Breanna Stewart will likely miss the WNBA season, and everything is terrible
By Josh Hill
Breanna Stewart has a torn Achilles and is likely to miss the entire 2019 WNBA season — which sucks for too many reasons to count.
The WNBA season will open this year without perhaps its best player on the court.
Breanna Stewart, the reigning MVP and Seattle Storm superstar forward, suffered a torn Achilles while playing overseas this weekend.
Let’s spare the hyperbole: This sucks.
There’s a lot to unpack from this whole situation, not the least of which is the fact it’s not a bigger deal. Imagine if Patrick Mahomes or Steph Curry tore his ACL in the offseason while playing overseas, the world would stop on its axis.
Of course, neither of those guys would be playing in the offseason in another professional league. Breanna Stewart was, which is a crux of the issue here.
Stewart tore her Achilles while stepping on Brittney Griner’s foot in a game between Dynamo Kursk and UMMC Ekaterinburg in the Russian EuroLeague.
Excuse me, what?
Don’t buy the idea that this is for conditioning — the WNBA has a preseason for that. Stewart was overseas playing for a European team because her American team only pays her $56,793. That’s not exclusive to Stewart, as Griner was on the opposite side of the court in that game for the same reason; WNBA players are criminally undercovered and underpaid.
It can’t be overstated enough how unconscionable this is. Mostly because it can’t be overstated how freakishly talented both Griner and Stewart are. Both of them are capital-S Superstars and neither is remotely close to reaching their prime. We’re talking about generational talents who are already among the best basketball players in the world and still have their best years ahead of them.
Simply put, these are two of the biggest stars in American professional sports forced to play in an overseas league with a month before they have to report for work. We are being robbed of a full season of Stewart’s development and talent because she had to find secondary income to supplement being a professional athlete.
Insult to injury.