The New York Liberty veteran Breanna Stewart has come up with a heartfelt plan to honor a certain group of players after the Liberty won the WNBA Commissioner's Cup against the Las Vegas Aces 93-85. Instead of focusing only on the victory, Stewart turned the spotlight on the prize-money gap, pledging to share her winnings with teammates who aren’t eligible for the bonus.

After winning the title, Stewart and star Sabrina Ionescu were being interviewed on Sports on Prime show on June 30, when the reporter asked them about the role the prize money plays for a player. Stewart, while answering, included the development players in the conversation as well.

"I mean 30K is 30K,” Stewart said. “Our developmental players, they don’t get this money. They don’t get this cash prize. We want to make sure we give it to them. And really making sure that they feel a part of it because they help us win these games, whether it's on the court or off the court."

According to the new CBA deal, a team can keep up to two developmental players on each roster, pushing the total roster limit to 14. They can also be part of every practice session. A developmental player can play up to 12 games in a season.

The Liberty's developmental players are Australian forward Anneli Maley and French guard Marine Fauthoux. The cash prize for the winning team is $500,000, of which $30,000 is given to each player, except developmental players. The losing team's players also get $10,000 each, while the MVP gets an additional $10,000.

This isn't the first time that Stewart and Ionescu have thought about the developmental players.

A Pattern of Advocacy: Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu’s Prior Stance

Earlier, when talking about the prize money, according to an Instagram post by B/R W Sports, Stewart showed concern towards the developmental players of their team, saying that they deserve the prize money as well.

"Our PD players don’t get the prize money, which is kind of crazy,” Stewart said. “So, maybe share some of it with them."

Ionescu also had the same thought as Stewart, and wanted to give her share of the prize money to the developmental players.

"I mean, maybe give it to our developmental players because they don’t get any of the prize money,” Ionescu said. “They’ve been working hard for us all year, so maybe help them out a little bit."

Maley has averaged 1.5 rebounds and 1.5 steals per game for the Liberty this season in just two games. Meanwhile, Marine Fauthoux averaged 0.7 rebounds in just 5.3 minutes per game in the three games she featured.

This is a great gesture shown by the two veterans who have been at the top of their games for a few years now. Stewart also won the MVP award for the Cup final game, scoring 25 points, having 11 rebounds, and dishing out four assists in the game.

While there is currently no rule that grants developmental players a share of the prize money, should this be considered in the future?

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Written by

Dhruv Singh

Edited by

Koushik Biswas