“Coming back, obviously it was nice,” Sandy Brondello said Wednesday night as she stood in the visitors’ tunnel at Barclays Center, roughly three minutes before tipoff, for the first time since the Liberty let her go this offseason.
Brondello, the Toronto Tempo coach, watched the arena screen show pictures welcoming back her and four former staffers — Isabelle Harrison, Nyara Sabally, Olaf Lange and Brian Lankton — and later saw the public-address announcer direct the crowd to a tribute during the first timeout. Players from her former team and opponents greeted her as she returned: Betnijah Laney-Hamilton stepped over to the Tempo bench and Leonie Fiebich came to say hello.
The encounter had a scoreline attached to it. The New York Liberty beat the Tempo 97-82 on Wednesday night, but the evening’s significance rested less on the box score than on the return itself: Brondello’s first public trip to the building since parting ways with the franchise after four seasons.
Her record with the Liberty is unmistakable. Brondello became the winningest coach in franchise history at 123-64, leading the club to two WNBA Finals appearances and the franchise’s first WNBA championship. She said those four seasons were special and that “getting appreciation from the fans in New York was always special.”
Yet the night also underscored a division in how the change landed in the locker room. In May, Jonquel Jones said she had been unaware of plans for a coaching change; she later learned that Brondello would not return after discussing offseason changes in her exit interview and texted Brondello upon hearing the news. Jones told reporters she had mixed feelings: "There are some aspects where I understand, and there’s also some aspects where this is somebody that you won a championship with, you did something historic with. A little bit of both." She added, "I didn’t want her to feel like I was kicking (them) when they were down or anything like that."
Sabrina Ionescu, when asked previously about her knowledge of the decision, said simply she "was focused on being where my feet were." Brondello, for her part, said she was not surprised by the Liberty’s move and described the turnover as “part of the business, isn’t it?” She also said she feels supported in Toronto and that she can be herself there.
The return was low on theatrics and high on small courtesies: Brondello had flown into New York on Tuesday afternoon, drove into Manhattan for a speaking engagement at the American Australian Association, and said she felt no notable emotion when she landed. Back at Barclays Center, the video tribute and the roster of greetings gave the night a ceremonial quality without turning it into a confrontation.
The context matters. The Liberty have hired Chris DeMarco, a former assistant with the NBA’s Golden State Warriors, to replace Brondello. That decision begins a new chapter for a franchise that just saw its most successful coach depart after a historic run; it also frames how Brondello’s return was read by fans and players alike.
The sharper question now is practical: Brondello will continue coaching the Toronto Tempo, but how quickly and how fully the Liberty will replicate the standard she set remains unresolved. Chris DeMarco starts with the legacy of a 123-64 coach who delivered the franchise’s first championship; the comparison between the eras will be the season’s defining storyline.
