Liberty’s Breanna Stewart named WNBA MVP for 2023 season

NEW YORK — In her first season with the New York Liberty, Breanna Stewart has been named the 2023 WNBA MVP in the closest-three way race in league history, it was announced Tuesday.

Stewart and runner-up Alyssa Thomas of the Connecticut Sun were separated by seven points, the second-smallest margin between the winner and runner-up in the award’s history. The 13 points separating Stewart and the Las Vegas Aces‘ A’ja Wilson, who was third, mark the narrowest margin between the top three MVP vote-getters in league history.

It is the second MVP award for Stewart, who won her first in 2018 while playing for the Seattle Storm in just her third season in the pros. Fast-forward to 2023 and she can’t help but reflect on how dramatically her life has changed as she etches her place in WNBA lore once more.

“That’s something that is really special to me when I think about it,” Stewart told ESPN on Tuesday. “My first one was in 2018. I was still under my rookie contract and now look to 2023, I’m married to a beautiful wife, have a baby [Ruby, born in 2021] and we’re having another one.”

Stewart’s wife, Marta Xargay Casademont, is pregnant with the couple’s second child and due in October, so Stewart said Xargay Casademont was “a little bit more emotional” when she heard the news. Ruby, their 2-year-old daughter, may not have completely understood what was going on, but she did start moving Stewart’s 2018 MVP trophy around in their home, so maybe she had the sense something was up.

“Ruby is someone that’s going to be able to see her mommy get MVP, and that’s something that I definitely take a lot of pride in,” Stewart said.

The announcement came hours before New York was to host the Sun in Game 2 of their WNBA semifinal series (8 p.m., ESPN).

Seven months after signing with the Liberty in what arguably was the biggest free agency move in league history, Stewart sometimes still can’t believe she plays for New York. Now, she is the franchise’s first MVP and with six more wins could lead them to their first WNBA title.

The 2016 No. 1 overall pick is the eighth player in league history to win multiple MVP awards, fourth player to win it in their first season with a franchise and the second player to win MVP with multiple franchises.

“It’s definitely an honor to be able to say this is my second and to be able to do it in a Liberty jersey for the first time ever,” said Stewart, who was a two-time champion and two-time Finals MVP with the Storm. “I’m excited for what’s going to come tonight, and hopefully the fans are going to go nuts.”

Stewart also is the first Liberty player to be named MVP in the franchise’s 27-year history.

“Stewie’s first season with the New York Liberty has been nothing short of historic on every level,” Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb said in a…