Is there a Seattle Stewie in the WNBA’s future?

Just under four decades after Seattle Slew became the 10th pony to win horse racing’s triple crown, a thoroughbred of a different kind will have a shot at her own triple crown of women’s basketball next summer.

Her name is Breanna Stewart and in 2016 the University of Connecticut senior could end up as the golden girl of the sport with an unprecedented fourth straight NCAA title, an Olympic gold medal with the USA women’s national team in Brazil, and a WNBA title as a potential game-change for whichever team she joins.

The latter will be set in motion courtesy of the annual lottery, whose four-team pecking order will be announced on Sept. 24 on ESPN2 during halftime of the opener of the league’s Eastern Conference best-of-three final.

This summer in the high-rent district of the 12-team WNBA offered such storylines emerged as the revival of the New York Liberty whose 23 wins, a franchise record, resulted in the top seed in the East and also a franchise-first overall best record for the rights to home-court advantage all the way to the best-of-five league championship finals if the Liberty emerge out of the East.

The Tulsa Shock finally made it to the postseason for the first time since moving from Detroit, where the former-owned franchise won three titles, though the fanbase joy is short-lived since the team is on the move again to Dallas next summer.

With rookie coach Stephanie White at the helm, the Indiana Fever made it to the playoffs for a WNBA-record 11th straight season.

But for the under-achievers or teams too young or too injured to compete as elitists, they were involved in their own reverse competition and when the final buzzer went off Sunday night in the final WNBA game in a thrilling finish, Seattle had a sense to lose at home at Key Arena in the Emerald City to its closest pursuer for a shot at Stewart.

When San Antonio Silver Stars rookie Samantha Logic out of Iowa made two foul shots following an infraction on former Kansas star Angel Goodrich with 1:11 left in regulation, that became the difference in giving the Texans a 59-58 victory that means Seattle, even after the league’s tinkering with the lottery system, has the top odds to land Stewie on lottery night.

Time will tell whether getting touched by an Angel becomes a Tina Thompson moment and good omen for Seattle, which got extra lucky the last time around by winning the lottery last fall and then being able to pick Jewell Loyd from NCAA runner up Notre Dame after the Irish junior used a loophole to declare for the draft.

With balloting due by 1 p.m. today, Lloyd is in contention with another former Irish teammate, Indiana’s Natalie Achonwa, who was sidelined in 2014, and New York Liberty post player Kia Stokes out of UConn for rookie of the year.

There’s a UConn history and No. 1 draft history in Seattle, dating to back-to-back picks in 2001-02 that yielded Australian youngster Lauren Jackson and then Sue Bird of the Huskies, a combo that led to the 2004 NCAA title.

Rights to another lotto pick, but not No. 1, allowed Seattle to also take UConn’s Kaleena Mosqueda-Lewis last April. Former Huskies all-American Swin Cash also played for Seattle on the 2010 champions.

In terms of the lottery, the teams that do not make the playoffs become eligible for the top four picks.

The West at the bottom most of the summer included the Los Angeles Sparks, which got off to a bad start before All-League Candace Parker returned to the team after the All-Star game following taking a rest, and injury-riddled San Antonio, which was also youthful as was Seattle.

The East was a different story. Competition was so tight from top to bottom that the Slide for Stewie involved for a long time the entire conference, which, obviously at the same time was competing for the postseason.

The Connecticut Sun, which was severely hampered by injuries, finally drifted more into the lottery race, while Atlanta also suffered most of the summer but in the closing weeks became toe-to-toe with the Washington Mystics, who finally ended a losing streak, beating Indiana in the third from the last game to clinch a playoff spot.

Three weeks ago, because of the value of Stewart, the league announced a lottery procedure system change, in part dating to controversy involving the last high value race in 2012.

There were three high valued collegiate stars in the mix out of that summer in Baylor’s Brittney Griner, considered the best; Delaware’s Elena Delle Donne, who some ranked even higher than Griner, and Notre Dame’s Skylar Diggins.

Washington came through down the stretch to finish with the worst record, while the Phoenix Mercury missed key players most of the summer but had enough talent available that the populace became suspicious of tanking by the desert folks.

Tulsa had been historically bad but kept getting aced out in successive seasons in terms of the pecking order.

When the lottery order was announced, Phoenix won the rights to the top pick while Washington finished fourth. Chicago at two took Delle Donne behind Griner, while Tulsa took Diggins.

With that occurrence, the league recently announced that the four non-playoff teams would still qualify for the lottery, but their combined records over the previous two seasons would determine the best odds when the ping pong balls do their thing.

Also, if the team with the worst record does not land either of the first two spots, it would be guaranteed the third spot bumping whoever was left in that position.

With the combined records in play, down the stretch, Atlanta was clearly going to be fourth since the Dream went to the playoffs last season, and Connecticut drifted to third. Fans up in Casino-land can blame their spot on a fast start back in June with seven straight wins and buzzer-beating triumphs over Minnesota and San Antonio.

So it came down to Sunday night between San Antonio and Seattle where if San Antonio lost, thereby Seattle winning, a tie would exist.

Well, the tiebreak is worst record this year, so if San Antonio had lost, the Silver Stars would have the best shot at No. 1. But they lost by a point, so on the two-year records, Seattle wins by a game and if the Storm win the top pick, they could point to the Goodrich-foul, Logic-making-both free throws as the moment that got it done.

But that could be moot if the Storm don’t, but that kind of defining moment did become prominent in 2010, hence the Tina Thompson moment.

That summer, the West behind Seattle was awful and a similar key game down the stretch involved the Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks.

The winner was likely going to get into the playoffs and loser likely headed for the lottery.

With about four seconds to go, Minnesota took the lead, but just before the buzzer, Thompson shot a long torpedo that beat the buzzer for Los Angeles.

The Sparks went to the playoffs and Minnesota went to the lottery in the same slot as San Antonio at No. 2.

Well, luck smiled on Minnesota, just as it will be needed more by the Sun and Dream this time, and the Lynx won the pick, drafted UConn’s Maya Moore, and won the title the next summer in 2011 and again in 2013 with losing to an upstart Indiana team in the finals in 2012.

So that’s where we are at in the chase for Stewie.

Now, it’s in the hands of how the ping pong balls will bounce and who has the best influence of Lady Luck.

See you on lottery night.