Breanna Stewart and Jason Sudeikis compare UConn women's basketball to 'Saturday Night Live'
· Yahoo Sports
UConn women's basketball star Breanna Stewart and actor Jason Sudeikis have seen quite a bit of each other over the past few years.
Sudeikis stars in the wildly popular "Ted Lasso" series, which wrapped up its fourth season this week with a focus on women's soccer, and he's also been a consistent courtside presence at WNBA games, making numerous stops at the Barclays Center to watch Stewart's Liberty. Stewart and Sudeikis met up once again for The Hollywood Reporter's Game Recognize Game series to discuss everything from the power forward's experience with UConn coach Geno Auriemma to the pair's shared basketball journey and Sudeikis' focus on women's sports in the show's latest season.
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The 51-year-old actor wore Nike shoes in UConn colors to his sit-down with Stewart and compared the program to his own career launching pad at "Saturday Night Live," describing both as "cults." Sudeikis suggested that Auriemma may have relaxed his leadership style in the decade since Stewart left the program, much like longtime SNL producer Lorne Michaels has softened since launching the legendary late-night show in 1975.
"He's so, so soft. Coach Auriemma is so soft," Stewart said. "When I went to college - when I went to UConn, Coach Auriemma was tough. He was an a--. He was really an a--. I was a 17-, 18-year-old that thought I was working hard - and then he just kind of chopped me down."
Stewart added that Auriemma's attitude shift was a response to the arrival of name, image and likeness (NIL) and the loosening of transfer-portal restrictions. She believes that these new variables also impact the goals of student-athletes, compared to her relatively narrow focus of winning four national championships and being the "best player that ever leaves UConn."
"I think the NIL landscape makes it different," Stewart said. "He had to soften to keep people around. You could just transfer and not have to sit out. You get paid hundreds of thousands of dollars - millions - to be places. So [as a coach], you've got to be nice."
While Stewart made recruiting visits to Duke, Maryland and Penn State, Sudeikis' basketball ambitions were capped at Fort Scott Community College, where he ultimately never played due to academic ineligibility and a wise pivot toward acting. Sudeikis was recognized as a talented point guard at Shawnee Mission West High School, just outside of Kansas City, but a private workout with Stewart and notable private trainer Chris Brickley, who has worked closely with Paige Bueckers, Azzi Fudd and numerous NBA stars, proved eye-opening.
"I've never had any kind of masculine macho arrogance of, like, men's sports versus women's sports," Sudeikis said. "But if any of that did ever course through my brain and body and soul, it would've been eliminated after that afternoon. You're so good. Like, and you're so effortlessly good. You've been so good for so long that you're just iconic. … You're like the Jennifer Aniston of the WNBA. You know what I mean?"
Actor Jason Sudeikis greets Breanna Stewart #30 of the New York Liberty after the game against the Los Angeles Sparks at Crypto.com Arena on July 28, 2026 in Los Angeles, California (Katelyn Mulcahy/Getty Images)While Sudeikis earned recurring gigs on notable shows like "Eastbound & Down," "Portlandia" and "The Cleveland Show," by far his most prominent role comes as Ted Lasso, portraying a relentlessly optimistic American football coach from Kansas suddenly thrust into managing fictional Premier League team AFC Richmond. The Apple TV show made a significant pivot ahead of the recently released fourth season, as Ted Lasso takes charge of Richmond's women's team.
Sudeikis is also a defining member of the Barclays Center's "CeLIBrity" row, which also includes notable film director Spike Lee, singer Alicia Keys and others. Sudeikis credits the revival of the show and its new focus on his up-close experience watching WNBA action in recent years.
"It certainly helped open my eyes to it," Sudeikis said. "It's that experience of those seats we've had [at Liberty games at the Barclays Center] the last three seasons and watching these women walk on and off the court that just feels so … gooey with story complexity. When I thought [the show] was done, it really was done. But I just kept hearing the characters' voices. So it was important for me to just keep jotting down these ideas, and at some point it became too silly - it would almost be selfish - to not do it."
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