Wife of WNBA’s Breanna Stewart receives death threats after New York Liberty loss | NBA News

The wife of New York Liberty WNBA star Breanna Stewart was the target of death threats last week, the New York forward said Tuesday.

Marta Xargay Casademont, a former WNBA player who married Stewart in 2021, received the threats in Stewart’s personal email account.

The couple has two children aged 3 and 11 months.

Stewart said on Tuesday: “Me and my family are doing absolutely fine. We are taking the right precautions.”

She said she notified the WNBA and Liberty and that Xargay Casademont alerted police.

The emails came in the wake of New York’s overtime loss to the Minnesota Lynx in Game 1 of the WNBA Finals on Thursday. Stewart had a chance to win the match, but missed a free throw in the final second of regulation time, only to miss the goal in the final second of extra time in a possible tie.

“We love that people are involved in our sport, but not to the point where threats, harassment or homophobic comments are made, so we continue to let the league know,” Stewart said.

“They’ll handle it, but I also think we just have to keep using this platform to make sure everyone knows it’s unacceptable to bring it to our sport and really to the world.”

She added: “There is another level of invasion happening there. (We want to make sure) that this isn’t just done as a scare tactic. And if so, it is still highly inappropriate and unacceptable.”

The issue of online vitriol directed at WNBA players prompted the league’s commissioner, Cathy Engelbert, to say last week: “We stand united in condemning racism and all forms of hatred. The WNBA is one of the most inclusive and diverse professional sports leagues in the world. world, and we will continue to defend these values.”

Stewart said of the league possibly setting guidelines for how to handle hateful messages and threats: “There needs to be a little bit of a protocol or something like that before the season because this year in particular is a year where it really starts to happen. .”