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NEW YORK — Sandy Brondello didn’t emerge from the visitor tunnel until roughly three minutes before tipoff between her new Toronto Tempo and her former New York Liberty.A series of greetings ensued as soon as she did.
First, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton came over to the Tempo bench as she worked through some last-minute warmups. Then Leonie Fiebich. At one point, one of Brondello’s new staff members rested their hand on her back in a way that appeared to say, “Enjoy this.”
Before the Tempo’s 97-82 loss on Wednesday night to the Liberty, Brondello said she hoped the celebration would be limited to the pictures displayed on screens throughout Barclays Center welcoming back her, Isabelle Harrison, Nyara Sabally, and assistants Olaf Lange and Brian Lankton to Brooklyn. But during the first timeout, the Liberty’s public address announcer directed everyone’s attention to the video board for a tribute.
“Coming back, obviously it was nice,” Brondello said after the game, referencing her four historic seasons with the franchise before parting ways this offseason. “Everyone moves around this league. Going back to an old team and to get the appreciation that we get, that’s always special. The fans here have been amazing. It’s a special group here and something that we’ll remember.”
Upon landing in the city Tuesday afternoon, Brondello said she felt no notable emotion.
She immediately drove into Manhattan for a speaking engagement at the Australian American Association, which served as a source of entertainment for the former Liberty coach.
In fact, Brondello seemed taken aback by how often she was asked how she feels. Maybe she truly felt nothing — or maybe after four years, two WNBA Finals appearances, one historic championship run and an abrupt departure, her range of emotions was too much to simplify. What she was willing to say is that in Toronto, she feels supported and is can be herself.
“I’m going to coach some great games, some good games, and I’m going to make some mistakes,” Brondello said. “Let me learn by doing it. I’ve been doing this for quite a long time. I know what a winning culture looks like and a winning team.”
Brondello wasn’t surprised by the Liberty’s decision to part with her after the 2025 season. “It’s part of the business, isn’t it?”
In four seasons, she became the winningest coach in franchise history, accumulating a 123-64 overall record and leading the organization to its first WNBA championship. Despite that success, the pairing was no longer viable. The Liberty (6-4) hired Chris DeMarco, a former assistant with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors.
In a May interview with The Athletic, Jonquel Jones said she wasn’t aware of plans for a coaching change. She went into her exit interview discussing changes the Liberty could make before the 2026 season only to find out later Brondello would not be back. She apologetically texted Brondello upon hearing the news.
“I didn’t want her to feel like I was kicking (them) when they were down or anything like that,” Jones said. “There are some aspects where I understand, and there’s also some aspects where this is somebody that you won a championship with, you did something historic with. A little bit of both.”
Sabrina Ionescu told The Athletic last month that as a player, she was focused on being where her feet were when asked about her knowledge of the coaching change. Breanna Stewart, who played for four different coaches during her seven seasons with the Seattle Storm, alluded to some level of knowledge.
“I’ve had my fair share of W coaches,” Stewart said last month. “To go back a little bit, you can tell when there’s going to be a change. Or a kind of transition that’s going to happen from within.”
All three expressed immense gratitude for Brondello and what they collectively accomplished, and she mirrored that sentiment while acknowledging that “one door closes and another one opens.”
In Toronto, Brondello is experiencing a new kind of historic season as the first coach to lead a WNBA team in Canada. The Tempo are the league’s latest expansion team, entering the league alongside the Portland Fire and a year after the Golden State Valkyries made history as the first expansion team to make the playoffs in their first season.
The top eight teams in the WNBA make the postseason. The Tempo came into Wednesday’s game ranked seventh in the league and have a 5-5 record.
“What’s a successful season?” Brondello posed. “If we keep getting better and we push some of the better teams, but we’re growing and have a growth mindset. That’s the thing, but I still want to do well. I don’t get too high or too low, because it’s a process.”
This story will be updated.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
New York Liberty, Toronto Tempo, WNBA
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