, but are not limited to:
- 2 WNBA titles
- 2 WNBA Finals MVP trophies
- WNBA MVP
- WNBA Commissioner's Cup championship
- WNBA Commissioner's Cup MVP
- 2 first-team All-WNBA selections
- 2 All-Star nods
- Rookie of the Year
- EuroLeague championship
- EuroLeague Final Four MVP
- EuroLeague Women Regular Season MVP honors
- Russian Premier League championship
- Russian Premier League Finals MVP
Sports Illustrated's 2020 Sportsperson of the Year award- 3 USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year honors
- 2 FIBA World Cup wins
- A FIBA World Cup MVP award
- 2 Olympic gold medals
- Tokyo 2020
Women's Basketball MVP - 4 NCAA national championship victories with the UConn Huskies
- 4 NCAA tournament Most Outstanding Player awards
- 3 consensus college National Player of the Year honors
At just 26 years old, she's on the cusp of capturing the most coveted prize in all of sports: unofficial rights to the greatest of all-time title. At this point, it's just a matter of time.
Consider this; Diana Taurasi, the all-time leading scorer in WNBA history who is widely considered the
On the rebounding front, current all-time leader Sylvia Fowles - who still plays for the Minnesota Lynx - accrued 1,000 boards in her first four seasons in the W. Stewart brought down 1,053 in that same span. She also already ranks third all-time in career points per game and fifth all-time in career rebounds per game, and she's the only player ranked in the top five for both metrics.
Stewart's brilliance is unprecedented. And her sustained ability to reach the apex of women's basketball despite rupturing her Achilles - an injury often considered a "kiss of death" for professional athletes - is awe-inspiring.
There's no one word that adequately does it all justice. GOAT, perhaps, will have to suffice.