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Sunday 22 of December 2024

Breanna Stewart to be WNBA ambassador this season


AP Photo, Breanna Stewart,FILE - In this Aug. 26, 2018 file photo, Seattle Storm's Breanna Stewart in action against the Phoenix Mercury in a WNBA basketball playoff semifinal in Seattle. A person familiar with the decision says that Stewart will act as an ambassador for the WNBA this season and be paid by the league after the reigning MVP tore her Achilles over the winter and is out for the year. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity on Thursday night, May 23, 2019, because no official announcement has been made. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)
AP Photo, Breanna Stewart,FILE - In this Aug. 26, 2018 file photo, Seattle Storm's Breanna Stewart in action against the Phoenix Mercury in a WNBA basketball playoff semifinal in Seattle. A person familiar with the decision says that Stewart will act as an ambassador for the WNBA this season and be paid by the league after the reigning MVP tore her Achilles over the winter and is out for the year. The person spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity on Thursday night, May 23, 2019, because no official announcement has been made. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson, File)

NEW YORK (AP) — Breanna Stewart will be a paid ambassador for the WNBA this season.

The reigning MVP tore her right Achilles tendon while playing overseas this winter and because the league has no injury list for teams, the Seattle Storm suspended Stewart without pay to free up a roster spot.

The WNBA will pay Stewart in excess of the roughly $65,000 base salary she would have made with the Storm, agent Lindsay Kagawa Colas confirmed to the AP on Friday.

Colas told the AP that the deal was done Thursday in discussion with deputy NBA commissioner Mark Tatum, who has been serving as the interim WNBA President. This was after Seattle and Stewart mutually agreed on the suspension.

Seattle offered to keep Stewart on the roster and pay her full salary, but the reigning MVP said she wanted to help the team be the best it could be by not taking up an active roster spot.

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