Breanna Stewart having MVP-caliber, do-it-all season for Liberty

A pizza truck was parked outside Barclays Center before a game late in the best regular season in the Liberty’s 27-year history. This was a vehicle in more ways than one because of the messages painted on the sides promoting the team and especially its award candidates.

Besides a WNBA title, another great topping for Breanna Stewart’s season would be Most Valuable Player recognition.

The Liberty’s promotional truck on Atlantic Avenue spelled it out this way:

“STEW

YORK

city”

For MVP

Stewart has made a real strong case.

The Liberty will tip off their postseason pursuit of the franchise’s elusive first league championship Friday night in Brooklyn. They will face seventh-seeded Washington in a best-of-three opening-round series after taking the second seed with a 32-8 run through the regular season.  

“We’re just very, very happy that Breanna Stewart is here in New York because she’s taken us to the other level,” coach Sandy Brondello said.

“She’s a superstar.”

The 6-4 forward out of UConn, who claimed the 2018 MVP and two Finals MVPs, signed in February after spending six seasons with Seattle.

And she delivered.

Stewart was named Tuesday as AP Player of the Year, becoming the first repeat and three-time winner and the first Liberty player to receive the award.

The MVP will be revealed Sept. 26. Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson, the 2022 MVP, and Connecticut’s Alyssa Thomas are Stewart’s primary competition.

“Hopefully she’ll get this MVP because she deserves it,” Brondello said, “because she means so much to this team and what she’s done on and off the floor.”

Stewart finished second in the league’s scoring race at a career-high 23 points per game. She was third in rebounding at 9.3 and fourth in blocks at 1.6. And the 29-year-old five-time All-Star averaged a career-high 3.8 assists.

“I think she’s everything that we thought she would be and more,” Brondello said. “I supposed you come to the biggest city and of course there’s a lot of pressure on her, but she just goes and does her thing every single night. She embraces the pressure.”

So has this been her best season?

“Yes, I guess,” Stewart said.

“I hope that every year it becomes better and better and . . . just continuing to take a lot of ownership in what I do and making sure, whether it’s back to the basket, facing up, three-point line, [that I have] the ability to do multiple things, and then do the same thing, make an impact defensively.”

Stewart’s impact included Liberty single-season records for points and rebounds.

“I think the things that you see are some of the things that make her so special, her ability to be able to score on different levels, defensively being in the right place . . . and blocking shots,” said Jonquel Jones, the 2021 MVP and another of the impactful additions. “But I think the thing that you . . .  don’t see is her commitment to the game, like in the gym every day.”  

Her 919 points placed her second behind the 939 Jewell Loyd posted for Seattle. Both passed Diana Taurasi’s previous single-season record of 860. Stewart established the WNBA’s single-season record with four 40-point games, which matched the career record, too.

“I think that I’ve set the bar pretty high for myself in what I want to do each and every season, and making sure as I continue to grow, I continue to be efficient in doing that,” Stewart said.

The records don’t mean as much to her as the Liberty’s record.

“The individual stuff is great,” Stewart said, “but look where we are as a team and where we’re going to continue to go.”