Breanna Stewart asked for all of this.
The Liberty’s superstar among stars. The responsibility of winning an original WNBA franchise’s first title, bringing a pro basketball championship to New York City for the first time since Clyde, Dollar Bill, the Pearl and all of them.
The blame when she misses the shot, as she did, twice, in a stunning collapse in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals. The adoration when she sticks it.
And more: the charter flights, the overflow crowds, the national broadcast window, the eyes of a sport upon her.
Stewart was unmissable in the Liberty’s series-tying, 80-66 win in Sunday’s Game 2. She had 21 points, eight rebounds, five assists, a Finals-record seven steals, and left one ferocious impression that she wasn’t going to let her team lose.
“I couldn’t wait to come back and change the narrative,” Stewart said.
Stewart had missed a go-ahead free throw at the end of regulation in Game 1, and was unable to convert a potential game-tying driving layup on the final possession of overtime.
The chance to bring a trophy to Brooklyn, with a Liberty team that morphed into an instant contender the moment Stewart agreed to sign as a free agent before the 2023 season, seemed to be slipping away for a second straight Finals.
“Just not letting history repeat itself, and knowing that, you know, Game 1 happened,” Stewart said of her mindset. “But now, how can we control Game 2?”
The Liberty did control Game 2 from the tip, building a lead as big as 17. But the ghosts of Game 1 were out, the spooky skeletons hanging around the yard with 18,046 living souls inside nervously saying “Ooooh!”
When the Lynx trimmed the Liberty’s lead to four late in the third quarter, Stewart hit two free throws, blocked a shot at the other end and then came back down and canned a jumper to push it back to eight.
When the Lynx pulled within two with under five minutes remaining — the juncture at which Game 1 went sideways — Stewart snared three steals in the next three-plus minutes. That’s my ball, she seemed to say.
“When you have your best player, your leader, playing as hard as she does night in and night out and impacting the game in different ways, not just scoring and rebounding,” Liberty guard Courtney Vandersloot said, “it’s a big motivator for everybody, and she sets the standard for us.”
And how fitting that Stewart’s final hoop of the afternoon, a dagger with 57 seconds on the clock, was putting back her own miss.
“Making or missing a shot or a free throw … we do this long enough, those things happen,” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said. “She’s resilient. She played exactly like we thought she would.”
We liked to say of Carmelo Anthony then, the way we say of Jalen Brunson now: When the Knicks were down, they chose New York.
All of that is true of Stewart — and more: She opted into the New York spotlight, she took the discount in free agency, she helped rejuvenate an historic franchise that ought to be a flagship of her league.
Indeed, the Liberty reported a Barclays-record attendance of 18,040 on Sunday, including Geno Auriemma, the coach with whom Stewart won four national titles at UConn, at courtside (“I texted him, and I was like, ‘You know what, it’s about time that you come,’ ” Stewart said).
And now she has the Liberty within two wins of a breakthrough crown as they head to Minnesota for Wednesday’s Game 3.
You couldn’t ask for more.
