INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 There\u2019s nothing quite like an impromptu family vacation to Indianapolis, right?<\/p>\n
OK, so maybe that city doesn\u2019t top the average list of desired getaway spots. And this weekend is technically a work trip for Liberty coach Sandy Brondello and her husband and assistant Olaf Lange.<\/p>\n
But family time can be a rarity for them, especially with their oldest son, Brody, playing basketball in Australia and their teenage daughter, Jayda, living at the family\u2019s home base in Phoenix.<\/p>\n
So anytime together is better than being apart. And this trip is worth cherishing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt wasn\u2019t planned,\u201d Lange told The Post, \u201cbut we\u2019re grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n
Assistant coach Olaf Lange (L) and head coach Sandy Brondello of the New York Liberty talk in the second quarter of Game Two of the 2023 WNBA Playoffs finals against the Las Vegas Aces at Michelob ULTRA Arena on October 11, 2023 in Las Vegas, Nevada. Getty Images<\/p>\n
Admittedly, Brondello thought she was free from All-Star coaching obligations since the Mercury were a half game ahead of the Liberty in the WNBA standings with only the Wings on deck earlier this month before the top two WNBA coaches were picked.<\/p>\n
But the Mercury surprisingly lost their July 3 game, which meant the Liberty had the second-best win percentage in the league.<\/p>\n
So much for those plans to lay low and enjoy a summer weekend in New York ahead of the second half of the Liberty season.<\/p>\n
Don\u2019t get it wrong: Brondello was honored to be named a coach for Saturday\u2019s All-Star Game, and the rest of her family was excited to spend time together.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ll enjoy the whole part of it,\u201d Brondello said. \u201cThey love being around the team. They love getting to know the players and it\u2019s great that we get to share [this] with our family.\u201d<\/p>\n
The family of four planned to go to dinner and attend several of the events taking place over the weekend, including Sabrina Ionescu\u2019s party on Thursday. They also attended Friday night\u2019s festivities and watched Natasha Cloud win the skills challenge and Ionescu become the 3-point champion.<\/p>\n
Talk about an amusing Friday night for this \u2014 as Lange put it \u2014 \u201cfamily of all basketball fanatics.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s become this fun weekend where there\u2019s a little bit of work to do but [not nearly as much] that happens during the season,\u201d Lange said.<\/p>\n
Olaf Lange and Sandy Brondello look on before the game against the Minnesota Lynx during Game 3 of the 2024 WNBA Finals on October 16, 2024 at Target Center in Minneapolis, Minnesota. NBAE via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Brondello and Lange\u2019s intense passion for basketball has been inherited by their two children.<\/p>\n
Neither Brondello nor Lange forced Brody and Jayda to play the sport they made careers out of, but the two naturally gravitated toward the game at a young age.<\/p>\n
Jayda plays on her high school basketball team, and Brody is in Brondello\u2019s native country developing his game.<\/p>\n
When he was at Liberty practice last week, he took some reps going up against WNBA players.<\/p>\n
Given that Jayda lives a shorter flight away, she\u2019s around the Liberty more often. After practices, Lange has been seen working with her on her floater and Brondello on the 15-year-old\u2019s catch-and-shoot 3s.<\/p>\n
This lifestyle \u2014 one that they\u2019ve been practically living since Brondello and Lange met in Germany in the 1990s \u2014 works for them.<\/p>\n
Brondello and Lange, who married in 2005, have coached alongside one another in San Antonio, Russia and for Australia\u2019s national women\u2019s basketball team.<\/p>\n
Kiki Iriafen of the Washington Mystics and head coach Sandy Brondello of the New York Liberty react during the 2025 AT&T WNBA All-Star practice sessions at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on July 18, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Getty Images<\/p>\n
They coached against one another in the 2021 WNBA Finals when Lange was then an assistant on the Chicago Sky\u2019s staff and Brondello headed the Phoenix Mercury.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been doing this for almost 30 years, it works for us,\u201d said Lange, who joined Brondello in Brooklyn in 2022. \u201cI understand that many people say, \u2018I couldn\u2019t work with my spouse.\u2019 But we\u2019ve been doing this since we were young. So for us, it\u2019s just our life. And we got home, we still talk about basketball every day, and we love it.\u201d<\/p>\n
His kids enjoy it, too.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really fun because I always know that they\u2019re telling me the right things and they\u2019re always going to be honest,\u201d Jayda said. \u201cIt\u2019s very nice to have all the resources and opportunities just to learn more. It\u2019s really fun.\u201d<\/p>\n
Attending WNBA Finals games, being part of last year\u2019s championship parade in New York and getting behind-the-scenes access to this year\u2019s All-Star festivities are just some of the perks.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen they\u2019re grown up and they\u2019re looking back on all those years, they will realize how special these days were,\u201d Lange said. \u201cYou never realize it as much when you\u2019re in the moment.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"INDIANAPOLIS \u2014 There\u2019s nothing quite like an impromptu family vacation to Indianapolis, right? OK, so maybe that city…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":77018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[1520,62,67,132,68,232],"class_list":{"0":"post-77017","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\/114883465927756099","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77017","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=77017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}