Alexa Philippou
Multiple Authors
PHOENIX — Two-time WNBA MVP and three-time league champion Breanna Stewart will be re-signing with the New York Liberty in free agency, she announced on her podcast, “Game Recognize Game with Stewie and Myles.”
“I’m gonna just set the record straight here: I will be staying in New York,” Stewart told co-host Myles Turner on the most recent episode of their podcast. “I’m not planning on taking any free agency meetings, even though I am an unrestricted free agent. My family is set up here, we’re solid here.
“I’m going to be back in New York and that’s all there is to it.”
Liberty teammate Sabrina Ionescu, the Liberty’s No. 1 overall draft pick in 2020, also told reporters at USA Basketball training camp Wednesday that she intends to return to New York.
“Obviously I’m where I’m supposed to be,” Ionescu said. “Never thought anything different, and so excited to be able to sign and get started. It’s coming up really quickly, so excited to get all this behind us and just be able to start our season and get going in New York.”
One of the most decorated players in women’s basketball history, Stewart just completed her third season with the Liberty after spending the beginning of her career with the Seattle Storm. The seven-time All-Star averaged 18.3 points, 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 assists and 1.4 steals per game in 2025, her ninth year in the league. She missed time due to injury in the second half of the season, and then in the playoffs played on a sprained MCL she suffered during the first round.
Stewart went on to play a healthy season at Unrivaled, the 3-on-3 league she co-founded with Napheesa Collier, and led her Mist BC squad to its first title.
Ionescu, a four-time All-Star, averaged 18.2 points, 5.7 assists and 4.9 rebounds per game for the Liberty.
Ionescu said she feels the Liberty, who in the offseason hired first-year WNBA head coach Chris DeMarco, are “in a really good spot, because we have our core coming back.”
“I feel like that’s something that we can kind of hang our hats on and knowing we obviously have a new coaching staff that’s coming in, which is going to be a lot of new change, but I think being able to understand we have our core coming back and continuing to add new pieces is going to be really exciting as well, to see how we can continue to get back to a championship team,” Ionescu said.
Jonquel Jones has been a part of the Liberty’s core since being traded there from Connecticut in 2023. Natasha Cloud, Emma Meesseman and Kennedy Burke are other key free agents, while the Liberty also have the exclusive negotiation rights to Betnijah Laney-Hamilton.
All but two league veterans are hitting free agency this offseason and will be able to capitalize off the massive salary increases featured in the league’s new collective bargaining agreement, which was agreed to last month.
With the long-form of the contract still yet to be fully executed, the exact free agency dates have yet to be announced nor provided to teams. But the two-team expansion draft will be held Friday, and training camp is expected to begin on time on April 19, so either way, the timetable for free agency will be incredibly condensed.
“I think it’s going to be difficult because you’re kind of forcing players and teams to make decisions really quickly,” Ionescu said. “Obviously, GMs and teams have been doing their homework ahead of time and understanding that they kind of had to prepare for a quick flip in a short amount of time, with decisions being made and free agency being such a short window.
“But I do think we’re going to see a lot of change, because I think people are not going to have as much time to sit and think and go talk to teams and visit. It’s going to be real quick-hitting, and there’s obviously a lot of money on the table as well. So I think people are also going to have that to consider and they didn’t always have that.”
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