{"id":253902,"date":"2025-09-25T15:34:12","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:34:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/253902\/"},"modified":"2025-09-25T15:34:12","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T15:34:12","slug":"liberty-gm-reveals-why-team-fired-sandy-brondello-a-year-after-wnba-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/253902\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty GM reveals why team fired Sandy Brondello a year after WNBA title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb said the Liberty decided <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/09\/23\/sports\/liberty-dump-sandy-brondello-just-one-year-after-winning-wnba-title\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">to fire coach Sandy Brondello this week<\/a> after a \u201cthorough examination\u201d that went beyond this season.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to reporters Thursday morning for the first time since the firing, Kolb said the decision to dump Brondello was not \u201cpunitive nor reactive.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEvolution is what is needed at this time,\u201d Kolb said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Liberty fired Brondello, the winningest coach in the franchise\u2019s history, on Tuesday after a title defense that fell well short of expectations.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Liberty signed Brondello to a two-year contract extension, with a team option for 2026, after the Liberty won the title last season, sources told The Post.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37209234\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/user-expressly-acknowledges-agrees-downloading-111051474.jpg\" alt=\"Sandy Brondello\" class=\"wp-image-37209234\"  \/>Sandy Brondello Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>The Liberty got off to a franchise-best start, winning nine straight games, only to stumble over the next three months to finish in fifth place. <\/p>\n<p>New York embraced being the underdog, but were <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/09\/19\/sports\/libertys-wnba-title-defense-ends-in-crushing-game-3-loss\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">bounced in the first round of the playoffs<\/a> by the Phoenix Mercury on Sept. 19.<\/p>\n<p>Moments after the\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2025\/09\/20\/sports\/a-seasons-worth-of-obstacles-bumps-in-road-sink-liberty-in-end\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">painful Game 3 loss in Phoenix<\/a>, Brondello said the group was \u201cvery disappointed\u201d in the outcome, but she \u201ccouldn\u2019t be more proud\u201d of her players.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37209225\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/GettyImages-2228210498_c60906.jpg\" alt=\"Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb.\" class=\"wp-image-37209225\"  \/>Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb. Icon Sportswire via Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>Several of the Liberty\u2019s star players voiced support for their coach, too.<\/p>\n<p>Asked what her response would be to people who question whether Brondello should be back in 2026, Breanna Stewart said, \u201cThe way that she continued to kind of, I don\u2019t know, deal with the cards she was dealt was incredible. It wasn\u2019t easy for anybody. But she came in every day with a positive attitude and a mindset to put us in our best position possible and best foot forward\u2026 She has our back and we have hers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCovering the Liberty like never before\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"inline-module__cta\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Madeline Kenney&#8217;s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>The search for Brondello\u2019s replacement is on. Several sources said that the Liberty are targeting a coach with NBA experience.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Kolb said the team has a \u201cvery clear vision\u201d of what they\u2019re looking for in a new coach.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n<p>And he expects the new coach to have the team\u2019s core intact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have the utmost confidence that [Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones] want to be back,\u201d Kolb said.<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story. Check back for updates.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb said the Liberty decided to fire coach Sandy Brondello this week after a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":253903,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1520,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-253902","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-new-york-liberty","9":"tag-sports","10":"tag-united-states","11":"tag-unitedstates","12":"tag-us","13":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253902","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=253902"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253902\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253903"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253902"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253902"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253902"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}