Cameras Catch Breanna Stewart Crashing Out at Refs Before Picking Up First Technical in 9 Years

Breanna Stewart, known for her composure, lost it in the dying minutes of the fourth quarter. Stewart, the calm, veteran floor general for the New York Liberty, caught a rare technical foul that came at the worst moment—with New York trailing and a playoff seeding on the line.

The sequence happened in the dying moments of the New York Liberty-Atlanta Dream game on Monday. As shown in the clip uploaded to Instagram by espnW, with just around 1:57 left on the clock in the fourth quarter, Stewart attempted a drive inside the paint. She was met with Atlanta’s Angel Reese, who attempted to block Stewart’s jump shot. Commentators mentioned that, in the process, it appears that Reese hit Stewart’s arm. Stewart immediately put up her arms in protest.

While there was no foul called against Reese, a personal foul was called against Stewart for blocking Reese on the subsequent play. Stewart, clearly still frustrated with the apparent no-call against Reese’s alleged contact, goes up to the referee, stomping her feet to show her protest. This earned Breanna Stewart her first technical foul in nine years. She last got a technical in 2017, her second year in the W.

This possession cut short New York’s bid to mount a comeback. The score was 88-80 in favor of Atlanta at this time, and the Dream closed the game in their favor at the end, winning 95-84.

It was a game of immense significance for the Liberty, as a win here would have made them jump two places in the standings. And Breanna Stewart did everything in her power to stem the tide in New York’s favor, but it was not enough.

This was the second game in a row in which Stewart scored 27 points. She finished the night with a double-double of 27 points and 14 rebounds. Jonquel Jones contributed 18 points and added 12 rebounds.

New York trimmed the deficit to eight on multiple occasions down the stretch, but was unable to pull any closer. The Liberty, now with a 26-17 record, have their three-game winning streak snapped, and this defeat officially locks New York into opening the postseason on the road.

The Liberty have primarily relied on Stewart’s form to turn results in their favor this season. In the previous game against Toronto Tempo, Stewart moved into the 8th spot in the WNBA’s all-time scoring list, with 6,833 career points. Previously this season, she also crossed Hall-of-Famer Sue Bird in all-time points scored in a game against the Minnesota Lynx. The 32-year-old is averaging 20.7 points, 8.1 rebounds, 3.2 assists, and 1.4 steals per game this season, leading the Liberty in points, steals, and blocks.

Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco wasted no time in celebrating Stewart’s achievement.

“If you ask any coach who’s ever coached her and played against her, she is the best player in the world,” DeMarco said after the Toronto game. “She’s an absolute winner. You can feel it when she’s off the court. You feel when she’s on the court — not only here, obviously FIBA World Cup and everything else. And it’s just there’s something about her and her character.”

“And as a coach, she’s never not looking you in the eyes. She’s never not looking our team in the eyes. She’s never not leading. And she does everything that contributes to winning.”

The Liberty will surely hope that Stewart’s presence can guide them to a deep playoff run, now that they will be facing the higher seeds early in the postseason. The Liberty will now face the Dream once again in their last regular-season game on September 23 in Barclays Center.

For the Dream, Angel Reese scored 18 points, and Jordin Canada added another 19 points, while DeWanna Bonner added 17 points coming off the bench. A top-four seed looks very probable for Atlanta at this moment, and they can secure home-court advantage in the opening round of the postseason with either a victory over New York on Wednesday or a single Indiana loss over the Fever’s final two games.

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