Geno Auriemma Roasts 'Sucker' Breanna Stewart Over Liberty Shooting Slump
The New York Liberty didn't have the 2025 WNBA season they were expecting.
After New York followed up their 2024 WNBA championship (the first title in the franchise's history) with an undefeated 9-0 record headed into their June 14 game against the Indiana Fever, most believed that this team would cruise through the regular season, secure one of the top seeds, and waltz their way into the 2025 WNBA Finals.
This was not the case. The Liberty lost that game to the Fever, which sparked a downward spiral where a roster that included superstars like Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and Jonquel Jones (along with several valuable role players) ended up with a 27-17 record. In other words, this team went 18-17 in their last 35 regular season games, which pales in comparison to the team's championship-caliber potential.
Then the Liberty were defeated by the Phoenix Mercury in the first round of the WNBA playoffs, thus ending their season. As a result, Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello was fired.
UConn's Geno Auriemma Called 'Sucker' Breanna Stewart Out After 2025 WNBA Season
No Liberty player had the 2025 campaign they were hoping for. However, perhaps the most disappointing season was that of Breanna Stewart.
While the former WNBA MVP still produced great numbers, her 18.3 points per game were tied for the lowest of her WNBA career, matching that of her 2016 rookie season. What's more, her 24.1% three-point percentage marked more than a 5% decrease from her 2024 three-point percentage (29.5%), which had been the worst such percentage of Stewart's career by a lot to that point.
Surely, Breanna Stewart doesn't need outside motivation to produce a bounce-back 2026 campaign after her shooting slump this season. But that didn't keep legendary UConn coach Geno Auriemma (with whom Stewart won four national championships in college) from calling her out when he spoke with the media on October 21.
“That sucker missed more jump shots this year than I’ve ever seen," Auriemma said of Stewart, per an X post from UCTV Sports.
Auriemma on Brenna Stewart: “That sucker missed more jump shots this year than I’ve ever seen”
— UCTV Sports (@UCTVSports) October 21, 2025
Auriemma is known for his dry sense of humor, and there's no question that he was just poking fun at his former player with this comment. However, one wouldn't be surprised to see Stewart take this as a challenge to work ever harder this offseason.
And Auriemma probably knew this, which is why he's trying to give Stewart an added incentive to get back to scoring buckets next season.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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