Even in elimination, the spirit of the New York Liberty persisted at the WNBA Playoffs.
The Liberty’s parting of ways with head coach Sandy Brondello served as a talking point Game 2 semifinal action staged this week. Las Vegas Aces boss and former Liberty legend Becky Hammon, for example, wasn’t pleased with the developments, offering her thoughts before her group knotted its best-of-five final four set with the Indiana Fever.
“I didn’t love it for Sandy, I have to be honest,” Hammon said, per Alexa Philippou of ESPN. “She’s just won a championship. She’s won in other places, and I know her to be a quality coach and a quality person. Those are rare sometimes to get that mixture of qualities as a head coach.”
“I think Sandy’s done a great job. It’s an unfortunate part of our business,” Fever leader Stephanie White added, per Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press. “She does it not only from a great standpoint in terms of wins and losses, but in a way that leads with grace and leads with dignity and values the game and players in this game.”
To Hammon’s point, Brondello was removed from her perch less than a year after she guided the Liberty to its first postseason championship. It was her second title run after previously prevailing with the 2014 Phoenix Mercury. Brondello also leaves New York as the all-time winningest coach in franchise history, passing Richie Adubato earlier last summer.
Brondello and Hammon faced off in the playoffs in each of the last two seasons: the Aces downed the Liberty in the 2023 Finals before New York earned revenge in last year’s second round, taking a four-game set en route to the championship triumph last fall.
That latter Finals victory came over Cheryl Reeve’s Minnesota Lynx. Reeve, whose Lynx would’ve faced the Liberty in round two had the latter stopped Phoenix, quipped that a vital free agent has hit the market, predicting that Brondello won’t have to wait long to find a new job.
Beyond New York, there are three other vacancies on the active WNBA ledger: the Seattle Storm is searching for a new boss after letting Noelle Quinn go while two expansion teams (the Toronto Tempo and rebooted Portland Fire) are searching for their original bosses.
“As we’ve seen the business grow, we’ve seen the stakes grow higher. I think Sandy’s a heck of a coach, and Sandy will land on her feet like she always does,” Reeve said, per Feinberg. “I think I am absolutely thrilled if I am Seattle, Toronto, and Portland that I was just gifted a championship-level coach. Though we’re competitors, I think a lot of Sandy personally and professionally.”
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