By Bob Phillips
The burgeoning list of women who have recently come out and
announced a history of sexual abuse hit close to home today when UConn legend
and former Seattle Storm star Breanna Stewart announced that she, too, was a
victim as a child. According to a report published today by several news
organizations, Stewie authored a letter that she entitled “Me Too” for the Players’
Tribune, a new media company that provides athletes with a platform to connect directly with their fans, in their own words. You can read the moving essay by clicking HERE.
While a plethora of reports have surfaced recently, Stewart
cited former U.S. Olympic gymnast McKayla Maroney’s allegation two weeks ago
that Larry Nassar, the former physician for USA Gymnastics, repeatedly molested
her starting at the age of 13, as the impetus for her going public with her own
history.
In the article, Stewart identified a man she would only
refer to as “a construction worker” who “had ties to the family” as the
culprit. According to Stewie, this monster assaulted her repeatedly at all
hours of the day and night, and often in public.
“My family was close,” she explained. “I used to sleep over
at relatives’ houses all the time. He lived in one of the houses I slept at the
most.”
According to the 23-year-old superstar, the abuse began when
she was nine—shortly after she began her athletic pursuits—and lasted for two
years.
“Basketball became a sort of safe space for me,” she penned.
“But no space felt completely safe.”
Indeed, to this day she uses basketball as an activity that
allows her to escape from those horrific memories that continue to haunt her.
“I’m still working through what comes next now that I have
told my story,” Stewart said in the essay. “In sharing, I know that no matter
how uncomfortable I typically am making things about myself, as a public
survivor, I now assume a certain responsibility. So I’ll start by saying this:
If you are being abused, tell somebody. If that person doesn’t believe you,
tell somebody else. A parent, a family member, a teacher, a coach, a friend’s
parent. Help is there.”
Stewart was the nation’s top female high school basketball
player in 2012 when the Syracuse native chose UConn over a plethora of colleges.
She led the Huskies to four consecutive NCAA titles, and was named College Women’s
Player of the Year in three of those four years. Drafted No. 1 overall by the
Seattle Storm in 2016, Stewie was a near-unanimous choice as WNBA Rookie of the
Year her first year, earning 38 of a possible 39 votes, was a member of the
2016 Olympic gold-medal-winning U.S. Women’s Basketball Team in Rio de Janeiro
(where she was reunited with Geno Auriemma), and was named to the WNBA All-Star
Team this season. In addition to the WNBA, Stewie also plays professionally in
China.
—with staff reports
