The Sandy Brondello risk for the New York Liberty

Happy Basketball Wednesday, presented by The BIG EAST Conference. I can’t say I was shocked by the news Tuesday that the New York Liberty had fired Sandy Brondello, as I had heard rumblings about this possibility for weeks. That does not mean it was the right decision, and the margin for error to show it was is vanishingly small.

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Basketball Wednesday

Presented by The BIG EAST Conference

Let’s just set some key terms here. How I evaluate whether a coach is doing a good job is similar to the way I figure out who to vote for in Coach of the Year voting: is the team outperforming what is a reasonable expectation for it? Is that team meeting it? And if the answer to the first two is no, can we quantify why that is happening?

I think it’s hard to make an argument that Sandy Brondello’s New York teams underperformed in any of her four seasons. In 2022, with an all-star season from Sabrina Ionescu, a solid Natasha Howard season relying on her as effectively a number two option and a collection of role players, the Liberty made the playoffs and pushed the defending champion Chicago Sky to the brink.

Then came the infusion of star talent. Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones joined Ionescu, and there’s only one ball. That’s harder than it looks on paper. That team reached the WNBA Finals in Year 1, won a title in Year 2. It is virtually impossible to press the fast forward button in the WNBA — just ask the 2025 Atlanta Dream, who did everything right, won 30 games, but are now home. The Liberty won big and ahead of schedule compared to other recent behemoths like the Elena Delle Donne Mystics or the A’ja Wilson Aces.

And 2025? We’ve covered it here, but that team simply never had the chance to coalesce. Never. They were without Betnijah Laney-Hamilton from the start, they began 9-0 anyway, before spending virtually no time with the preseason-designed lineup. Facing an excellent Phoenix Mercury team, New York won once on the road and nearly won a second time with Breanna Stewart playing on one leg and Jonquel Jones in a late-season funk that cannot be chalked up to schematics.

Exactly how much better should this New York Liberty team have played? And what coaching would have allowed it to do so?

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The frustrating thing for people like me is we’ll never know. Not really. We don’t get a Sliding Doors moment. Yes, there will be another coach in New York who we can compare to Sandy Brondello, but with the 2026 Liberty, not the 2025 or 2024 editions.

And that New York Liberty team is going to have to fight for almost all of its own players, just like the rest of the WNBA, in the wildest offseason ever. Now, it will have some huge advantages: media market, massive investment by ownership, players who sing the praises of the organization to one another.

But the Liberty decided to give up a coach with a championship pedigree, and one who captured one of her titles right there in New York. Whoever they hire next needs to be as much of or more of a draw than that for the Liberty to win this decision.

Further, while it is not a legal contract, Stewart already announced in her postgame that she is coming back, and this is how she feels about Brondello. A new coach can build a relationship with Stewart, who reminded everyone that even on one leg she is the sun this organization orbits around, but that takes time. And as I keep telling you: there is no fast-forwarding in the WNBA.

But who is the hire who can do that? There are certainly plenty of excellent options for New York, and if I’m Jonathan Kolb I am calling Nicki Collen, Latricia Trammell, Pokey Chatman and Eric Thibault tomorrow if WNBA head coaching experience matters to him (a win-now team, so it probably should), and elite assistants like Brandi Poole, Karima Christmas-Kelly and Kristi Toliver if the goal is to elevate a seasoned coach who knows the pro game. I’d sure give Kelly Graves, Brenda Frese, Robyn Fralick and Coquese Washington a call, too, the college game has never been a less inviting place to work.

But if the standard is championship or bust, as the great Alexa Philippou reported? Ask George Steinbrenner how that worked out for the Yankees and their many managers.

Meanwhile, Cheryl Reeve really captured this new reality best: “I am absolutely thrilled if I am Seattle, Toronto, and Portland that I was just gifted a championship level coach.” You can be sure these teams will reach out to Brondello, and it is likely she will have her pick of the existing openings, multiple league sources tell The IX.

But it would be unfair to expect a title from Brondello in Year 1 in any of these places, just as it would be unfair to ask of her replacement Year 1 in New York. And even if New York keeps this core together, Stewart is going to be 32 in 2026. It’s astonishingly difficult to fast-forward in the WNBA, but it’s impossible to rewind. So whoever comes in will need to get this right quickly.

The list of WNBA head coaches who have managed the feat of a championship in year 1 is vanishingly small. Van Chancellor technically did it in year 1 of the league. Becky Hammon did it with the Las Vegas Aces in 2022. Dan Hughes did it in Year 1 with the Seattle Storm in 2018.*

The only other coach to accomplish that feat? The 2014 Phoenix Mercury’s head coach: Sandy Brondello.

(Editor’s note: In the original version of this story, we did not credit Dan Hughes with this feat. The IX Sports regrets the error.)