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Aryanna Frank/Getty Images This post will be updated on Thursday afternoon with comments from New York Liberty General Manager Jonathan Kolb, who is speaking to a group of reporters in the morning. I’ll also be live Thursday night at 9:30 p.m. ET at this link, talking about Sandy Brondello’s termination and everything else New York Liberty, perhaps some Brooklyn Nets stuff too, but mainly anything that people ask me.
Anyways, Sandy Brondello. Sigh. I wrote this long post about her after the news dropped, and to paraphrase it: I loved covering her. She is is warm, she jokes around, she says what she’s thinking, and this is all true whether the recorders are on or not. I will miss her a ton.
From an outsider’s perspective, I understand why it may seem shocking that the New York Liberty declined to renew her contract for 2026, just one year after she led the team to the first title in franchise history. But here’s something very telling: Nobody on the beat is surprised by the news. Many fans aren’t either. If you are in close enough orbit to the Liberty, this move may not have seemed inevitable, but you damn sure knew it was likely.
Perhaps the New York Post’s Madeline Kenney shouldn’t have caught so much flack for this question (especially given that New York declined to hold exit interviews) after all…
I wrote this piece after New York won the 2024 WNBA Finals; although the Libs had climbed the mountaintop, they did so without overcoming their flaws. It was narratively unsatisfying They let less talented teams stick around, they have never fully figured out how to utilize Jonquel Jones, and: “too often, they revert to their worst selves in big moments.”
The simple act of winning did not erase those habits: “They beat themselves. They just so happened to also beat the Lynx.”
I expected major pushback from members of the organization for expressing that sentiment in the wake of a championship. Instead, the couple employees who reached out did so with a tone of acceptance: Well, yeah.
Close your eyes (after reading this parapgraph) and picture this scenario: Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, and Jonquel Jones are all still in New York, as is Leonie Fiebich. Not everybody else is back, but many are. In short, it’s a natural continuation of this era of Liberty basketball. And they are absolutely cooking. They don’t go undefeated, but they bury bad teams when they’re supposed to. They rise to the occasion at pivotal junctures in tight games, Stewie doesn’t have to carry the team for long stretches, and they find the right balance with Jonquel Jones, who in turn is consistently engaged. All in all, the 2026 Liberty are the best version of this team yet, and they win another title. It’s not that unlikely, right?
Now, who’s manning the sidelines? Do you really think that, given the last three seasons, the absolute best version of the 2026 New York Liberty is a team coached by Sandy Brondello? I don’t. And GM Jonathan Kolb doesn’t either. This is how he’s operated over his tenure as New York Liberty GM, exploring every possible avenue to improvement, even if they seem ruthless.
But even this is not particularly ruthless. A colleague pointed out to me that over on the NBA side, Frank Vogel (2020 champion), Mike Budenholzer (2021 champion) and Michael Malone (2023 champion) all lost their jobs two seasons or fewer after winning a title. Kolb and the New York Liberty do not view themselves as a great WNBA team, but a standard-bearing sporting club. And they know a roster this talented doesn’t come around too often.
The WNBA is booming; not only is the talent improving, especially with more international players in the league, but teams are getting smarter. More resources are being poured into women’s basketball than ever, and in this expansion era of the W, new owners will pony up for expansive scouting and analytics departments. To once again be on the cutting edge, the Liberty have to make changes.
This isn’t some nebulous cliché. Per PBP Stats, the Liberty took just over 70% of their shots either from three or at the rim in 2023, which ranked first in the league by a mile. In 2024, that number fell to 65%, still good for second in the W. In 2025, it stayed at 65%, fifth in the league. Pledging allegiance to the 3-point line doesn’t qualify as an analytical achievement anymore.
As a head coach, Sandy Brondello has earned a reputation as a fantastic personality manager, well-equipped to lead star players but perhaps lacking in tactics. That’s a little reductive, maybe a little disrespectful to Brondello’s basketball mind. Still, when you watch former MVP Jonquel Jones play the second half of the season like her mind is somewhere else…
…scoring just 17 points TOTAL in the three-game series loss to the Phoenix Mercury, you can’t help but question Brondello. Isn’t this why she’s here?
Now, Jones and and her teammates bear responsibility for their disappointing season, just as much if not more than Brondello. But with a roster this talented, the head coach is always the first to pay for any underachieving. If Kolb can trot out the big three with a healthy Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Leonie Fiebich in 2026, his team becomes the title favorite once again.
The Liberty now have to figure out who will lead that team. My unsourced but informed guess is that they will hire a first-time WNBA head coach. No retreads. Think someone like Nate Tibbetts, who coached in the G League and was an assistant on two NBA benches over two decades, even interviewing for NBA head coaching positions throughout his career, but ultimately landing on the Phoenix Mercury.
There were questions about how Tibbetts’ hire would go over with Mercury players, but he has endeared himself both to the franchise and to the fans while becoming one of the most respected coaches in the W. The Liberty, an incredibly attractive franchise to work for, view themselves as capable of making that sort of hire. The team’s head coach in 2026 may be new to women’s basketball, but if they are a basketball lifer with innovative ideas and strong communication skills, that’ll do the trick.
Sandy Brondello’s players loved her to the bitter end. She was spotted in photos of the team’s final, celebratory dinner after flying back home from their Game 3 defeat in Phoenix. After news dropped of her termination, many players sent her their love on social media. Brondello is also a New York Liberty legend. Banners hang forever.
But every good thing must come to an end. The New York Liberty can proudly hug her goodbye, but they should be excited about where they go from here.
UPDATE: Jonathan Kolb spoke to assembled media at 9 a.m. ET on Thursday. He spoke for 40 minutes, opening with a statement and then taking many questions. There were too many interesting answers to fully break down in this format, and that’s why I recommend tuning into the stream tonight.
However, the gist is this: “I think it’s really important that I stress and emphasize that this decision was in no way punitive, nor was it reactive, but it’s instead rooted in being proactive, nor was this decision based solely on the results of this past season. I actually think Sandy did a good job navigating this group through uncharted waters, through injuries and a lack of availability, and we’ve got a great level of appreciation for Sandy Brondello, the head coach, as well as Sandy Brondello, the person. This decision comes after a thorough examination of what the New York Liberty need as we move forward into a future of an ever-evolving WNBA [emphasis mine]. Very serious thought and consideration was made to retaining Sandy, but ultimately, we determined that evolution and innovation is what is needed at this time. These decisions, they’re never easy, nor should they be, but often these decisions mark the fork in the road moments for organizations, and you can stand still, or you can embrace change and move forward.“
As I wrote above, Kolb went on to cite that while the team’s 3-point attempt-rate and free-throw attempt-rate have stagnated in recent years, they’ve fallen down league-wide rankings.
“I think that the game is changing rapidly,” said Kolb. “I honestly don’t even know it’s the same league as in 2023 I think that we’re seeing a basketball style on both sides of the ball that is rapidly changing, and I think that that will impact our decisions, not only that we made recently, but also roster as we look at our build and making sure that we are not standing still and we provide the right ingredients for whomever sits in that coaching seat to cook with.”
Kolb also strongly hinted that the players, even the stars, did not make this call: “My office door is always open, so I’m always open and available for feedback from players, and I do believe we pride ourselves on being a player-led organization, but at the same time, I’m also proud of the respect that we built from the front office to the players, in the sense that there’s a level of trust that leadership will make decisions. We had exit meetings, and we go through those thoroughly with our players, but ultimately, the decision is mine.”
Some more nuts and bolts from JK:
- The Liberty have a “clear vision” of qualities they want in their next head coach, but he declined to mentions specifics as he felt it may portray Sandy in a negative light
- They do not have a clear timeline on the hiring process or deadline date
- They are not working with a search firm “right now, but that could change”
Again, 9:30 tonight on stream, I’ll be breaking this all down, including a lengthy Kolb answer on the fit around Sabrina Ionescu, who after her fiery 2023 season, has struggled to reach league-average efficiency. Any and all questions are welcome.
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