Breanna Stewart has spent nearly a decade building one of the strongest resumes the WNBA has ever seen. And on Tuesday, the New York Liberty star added yet another achievement to it by becoming the first WNBA player to score over 3000 for two franchises. Following that record-setting night, a former teammate spoke out about Stewart’s greatness and pushed back against what she sees as years of disrespect towards Stewart.
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After scoring 22 points against the Chicago Sky on Tuesday, Stewart surpassed 3,000 points for the Liberty and, according to ESPN Insights, became the first player to score that many points for two separate franchises. Stewart’s first run to 3000 points for a WNBA franchise came when she scored 3,723 points for the Seattle Storm over six years.
Following Tuesday’s game, former Liberty teammate Natasha Cloud, who faced her as part of the Sky on Tuesday, heaped praise on Stewart.
“I feel like the last 3 or 4 years, the disrespect to Stewie’s game has been crazy,” Cloud told reporter Madeline Kennedy. “And I don’t understand how, because she continues to play at such an elite level, continues to keep her team, whether they’re hitting adversity or not. She’s a 3-level scorer; she can guard 1-5, she is athletic as hell, long as hell, and she’s just a really high-IQ player.”
In addition to reaching 3,000 points with two different teams, Stewart also became the fastest player to reach that mark with any team, doing so in 145 games with the Liberty, five better than Dallas Wings guard Orike Ogunbowale’s 150 games.
Cloud went on to explain that Stewart has already cemented her place among the game’s greats, something she witnessed firsthand when she played alongside the Liberty forward last season. In 2025, despite having a down year scoring-wise at 18.3 points per game, the lowest since her rookie year, Stewart still made the All-Defensive Second Team and was named an All-Star as the Liberty saw an unfortunate end to their season, losing to the Phoenix Mercury in the first round of the playoffs.
“Her legacy is going to continue to be built, and she’s still not done yet,” Cloud added. “So to all the s*** talkers, to all the Stewie haters, man, her resume don’t lie. You can’t hate on that resume.”
Stewart’s tenure in Seattle was one to remember. After winning the Rookie of the Year award after being selected first overall in 2016, she quickly rose to the top of the league, being named the MVP and lifting a championship in 2018, then bouncing back in 2020 with another championship after missing 2019 with an ACL injury. She was named Finals MVP both times.
After arriving in New York, she continued her outstanding play, winning her second MVP award in her first year there and leading the team to the 2024 championship, but lost the Finals MVP to Jonquel Jones.
While Cloud was wholly appreciative of Stewart, on Tuesday night, it was her career-high performance that overshadowed the three-time WNBA champion’s generational achievement.
Natasha Cloud Grabs Headlines Over Breanna Stewart’s 3,000-Point Heroics
Despite high praise for Breanna Stewart after the game, Natasha Cloud also nonchalantly showed off after her career-high 35-point game against her former team. She walked into the post-game conference smiling, telling reporters, “Ah, you know, just casual Tuesday,” as quoted by Madeline Kennedy.
Apart from the monster scoring output, Cloud added a season-high nine rebounds as Chicago beat New York 93-86, as the team makes a late-season playoff push. The Sky were up by as high as 13 points in the third quarter before the Liberty took back the lead late in the fourth. That’s when Cloud took over.
With New York leading 84-83 with about two minutes left, Cloud tied the game with a free throw before knocking down a mid-range shot to give the Sky the lead. Chicago then rattled off a 10-2 run, ending their run with two Cloud free throws after Stewart missed a layup with 16 seconds left.
For the Liberty, this was a tough loss as they try to overtake the Atlanta Dream for fifth in the WNBA standings, now two wins behind them. Their next opportunity to win will be on Saturday, August 22, when they look to defend home court against the Indiana Fever.