Sophie Cunningham holds Liberty accountable in Breanna Stewart timeout drama

It’s not just the officials who are to blame for the New York Liberty timeout incident.

In Game 2 against Atlanta, trailing by three in overtime with 4.3 seconds left, New York launched a desperation full-court shot instead of using a reset timeout to advance the ball. Postgame, Breanna Stewart revealed both officials explicitly told her they were out of timeouts.

While the initial pool report claimed refs never denied them, video surfaced and the WNBA eventually admitted to a major communication breakdown.

And facing an official league inquiry and undeniable off-court distraction, the Liberty couldn’t recover, losing Game 3 85–83 to be officially eliminated from the playoffs.

Sophie Cunningham partly blames Liberty for timeout drama

Sophie Cunningham called out New York’s bench over that timeout collapse. She laid it right on the coaches, saying even if the refs got it wrong, the staff has to know their own timeout count. In her eyes, leaving Stewie hanging like that was totally unacceptable.

Speaking on the No Hesitation podcast, she said: “I think there definitely needs to be some clarification on the communication with Stewie and the head coach and the refs. You already know how I feel about the refs, but New York, their assistants or whoever has control over the timeouts and normally does that, they have got to make sure that the head coach and everyone knows, like there’s no excuse there. There’s absolutely no excuse.

“And so I understand that there could be miscommunications and again I’m not agreeing with what’s going on, but New York’s coaching staff has got to take some responsibility for that because that cannot happen. That cannot happen.”

The Liberty bench should’ve checked with the table to verify their remaining timeouts, but you can’t completely blame the players or coaches in the moment. When a referee looks you in the eye and gives you an answer, you naturally trust it as absolute truth without second-guessing them.

Read more: