NEW YORK — When Sandy Brondello first arrived in New York to coach the Liberty back in 2022, she wasn’t fulfilling speaking engagements, filming documentaries about her life and expressing her sense of style.
This was all what evolved after she lived in New York for four WNBA seasons, which included a Commissioner’s Cup championship, back-to-back WNBA Finals appearances and of course that elusive first championship for the New York Liberty.
Living in one of the most eclectic and glamorous cities in the world it didn’t change Brondello’s personal philosophies or her personality, but instead it gave her an idea as to who she could be and the ways in which she could spread her wings as one of the most accomplished coaches the WNBA has seen.
As the inaugural head coach of the Toronto Tempo, the WNBA’s first team from Canada, Brondello was the main vehicle through how the Tempo were marketing themselves. This was especially true since it took until early April of this year for the Tempo to have players on their roster.
“I’m like, holy f-ck, this is like, it’s humbling, because it’s like, I’m just a coach, you know?” Brondello said about all the opportunities that have come her way since splitting with the Liberty last fall.
But that’s it, Brondello isn’t just a coach anymore. She’s someone who made history in one of the most well-known cities in North America and is going to continue to do so in another one of North America’s most well-known cities.
Some of those opportunities have included getting an award from the now retired Australian Ambassador to the United States Dr. Kevin Rudd and doing a speaking engagement at the American Australian Association, a nonprofit dedicated to strengthening Australian and American relations. The first thing she did when the Toronto Tempo’s team plane landed in New York late on Tuesday was get driven to Manhattan for her speech.
And then she was transported to Brooklyn’s 1 Hotel located near the bridge within the heart of Dumbo. She met her husband and now Tempo associate head coach Olaf Lange, who served under Brondello in New York, for some drinks afterward.
But then Wednesday morning came around which would begin a series of reunions and would elicit some nostalgia. She saw Breanna Stewart as Brondello and the Tempo were entering the arena for their portion of shoot around.
It could have been a regular WNBA day at Barclays in the past four years. There was Lange and Brondello watching the players shoot in matching colored pullover sweatshirts of course. The difference was the color, trading seafoam and black in for maroon and lavender.
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Brondello turned to some of the seats and saw a group of around ten media members sitting patiently and waiting to talk to her for the first time on record since this past September. She waived and then proceeded to watch as her players competed in the half court shot that’s customary before each and every game. Nyara Sabally, a player Brondello chose in the expansion draft from the Liberty, banked the shot in and won the money. She celebrated by running up to Lange and then grabbing the one hundred dollar bill from Brondello’s hands and putting it in her pocket.
When the clock turned and it was time for Brondello to reunite with the New York media, she was in rare form. She smiled and gave a hug to each and every reporter present expressing how happy she was to see everyone.
During the 15 minutes that she spent with the media on early Wednesday afternoon, Brondello laughed and joked and even made fun of herself multiple times. “Who says I don’t play rookies?” she blurted out with another laugh after a question about No. 6 overall pick Kiki Rice.
While Brondello isn’t new to returning to the home of a franchise that decided not to retain her, as she went through the same rodeo in Phoenix on June 8, 2022, she admitted that the situation in New York was going to be different. When Brondello left Phoenix, it had been eight years since she helped lead that franchise to a third title. When she left New York, she was the head coach who guided the Liberty to their first ever just a season before.
“Tonight may be a little bit different,” she said about how she was going to be received on Wednesday night by the fans. “I don’t know who loves me and who hates me, so we’ll see.”
While she told reporters that she “didn’t need to be celebrated” during shoot around, what she was excited about was getting to see familiar faces including director of player development Andrew Wade, director of basketball strategy Parket Lovett who now works with Lange on the German women’s national team coaching staff, Michaela Reese, the Liberty’s director of basketball operations and of course some of the players including Stewart and Jonquel Jones. During shoot around Brondello even had on a pair of the Sabrinas in the purple and seafoam color scheme.
But then as game time got closer Brondello made sure to create some separation. She didn’t join her husband and assistant Brian Lankton, who previously served for three seasons on Brondello’s Liberty coaching staff, on the bench during pregame warmups.
She told The IX Sports after the game that there was intent there. She wanted to use the extra time to prepare and didn’t want to be a distraction. The reunions could wait. Instead she waited until less than a half an hour before tipoff to say hello. It was convenient that Liberty were stretching and doing layup lines right in front of the Tempo bench.
Brondello didn’t initiate the hellos, but rather it was the players. Leonie Fiebich, who had previously called Brondello “a really cool person” and “a really great coach” on Monday, stopped what she was doing to go over to Brondello and then gave her a long hug.
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton stopped her resistance band workout with the Liberty training staff to make sure she gave Brondello a hug. Members of the Liberty’s performance team including Dom Finkley and fellow Australian Brent Goriss made their way to embrace Brondello prior to starting lineups.
Once the Liberty’s public address announcer began introducing the Tempo’s starting lineup, that’s when the Brooklyn fans were able to engage in Brondello’s return. The crowd sound rose like the ocean going from a low to high tide once Sabally’s name was called. But then once the words “coached by Sandy Brondello” were uttered following the Tempo’s starters, the decibel level of Barclays Center rose to another level. The wave of sound that bellowed for Sabally bellowed even louder for Brondello.
Brondello herself didn’t really notice that she received a standing ovation. She looked around briefly before waiving to thank the crowd. This was before the game, and the crowd got another opportunity to make Brondello feel welcomed during the first timeout in the first quarter.
The jumbotron played a video compilation that started out with some of Brondello’s most entertaining moments as head coach of the Liberty and then it flowed into honoring Isabelle Harrison who was with the team for a season and then concluded with playing a montage honoring Sabally. Following the video presentation, the Liberty welcomed back Lange and Lankton too.
Brondello couldn’t really pay attention at that moment. She was too busy getting her team ready to come out of the time out, although when she saw the cameras were following her around on the bench, she knew something had happened. She smiled, looked up, saw herself and then it clicked as to what happened.
Now that the pleasantries had happened, it was time to play the game. The Tempo defended Stewart well in the first half, crowding her and making her miss her first six shots. They forced her into open threes, a shot that hasn’t been her most efficient in recent years. After the Tempo outscored the Liberty 20-17 in the first half, New York then won the final three quarters and made 14 total threes.
The growing pains of Brondello’s new team showed. Their talent is still figuring out how to play with one another. Their front court including Harrison and Temi Fágbénlé has been out. During an offensive possession in the second half, Brondello was gesturing to Brittney Sykes to find a wide open shooter on a second-side action. Sykes instead went for a 16-footer that didn’t land.
When the Liberty secured the game and the seconds were dwindling down from 5 seconds to zero on the clock, Brondello walked over to the center of the sideline near the scorers table to congratulate new Liberty head coach Chris DeMarco. She smiled and told him good job, shook his hand and then decided to give him a hug.
After DeMarco had been asked multiple times by reporters if he had ever met Brondello, The IX Sports can report that he finally did as the two coaches met and had a chat in the locker rooms pregame, which explains why Brondello went for a hug.
Lange followed suit and congratulated DeMarco while Brondello began having the reunions again. These felt less tense. The competition was over, and so the hugs could commence again.
She began hugging Wade, and then Liberty developmental player Anneli Maley found Brondello, wrapping her arms around her neck. Then more former players in Marine Johannès and Han Xu, who didn’t always see consistent playing time, made the time to give Brondello a squeeze.
For Brondello this was a testament to how she treats all of the players she coaches. She was honest with them while also wanting the best for them. Brondello acknowledged that players like Johannès and Han are in “a different situation now” that allows them more playing time than they had in the past.
When Johannès was asked about what Brondello meant to her career earlier this week amid some of those difficult conversations that led to inconsistent playing time, the creative shooting guard acknowledged how it was Brondello who helped her adjust to how the WNBA differed from pro basketball in France.
“I feel like I learned a lot about the way we play here in the league with [Brondello],” she said on Monday. “It was again like completely different than in France, so I had this time to adjust with her, and it was good for my career also.”
And then Stewart with a large grin on her face made sure to find Brondello, bending down a bit to her height to wrap her long arms around her former coach. Brondello patted Stewart’s back while Jones snuck up behind Stewart with her arms wide open for Brondello’s embrace. What followed was Stewart pulling Brondello in between both she and Jones so that they could take a photo. Brondello was sandwiched by her former front court clearly happy to see her again.
“They’re two of the greats that I’ve coached,” Brondello said about the photo op. “They said, ‘Let’s get a photo. I’m like, ‘Yeah, let’s do this. Let’s put it in the memorabilia book.’ And I mean, they’re just amazing people… I mean obviously you miss them. They’re great players, but happy for them too, because they’re wonderful human beings and a great game [for them] tonight.”
Moments later, Laney-Hamilton found Brondello once again giving her another squeeze followed by Sabrina Ionescu who went to find Brondello herself after sitting out her fourth straight game with back soreness. While Ionescu hasn’t been shy to critique how last season went and the confusion that she endured under Brondello as head coach, Ionescu still made sure to greet her former head coach who taught her a lot of the pro habits she knows today.
After the game, Stewart was asked about what Brondello imparted most onto her.
“Her passion, her fight and the ability to never settle for anything that she’s doing,” she said.
So what did Brondello learn from New York then? She didn’t want to go into the details on the record initially, but then still gave an answer. “Look, every year it’s about you learn,” she said. “I mean that I say they’re never failures, they’re all learnings. I know what situation I want to be in and where I can be my best. I’ll put it that way.”
Translation: what New York might have taught Brondello is that she wanted more, and since has put herself in positions to do so. More autonomy. Essentially it’s similar to what Stewart said Brondello taught her: do not settle.
Brondello was brought to New York in 2022 to establish the franchise, bring it stability and put it in the best position to win a championship. She ended up accomplishing all of that amid complaints about not maximizing the talented rosters she coached and some other irreconcilable differences.
Wanting more for yourself isn’t mutually exclusive with humility. Wanting more is about believing in yourself and your abilities. It’s about putting yourself in a position where you can shine. It’s about having conviction. That’s what grew in Brondello during her tenure in New York.
She wanted her canvas to paint and now she has it.
