Breanna Stewart named 2023 WNBA MVP

Breanna Stewart has added another award to her already impressive resume. On Tuesday, Stewart was named the 2023 WNBA Most Valuable Player — for the second time, last winning it in 2018.

In her first season with the New York Liberty, Stewie averaged a career-high 23.0 points — second-most in the league — along with 9.3 points, 3.8 rebounds, 1.6 blocks, and 1.5 steals per game in her first season.

Stewart also won three out of four Eastern Conference Player of the Month awards and made her fifth All-Star team during a regular season where she set a new league record with four games scoring 40 or more points. The Liberty finished second in the league with a 32-8 record and also won the 2023 Commissioner’s Cup.

Stewart narrowly edged out the Connecticut Sun’s Alyssa Thomas and Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson for MVP. She picked up 20 first-place votes, 23 second-place votes, and 17 third-place votes for a total of 446, just seven more than Thomas and 13 more than Wilson. The seven-point gap is the second smallest between the first and second-place finishers in WNBA history while the 13-point gap is the smallest between first and third.

Thomas actually received three more first-place votes than Stewart, marking the second time that’s occurred.

As the league’s MVP recipient, Stewart will receive $15,450 and a trophy from Tiffany & Co. She is the eighth player in league history to win the award twice and the first UConn alumni to do so. Diana Taurasi (2008), Tina Charles (2012), and Maya Moore (2014) were all named MVP once previously.

The MVP’s Liberty squad is set to take on the Connecticut Sun in Game 2 of the WNBA Semifinals on Tuesday night at 8 p.m. ET.