Liberty Coach Moves Up Longevity Rankings
Amidst a metropolitan coaching exodus, the New York Liberty have used Brooklyn-based longevity to their advantage.
With her Manhattan counterpart ousted on Tuesday, Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello is the runner-up in active New York job security: Tom Thibodeau's surprising firing from the New York Knicks makes Brondello the second-longest active tenured head coach among the metropolitan area's major professional teams in the four major sports (basketball, baseball, football, hockey).
Brondello, hired in early January 2022, trails only New York Yankees manager Aaron Boone, who came to The Bronx in December 2017. The full list is below:
- Yankees: Aaron Boone, 12/4/17
- LIBERTY: Sandy Brondello, 1/7/22
- Giants: Brian Daboll, 1/28/22
- Mets: Carlos Mendoza, 11/13/23
- Islanders: Patrick Roy, 1/20/24
- Nets: Jordi Fernandez, 4/22/24
- Devils: Sheldon Keefe, 5/23/24
- Jets: Aaron Glenn, 1/22/25
- Rangers: Mike Sullivan, 5/2/25
- Knicks: Vacant
The Liberty has won each of its first seven games of the 2025 season, Brondello's fourth at the helm after an eight-year term with the Phoenix Mercury.
Prior to becoming a WNBA head coach (previously leading the 2010 San Antonio Silver Stars), Brondello made a name for herself as an accomplished shooting guard, going down as one of the most lauded talents in Australian basketball history, which led to ascension as the head coach of the women's national team, the Opals, in 2017. Brondello was also a WNBA All-Star in 1999, repping the Detroit Shock.
Brondello has guided the Liberty to consecutive appearances in the WNBA Finals, the latter producing the franchise's first postseason championship last fall. Entering this week of WNBA play, Brondello is the Liberty's all-time leader in win percentage (.707) and her 87 victories rank third behind only Richie Adubato (100) and Bill Laimbeer (92). She'll get to add to that tally on Thursday when New York faces the Washington Mystics in the nation's capital (7:30 p.m., WNYW).
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.