{"id":575777,"date":"2026-04-01T19:31:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/575777\/"},"modified":"2026-04-01T19:31:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-01T19:31:09","slug":"wnba-star-breanna-stewart-sets-the-record-straight-on-her-free-agency-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/575777\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA Star Breanna Stewart \u2018Sets the Record Straight\u2019 on Her Free Agency Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p id=\"inline-text-0\" class=\"mt-[18px] md:mt-0 mb-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7b\">Breanna Stewart is no stranger to free agency, but she intends to be an onlooker this offseason.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-1\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7e\">There\u2019s been rumors circulating that Stewie could leave the New York Liberty this offseason as she entered free agency. It\u2019s a quick offseason as the WNBA and the players association just <a href=\"https:\/\/www.si.com\/wnba\/new-cba-agreement-three-key-points-to-know-including-pay-increases\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">passed the new collective bargaining agreement<\/a> back on March 18. Because of the condensed offseason schedule, free agency will begin on Tuesday, April 7, so less than a week away.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-2\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7h\">Before rumors could continue taking off, Stewart made sure to \u201cset the record straight\u201d about where she intends to play for the 2026 season: she plans to remain in New York. Liberty fans can exhale now.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-3\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7k\">\u201cI\u2019m gonna just set the record straight here. I will be staying in New York,\u201d Stewart said on her Game Recognize Game podcast. \u201cI\u2019m not planning on taking any free agency meetings, even though I am an unrestricted free agent.\u201d<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">STEWIE DROPPIN\u2019 BIG NEWS\u2757\ufe0f<\/p>\n<p>New episode of Game Recognize Game with Stewie &amp; Myles is out now! Watch on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts.<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/breannastewart?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@breannastewart<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Original_Turner?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">@Original_Turner<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>Watch on YouTube\ud83d\udc47\ud83c\udffc<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DIxERmAkGY\" rel=\"nofollow\">https:\/\/t.co\/DIxERmAkGY<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OERv3Zyqd8\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/OERv3Zyqd8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Game Recognize Game (@gamerecgamepod) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/gamerecgamepod\/status\/2039362734794444804?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">April 1, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-5\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7q\">Stewart explained her decision a bit more, and it seems like a big pull for her to remain in New York is based on her family already living there. It gets complicated having to move yourself and your family around the country every few years.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-6\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7t\">\u201cMy family is set up here. We\u2019re solid here,\u201d Stewart continued. \u201c&#8230; I\u2019m gonna be back in New York and that\u2019s all there is to it. Good luck to everybody else in free agency, but I\u2019m not a part of that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-7\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7w\">That\u2019s one way to take control over your own news.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-8\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"7z\">Now the fans will wait to hear the details of a new deal that Stewart should be getting. It might be a ground-breaking deal at that since the league\u2019s new salary cap increased to $7 million with the CBA. Supermax deals can start at $1.4 million with the average salary being $600,000. The minimum salary for players is set at $300,000. For comparison, Stewart\u2019s 2025 deal with the Liberty was set at $222,400. She\u2019s understandably expected to receive a huge pay increase for the 2026 season. <\/p>\n<p>Key WNBA free agency dates<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-11\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"88\">Because of the condensed WNBA offseason, the free agency dates may look a bit different this year. Teams can start making qualifying offers to restricted, reserved or core-eligible players on April 7 and 8. From there, negotiations will take place on Thursday, April 9 before players can officially sign deals on April 12.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-12\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8b\">This is a much quicker timeline for free agency as this process normally lasts around three weeks in a normal offseason.<\/p>\n<p id=\"inline-text-13\" class=\"my-[18px] [&amp;_a]:text-primary my-f-1.5\" q:key=\"0\" q:id=\"8e\">Stewart is one of over 100 WNBA players who are set to be free agents this month. It\u2019ll be a chaotic week for the league, to say the least. Luckily for Stewart, she doesn\u2019t have to communicate with other teams and listen to various deals since she plans to remain with the Liberty. It wouldn\u2019t be a surprise if other players decide to stay where they\u2019re already at for shorter deals instead of dealing with the fast-paced free agency this year.<\/p>\n<p>More WNBA from Sports Illustrated<script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Breanna Stewart is no stranger to free agency, but she intends to be an onlooker this offseason. There\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":575778,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-575777","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575777","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=575777"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/575777\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/575778"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=575777"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=575777"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=575777"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}