Liberty star Breanna Stewart finally explained all her free agency emojis
Breanna Stewart was the emoji queen this offseason.
Before she signed with the New York Liberty as one of the most sought-after free agents in the WNBA, Stewart littered the Twitterverse with coded breadcrumbs in the form of only-emoji tweets.
It began Jan. 16, when Stewart sent a 15-character tweet exclusively with emojis. She tweeted six more times over the next week, with posts that were shorter yet equally cryptic. One included a four-character post that not-so-subtly hinted at the final four teams Stewart could sign with: A storm emoji (for the Seattle Storm), a wolf emoji (for the Minnesota Lynx), a monument (likely to signify the Washington Mystics, who play in D.C.), and, finally the Statue of Liberty emoji (for the Liberty).
No one, save for Stewart and perhaps those closest to her, really knew what her tweets meant. Actually, Stewart later told The Athletic's Ben Pickman that she didn't even tell members of her family what the tweets meant.
Stewart let everyone into how her mind interprets emojis when she broke her first big tweet at the espnW Summit on May 4.
Stewie finally explains her emojis 😂
pic.twitter.com/d3FB8DxKqX— Just Women’s Sports (@justwsports) May 4, 2023
What about the other tweets, like the calendar-pepper one or the one with an ice cube, recycling sign and checkered flag? What did those mean? As Stewart explained to The Athletic, they were mostly about her free agency plans:
🗓️🌶️ = “It’s about to get spicy."
🚨😈🧃🧊📌♻️🏁🍣 = “Announcement. We’re almost there. We’re drinking juice. This one was the one I got a little bit wild with. But it was, like, an announcement and then the finish line. The rest (of the emojis) are just …”
⛹🏻♀️🍜🔜⚠️🔋 = “Soon we’re gonna be back.”
✈️🗳️🌊👽🔮🧸💰⏳🍪🥕 = “This one was just random.”
🙇🏻♀️⚖️🤹🏻♀️ = “I was just juggling a lot of things.”
Stewart also confirmed the four-character tweet was the final four teams vying for her services.
A few days later after her final emoji-laden post, Stewart signed with the Liberty to create one of the league's top super teams. She joined guard Sabrina Ionescu, who later signed a two-year, $410,000 contract, guard Courtney Vandersloot, who signed soon after Stewart, and 2021 WNBA MVP Jonquel Jones, who the Liberty traded for this offseason.
