Liberty Part Ways with Sandy Brondello
The New York Liberty have announced that head coach Sandy Brondello's contract will not be renewed for the 2026 season, ending her time at the helm of the seafoam savants.
The announcement comes less than a week after the Liberty's first postseason championship defense ended in heartbreak, as New York was eliminated in the opening round of the 2025 playoffs by Brondello's former employers, the Phoenix Mercury.
“We would like to thank Sandy Brondello for her everlasting impact on the New York Liberty,” Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb said in a team statement. “Sandy finishes her tenure in New York as the winningest coach in franchise history, and she took us to never-before-seen heights as the first head coach to lead the Liberty to a championship. We wish Sandy the very best in her next chapter.”
The search for Brondello's successor will begin immediately.
Thus ends Brondello's time at the helm of the Liberty, a four-year term that saw her amass a 107-53 record in the regular season, with 16 more in the playoffs. As mentioned by Kolb, both win totals stand as franchise records.
New York made the playoffs in each of the four years under Brondello's watch, which featured the arrival of historic WNBA talents Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart, and Courtney Vandersloot. New York earned the best winning percentage in franchise history in consecutive seasons (32-8) and also took home the 2023 Commissioner's Cup in-season title.
The peak, of course, came last fall, when Brondello guided the Liberty to the 2024 WNBA championship, the first postseason title the franchise's expansive history. It was the second WNBA championship of Brondello's career, having previously guided the Mercury to the title in 2014. Overall, Brondello has amassed over 300 wins in three coaching stops, getting her start with the San Antonio Silver Stars in 2010.
"This is a resilient group, and she has our back, and we have hers," Stewart said after the Game 3 loss to Phoenix. "The way that she continued to deal with the cards she was dealt was incredible. It wasn't easy for anybody, but she came in every day with a positive attitude and a mindset to put us in in our best positions possible and best foot forward."
Commonly known as one of the most accomplished players in Australian basketball history, Brondello will continue to serve as the head coach of her homeland's women's national basketball team, which took home a bronze medal at last summer's Olympics.
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Geoff Magliocchetti is a veteran sportswriter who contributes to a variety of sites on the "On SI" network. In addition to the Yankees/Mets, Geoff also covers the New York Knicks, New York Liberty, and New York Giants and has previously written about the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Staten Island Yankees, and NASCAR.