Breanna Stewart Talks Unrivaled, Advocacy, and the Harry Potter Shoe Controversy

Breanna “Stewie” Stewart has been booked and busy as of late. The New York Liberty forward just came off an Olympic run, bringing home a gold medal alongside the rest of Team USA basketball. She’s also preparing for playoffs (Liberty just secured the top seed), and is deep in the execution phase of Unrivaled, the first 3-on-3 league for elite players during the WNBA off season.

“I feel like I’ve just been in this sprint, not even a marathon, just an ongoing sprint right now,” she tells PS in a recent interview discussing her latest partnership with Cliff Bar and nonprofit THE ARK to fund basketball court hoops for young athletes.

Stewart, who’s the mom to two kids, Ruby and Theo, with wife and Euroleague player Marta Xargay, says balancing it all can be difficult. But in creating the Unrivaled league with Napheesa Collier, Stewart hopes to give other moms on the team more balance.

Besides debuting a brand-new style of 3-on-3 basketball, played on a 70-by-50-foot compressed court, Unrivaled is paying out six-figure salaries – the highest in women’s sports history – and offering all 30 inaugural players an equity stake in the league. This is unheard of, as the pay gap and need to play overseas during the WNBA off-season has been a point of contention among athletes for decades.

“As elite basketball players and also moms, we get it. We get both sides of it,” Stewart says. She takes tremendous pride in being able to “make this league where players can stay home, have their families be close, and make sure that the W and these players are constantly relevant and top of mind and you don’t have to figure out which country they’re playing in overseas.”

It’s clear from our conversation that Stewart prides herself on advocating for the W’s players in many ways, having recently spoken out about the racism and discrimination that’s risen in the league, particularly around the Angel Reese vs. Caitlin Clark debate.

“Our league is is one of the strongest and probably most outspoken leagues of all of professional sports, and we continue to fight for our 144 and with that, there is no tolerance for racism or discrimination. Because as you know, as working women, we’re constantly fighting for more, and we’re going to use our platform not only to speak up for ourselves, for our teammates, our friends, our families,” Stewart says. “This is what we do here, so you gotta get with the program.”

That said, Stewart also owned up to her own blind spots, having recently garnered criticism for her the release of the Stewie 3, inspired by the “Harry Potter” movies, which were created by J.K. Rowling, who has expressed anti-trans beliefs and statements.

“I definitely acknowledge the importance of supporting and advocating for the rights of the transgender community. I like to think that, you know, I am someone that used my platform as a way to kind of fight for more and fight for good, and I want to be looked at as an ally in that community,” Stewart says. Rather than being a comment on Rowling’s beliefs, the athlete says that her decision behind the Stewie 3 was meant to reflect her admiration for the storylines and art of the films.

Not long before the sneaker drop, Rowling was reportedly named in a legal complaint filed by Algerian boxer Imane Khelif regarding alleged “acts of aggravated cyber harassment,” according to Variety.

Stewart isn’t dismissing the hurt the collab may have caused. “I’m a fan of Harry Potter, and at the same time, I want to be an ally for the transgender community and also understanding the way the way that they feel about it,” Stewart says. “I hope that we can all get to a place where there’s a bit of grace and understanding behind it.”

Alexis Jones is the senior health and fitness editor at PS. Her passions and areas of expertise include women’s health and fitness, mental health, racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare, and chronic conditions. Prior to joining PS, she was the senior editor at Health magazine. Her other bylines can be found at Women’s Health, Prevention, Marie Claire, and more.