The New York Liberty shocked the sports world on Tuesday when they announced that head coach Sandy Brondello would not return in 2026 for a fifth season.
Brondello, who is already the winningest coach in franchise history, led New York to its first WNBA championship in 2024 before the team suffered a disappointing, injury-plagued 2025 season that ended with a first-round playoff loss to the Phoenix Mercury.
“We would like to thank Sandy Brondello for her everlasting impact on the New York Liberty,” genneral mnager Jonathan Kolb said in a release. “Sandy finishes her tenure in New York as the winningest coach in franchise history, and she took us to never-before-seen heights as the first head coach to lead the Liberty to a championship. We wish Sandy the very best in her next chapter.”
One of the problems with firing Brondello is that the Liberty must swing big on a replacement — and if they swing big, the list of realistic candidates narrows fast.
If Kolb has shown anything in his six years with New York, however, it's that he's not afraid to be bold. Here are the candidates he should target for the Liberty head coach position, ranging from the one no-brainer to the under-the-radar possibilities.
Liberty legend Teresa Weatherspoon could return to New York
Teresa Weatherspoon is going to be the first name on most lists of potential candidates for Liberty head coach, and with good reason.
T-Spoon is beloved in New York, both for her seven seasons with the Liberty when the franchise was first born and her unbridled passion for her former team that she brought into retirement.
Most know by now that the Chicago Sky fired Weatherspoon after just one season in 2024, leaving fans flabbergasted and Sky players upset. The team went 13-27 in her one season, missing the playoffs by two games. But there was an undeniably talented core there that seemed to appreciate her. The team was on an upward trajectory until it traded Marina Mabrey in July, at which point it stumbled to a 3-13 finish.
That's not the full extent of her head coaching experience. Weatherspoon also led her alma mater, Louisiana Tech, for six seasons, taking the team to the NCAA Tournament twice. She then coached Vinyl BC in the inaugural Unrivaled season.
James Wade should return to the WNBA
James Wade is one of those candidates that will be brought up for every high-level WNBA coaching job until he takes one, and with good reason. The leader of the 2021 Chicago Sky championship team and has learned from the best, serving as an assistant to Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve and former Seattle Storm coach Dan Hughes.
“I stole everything,” he told the Minnesota Star Tribune about his time with the Lynx. “You don't want to overthink things and reinvent stuff. They have a winning culture, and they won for so long and there's a reason for that, and I tried to steal their reasons.”
Now an assistant coach for the Toronto Raptors, Wade also won the 2019 WNBA Coach of the Year award, taking the Sky to the second round of the playoffs in his first year as a head coach.
It is time for Kristi Toliver to get a head coaching job
Most people looking for a WNBA assistant to take the Liberty job will point to Briann January, and she's a great candidate. But Kristi Toliver is as well, and she's currently the associate head coach of the Mercury, who just beat the Liberty in the playoffs.
Toliver became the first active WNBA player to take an assistant coaching job in the NBA in 2018 when the then-member of the Washington Mystics joined the Washington Wizards' staff. She worked for the Wizards until 2020 before jumping to the Dallas Mavericks for two seasons, then coming to Phoenix.
The Liberty job is a tough one for a first-time head coach, but Toliver, who won a national championship in college and two WNBA titles, is used to the pressure.
Roneeka Hodges could end her 1-year Liberty hiatus
Hodges was a member of Brondello's staff in New York for two seasons, including the 2024 championship campaign. She left last offseason to take the associate head coach position with the Connecticut Sun.
Her coaching career dates back to 2020 when she joined the staff at Old Dominion University. She spent one season there and one at Colgate before coming to the Liberty where she made an impression on Brondello.
“She was such an invaluable part of our coaching staff and we miss her,” Brondello said when the Liberty hosted the Sun this season. “But we're so excited for her. She's gone to a team where her role can be bigger than what it could potentially be here … I always say that coaches that come here, my responsibility is to develop them so they can go elsewhere and have bigger roles.”
