{"id":347212,"date":"2025-11-01T04:54:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-01T04:54:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/347212\/"},"modified":"2025-11-01T04:54:14","modified_gmt":"2025-11-01T04:54:14","slug":"sandy-brondello-opens-up-about-liberty-firing-wasnt-right-fit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/347212\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandy Brondello opens up about Liberty firing: ‘Wasn’t right fit’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sandy Brondello spoke publicly for the first time about her ouster as Liberty head coach, and pointed to a lack of \u201calignment\u201d with the team\u2019s front office.<\/p>\n

Brondello, who led the Liberty to their first WNBA championship in 2024, was fired Sept. 23<\/a> in the aftermath of this year\u2019s first-round playoff exit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just felt that it probably wasn\u2019t the right fit anymore, to be quite honest,\u201d Brondello said on Sue Bird\u2019s \u201cBird\u2019s Eye View\u201d podcast<\/a> in an episode released Friday. \u201cAnd obviously, it was a leadership decision there. And I work best when I\u2019m in a partnership.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brondello, 57, last week agreed to become the first coach of the expansion Toronto Tempo<\/a>. Even if she had the chance to stay with the Liberty for a fifth season, she now says, \u201cI probably couldn\u2019t have done it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was just time,\u201d Brondello said. \u201cPlayers need a new voice, and I need new challenges. If the alignment gets a little bit off, you know, astray, it\u2019s time to move.\u201d<\/p>\n

Later in the interview, discussing how the Liberty\u2019s offense \u201cslipped\u201d in the 2024 Finals, Brondello said, \u201cThere probably was not alignment on what that looks like and how we could get better.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewSandy Brondello was fired as Liberty coach after the season. Charles Wenzelberg\/New York Post<\/p>\n

When Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb explained the Brondello firing in September, he said, \u201cUltimately, we determined that evolution and innovation is what is needed at this time.\u201d He also said he contemplated making a coaching switch back in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had just won, but you probably didn\u2019t have as much joy as you wanted because \u2026 well, you didn\u2019t do this,\u201d Brondello said, seemingly referencing critiques of the team\u2019s performance. \u201cI wasn\u2019t perfect. I made some mistakes, like obviously the players do. We didn\u2019t shoot the ball well, but we won a championship. It doesn\u2019t matter how we won a championship because we did it together, and it should be a special time.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

The Liberty are the only WNBA team without a head coach<\/a> as their search stretches into a third calendar month. Known candidates, as reported by The Post\u2019s Madeline Kenney, include Mercury assistant coach Kristi Toliver, former Nets assistant coach Will Weaver and Rockets G-League head coach Joseph Blair.<\/p>\n

Bird asked Brondello, \u201cDid you feel the expectations were unrealistic or do you have an understanding around championship-or-bust mentality?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NewNew York Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb speaks to the press during training camp at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Saturday, May 3, 2025. Heather Khalifa for the NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cI suppose a bit of the both,\u201d Brondello said.<\/p>\n

She left as the franchise\u2019s all-time winningest coach.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCovering the Liberty like never before\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSign up for Madeline Kenney’s Inside the Liberty, a weekly Sports+ newsletter.\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\tThank you\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\u201cI had four great years,\u201d Brondello said. \u201cWhat we\u2019ve done in New York and to be a part of that, it was fantastic. And if they want to move on, that\u2019s fine.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sandy Brondello spoke publicly for the first time about her ouster as Liberty head coach, and pointed to…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":347213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1520,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-347212","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":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115472660198113084","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347212","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=347212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/347212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/347213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=347212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=347212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=347212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}