{"id":421479,"date":"2025-12-03T09:13:12","date_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:13:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/421479\/"},"modified":"2025-12-03T09:13:12","modified_gmt":"2025-12-03T09:13:12","slug":"liberty-hope-chris-demarcos-defensive-expertise-will-bring-success-the-lead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/421479\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty Hope Chris DeMarco\u2019s Defensive Expertise Will Bring Success \u2013 The Lead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last week, the New York Liberty announced<\/a> a deal to hire Chris DeMarco, who has served as the Golden State Warriors\u2019 assistant coach since 2012, as their new head coach for the upcoming 2026 WNBA season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After an early exit<\/a> in the first round of the 2025 WNBA playoffs, the Liberty parted ways with their head coach, Sandy Brondello<\/a>, who led the Liberty to their first WNBA championship in 2024. Brondello left New York with the title of winningest coach in Liberty history, and a record of 107-53<\/a> over four seasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Since Brondello\u2019s exit, Liberty fans have been awaiting a conclusion to the two-month-long search for a new head coach.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What Will Chris DeMarco bring to the Liberty this season?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In his 15-year tenure with the Warriors, DeMarco has served in a variety of roles, from player development to assistant coach. He has played a major role in the Warriors\u2019 success, helping them to win four titles in eight years<\/a>, most recently in the 2021-2022 season.<\/p>\n

On the defensive side, DeMarco worked closely with some of the most well-known Warriors, such as Klay Thompson<\/a>, Jordan Poole<\/a>, and Draymond Green<\/a>. He continued to play a primary role in the Warriors\u2019 defensive success throughout his tenure, namely through his relationship with Green.<\/p>\n

During the Warriors\u2019 2023 playoff series against the Lakers, Green credited DeMarco<\/a> for his success and vast improvement from Game 1 of the series. DeMarco told Green that his abysmal play during Game 1 left him unrecognizable and that he played \u201cawful\u201d defensively. This honest and no-frills approach propelled Green to play the game he needed to in Game 2.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

DeMarco is a fierce coach who is not afraid to back down from a challenge. And this will undoubtedly serve the Liberty well next season, as they try to rebuild after the loss of Brondello and a shockingly early playoff exit.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A Disappointing 2025 Season<\/p>\n

Coming off a championship in 2024, the Liberty were poised for another successful and possibly title-defending season, but all of that fell to the wayside. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton<\/a>\u2018s absence due to a knee injury<\/a> sustained during Unrivaled undoubtedly impacted the Liberty\u2019s defense before the season even began.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Additionally, the Liberty were without some of their stars, namely Leonie Fiebich<\/a>, Nyara Sabally<\/a>, and Marine Johannes<\/a>, for a decent chunk of the season as these players represented their home countries in the EuroBasket competition.\u00a0<\/p>\n

During their final game against the Phoenix Mercury, the Liberty, excluding Breanna Stewart<\/a>, struggled immensely. Fiebich suffered a broken rib<\/a>, which she played through for a total of 28 minutes on the floor. Although this display of mental and physical toughness is admirable, it wasn\u2019t enough to save the Liberty from their eventual defeat. Despite injuries, the Liberty were otherwise disorganized and unable to keep up with the Mercury on both ends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Returning the Liberty to Glory<\/p>\n

The Liberty\u2019s General Manager, Jonathan Kolb, said<\/a> after the 2025 season that the Liberty ultimately \u201cdetermined that evolution and innovation is what is needed at this time\u201d over wins and the close relationship that players and fans have developed with Sandy Brondello.\u00a0<\/p>\n

If innovation and evolution are what the Liberty wants, DeMarco is a great option. His no-nonsense approach will hold players accountable in tough moments and keep them motivated even in the face of adversity.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although DeMarco comes to New York with over a decade of coaching experience, this will be his first season coaching women\u2019s basketball. DeMarco\u2019s hiring follows a trend<\/a> in the WNBA, which has begun to privilege the NBA coaching experience. <\/p>\n

With DeMarco\u2019s hiring, there are now eight male head coaches, and seven of the 15<\/a> total coaches have at least one year of NBA coaching experience.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s Next for Sandy Brondello?<\/strong><\/p>\n

After her exit from the Liberty in September, Brondello made a prompt transition to the Toronto Tempo<\/a> to serve as the head coach of the WNBA expansion team, which will debut in 2026.<\/p>\n

The Tempo\u2019s general manager, Monica Wright Rogers, said in a press release<\/a> that Brondello \u201cknows how to win at the highest level \u2013 but she also knows how to build culture and community. She\u2019s known for creating an environment where every player understands their role, feels empowered to lead, and recognizes how they contribute to something bigger than themselves. That\u2019s what builds sustainable success. That\u2019s what builds champions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Fans can look forward to watching Brondello\u2019s debut with the Tempo and DeMarco\u2019s with the Liberty during the 2026 WNBA season.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Last week, the New York Liberty announced a deal to hire Chris DeMarco, who has served as the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":421480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[190432,190433,1520,19708,62,76705,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-421479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-chris-demarco","9":"tag-jonathan-kolb","10":"tag-new-york-liberty","11":"tag-sandy-brondello","12":"tag-sports","13":"tag-toronto-tempo","14":"tag-united-states","15":"tag-unitedstates","16":"tag-us","17":"tag-wnba"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115654872468034487","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421479","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=421479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}