The writing was on the wall by Sandy Brondello’s choice of words during what turned out to be her final press conference as the head coach of the New York Liberty.
She began speaking about how the team competed in their season-ending loss to the Phoenix Mercury during Game 3 of the first round of the 2025 WNBA playoffs. She used the word “we” when she discussed what had just transpired, sticking to the present and the past. However, the way she referenced the future is what really stood out.
“This will serve as a motivation for this team as they move forward,” she said.
To be clear, Brondello didn’t include herself when discussing how the Liberty move forward, which is why she most likely knew at that very moment it was her last time representing the New York franchise.
Moments later, when Brondello was asked about how she’d describe the 2025 season for the Liberty, she described what she and her team had been through. There was inconsistency, underperformance, and a whole lot of injuries that resulted in the team having to put out 18 different starting lineups during the regular season. She took accountability for the games when the team could have been better regardless of who was available to play or not.
“There’s a lot of things you can learn as you prepare to move toward a new season,” Brondello said.
While Brondello likely knew her tenure with the Liberty was ending, her players didn’t feel the same way.
When a reporter asked players Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart — while Brondello was sitting in between them — about Brondello’s job security, they were angry and maybe even shocked at the question.
“What the f***,” was Stewart’s first unfiltered reaction to the thought of Brondello not returning.
“We’re not going to be a team that points fingers,” Stewart said. “There’s a lot of us that could have done better this season, but we’re still going to fight and show up for each other every single day, and I think that’s just the most important part. So we have [Brondello’s] back.”
In the end, the Liberty franchise ended up pointing a finger and decided to opt out of Brondello’s contract, which the New York Post reported was part of a two-year extension she signed after leading the franchise to their first ever championship a little over a year ago.
Brondello took the Liberty from a team in the early 2020s that struggled to just make the playoffs, to a team that made each year she was their coach. She led the Liberty to the 2023 Commissioner’s Cup Title and two straight WNBA Finals appearances. And during the 2025 season Brondello became the winningest coach in the franchise’s history.
The long list of accomplishments was what led to some confusion around the women’s basketball world, especially since Brondello had just won the city its first basketball championship in around a half a century.
This bold move by the New York front office led by general manager Jonathan Kolb reaffirms what the WNBA is becoming where standards are high and coaches are hired to be fired. The NBA has become a league that gives coaches an incredibly short leash, and the same has begun to happen in the WNBA.
That was confirmed by Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve, who faced off against Brondello and the Liberty in last season’s highly-competitive 2024 WNBA Finals. “As we’ve seen the business grow, the stakes grow higher,” she said after she heard the news of Brondello’s firing.
Brondello was known as a coach who combined high basketball instincts and scheming, especially on the offensive side of the ball with a high level of emotional intelligence that allowed her to be able to relate to and get the best out of players from all walks of life. She knew how to coach multiple superstars and get them to buy-in to playing selflessly. That proved beneficial when she was able to bench Courtney Vandersloot during the 2024 playoffs in favor of Leonie Fiebich in the team’s starting lineup in order to improve the team’s defensive capabilities.
The Liberty will be looking for a coach who contains some of Brondello’s strengths, which include the ability to coach diverse personalities and a high level of basketball intelligence and scheming. But as The Athletic reported, New York is considering hiring someone with NBA experience, and possibly swing big to attract a bigger name.
But big name or not, whoever the Liberty hire is going to have to be someone who players can trust to hold together their championship core and can extend their win-now window so the franchise can prove it’s not just a one-hit wonder.