Geno Auriemma shares Breanna Stewart wish after ugly end to Liberty season
Geno Auriemma shared his thoughts on Breanna Stewart and the Liberty’s future after a challenging end to New York’s 2025 WNBA season
The New York Liberty’s 2025 WNBA campaign ended with more questions than answers, and one of basketball’s most respected voices has joined the conversation about where the franchise goes next, with rumors of potentially adding Angel Reese swirling.
After a dominant 2024 championship run, the Liberty crashed back to earth this season, undone by injuries, inconsistency and a playoff exit that few saw coming.
New York opened the season with a blistering 9–0 start after making a blockbuster trade for Natasha Cloud in the offseason, looking every bit the powerhouse expected to defend its title. But as the year wore on, chemistry wavered and the offensive rhythm that once defined them began to fade.
Breanna Stewart, who re-signed on a short-term deal in March, remained the face of the franchise but battled through a nagging knee issue that limited her efficiency.
Her scoring average dropped to 18.3 points per game, her lowest since her rookie year, and her three-point percentage fell to 24.1%, a career low.
When the Liberty were eliminated in the opening round of the playoffs, the mood around the team quickly shifted from frustration to introspection.
Soon after, head coach Sandy Brondello, who had led the team to its first-ever WNBA title just a year earlier, was dismissed, a stunning move that signaled a franchise eager to shake things up.
The front office is now searching for a new leader to guide the team back to the top.
That’s where Geno Auriemma, the Hall of Fame UConn coach who mentored Stewart in college, weighed in. Speaking at Big East media day on Tuesday, Auriemma didn’t mince words when discussing his former player’s situation in New York.
“Whenever Stewie’s playing in a big game, I expect her to play great and that hasn’t changed one iota,” Auriemma said. “And I hope they get a really good coach and I hope they put a really good team around her because I think she’s one of the great things in this city, for sure.
“She's got to make a shot once in a while. That sucker missed more jump shots this year than I saw her miss in the last seven years. And sometimes that happens. Sometimes you get a baseball player that’s hit .300 every year in their career and then they got two months and they hit .210 and you go, ‘What the hell happened?’ It happens. So it’s just part of the game, man.”
He also discussed the difficulty of winning back-to-back championships, saying, "That’s the thing about people putting this huge emphasis on repeat, you have the same core, so repeating should be easy. It’s not. It’s not because of how many things have to break right. So maybe if that roster had stayed injury-free the whole time, maybe it would have happened."
Despite the disappointing finish, there’s little doubt about the Liberty’s potential. Stewart’s leadership, Sabrina Ionescu’s playmaking, and Jonquel Jones’ interior presence still form one of the WNBA’s most formidable cores.
What the team needs now is direction — a coach who can reestablish defensive toughness, rediscover offensive flow, and reignite the chemistry that carried them to the top just one season ago.