Head coach Sandy Brondello is returning to a land down wonder as her Toronto Tempo takes on the New York Liberty.
BROOKLYN—New York City’s basketball fans waited a while for a major return on Wednesday night … also, the New York Knicks partake in the NBA Finals.
Even before the Knicks embarked on their magical run, June 3 was destined to be a landmark date on the metropolitan hardwood calendar. The New York Liberty faced the expansion Toronto Tempo for the first time at Barclays Center. But the seafoam savants also faced off against their former leader Sandy Brondello, now the bandleader for the WNBA’s first True North squad.
Warm welcome backs for Nyara Sabally an Sandy Brondello during starting lineups#WNBA pic.twitter.com/noEqKbNGjn
— Geoff Magliocchetti (@GeoffJMags) June 3, 2026
Reunion Tour
Brondello returned to New York for the first time since her five-year term at the helm of the Liberty ended with a lack of contract renewal last fall. She is the franchise’s all-time leader in wins while donning the lead suit/quarter-zip with 107 and guided the team to its first postseason championship in 2024.
Despite a somewhat spirited opening period that sat in favor of the visitors, Toronto eventually fell by a 97-82 final, becoming the victims of the hosts’ third consecutive victory.
Part of a sizable seafoam contingent that moved north, including Isabelle Harrison, Nyara Sabally, video coordinator Brian Lankton, and Brondello’s lieutenant and husband, Olaf Lange. Brondello was granted a warm welcome when introduced to Wednesday’s Brooklyn crowd. Brondello promised herself she wouldn’t cry when Wednesday’s tribute inevitably came, but admitted she was an “emotional person” as the time for renewed metropolitan pleasantries grew close.
“I’m not someone that needs to be celebrated, and I’ve been very humbled this year,” Brondello said in the lead-in. “I’ve got an award from the Australian government, I got a documentary written about me in Australia, and there’s so many more things coming, I can’t tell you about. I’m like, holy f***, this is like it’s humbling, because it’s like, because I’m just a coach.
“But, you know, it’s cool. I’m here to coach the other team, but I’m going to embrace the environment. I don’t know how I’ll feel. I feel fine right now. I’m excited just to see all the familiar places up here for five years.”
Sandy’s Been Handy In Championship Causes
Unofficially, Brondello goes down as the first transaction of the Tempo’s on-court ledgers. She was hired as head coach weeks after she and the Liberty parted ways, called upon to lead the first WNBA endeavor beyond United States borders.
It’s a new beat for Brondello that goes beyond applying for a new passport. Save for her original WNBA head coaching post with a middling San Antonio Silver Stars group in 2010, Brondello has been the last piece in the box for unfinished championship puzzles.
She was at the helm for the tip of the Diana Taurasi era, phase two in Phoenix, overseeing what many call the greatest WNBA team of all time in her debut year of 2014. When the Liberty enacted their long-gestating plan to build a contender in Brooklyn, Brondello was called to lead the charge after seven tours in the desert. She arrived a year into the Sabrina Ionescu era and was granted the controls when Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart, and Courtney Vandersloot were added.
Under her watch, established legends of the game like Ionescu, Jones, Candice Dupree, and Brittney Griner all earned championship rings. The fingers of prior champs like Stewart, Taurasi, Vandersloot, and DeWanna Bonner are heavier after working with her.
“Sandy with a blank canvas is able to kind of create a masterpiece, and we’ll see that develop over the next few years with Toronto,” said Stewart, who scored 19 points in Wednesday’s win. “I think just her passion, her fight, and the ability to never settle for anything that she’s doing [is huge]. I think that she’s an incredible coach. The way that she can put stars together, whether it’s in Phoenix or in New York, and go after championships, is tough to do in this league, and she’s done it a few times.”
Brondello’s New Beat
Toronto, however, couldn’t be more different: even the most loyal Sixer probably didn’t/doesn’t envision the Tempo reaching the WNBA Finals in its maiden voyage.
New teams generally endure brutal beginnings. For every case of last year’s Golden State Valkyries, there are probably ten competing instances of, say, the 3-27 debut for the Washington Mystics in 1998. That makes the Tempo spot an undeniable transition from the high-risk, high-reward projects Brondello oversaw in the past.
That has perhaps afforded Brondello a certain peace as she embarks on this stage of her career. She’s finding succan ih solace by upholding a consistent standard, one where a practice in the realm of contention are no different the land of little expectations, where the pendulum of prognostication swings in the extreme opposite end.
“People say, oh, there’s no expectations, there’s no pressure. But I’m a professional coach, so there’s still a high standard I want to uphold,” Brondello admitted. “No one’s going to pick us to win, and we understand that. But it’s more about us. I don’t focus more on what the outside thinks about us; I focus on what we need to be to be the best team. I want a competitive team. What’s a successful season? If we keep getting better, and we push some of the better teams.
“We have a growth mindset. I think I think that’s the thing,” Brondello continued. “I still want to do well. But, once again, I don’t get it too high or too low, even when I coach these teams, because it’s a process. This league is too good. Anyone can beat anyone. In the beginning, I said we need patience and grace because we’re building something from scratch, and it’s been fun. That’s been challenging at times, sure, but that’s what I love, too. If it was easy, it’d be boring.”
Whoa, Canada
Combine the expected expansion blues with the fact that the Tempo (5-5) and their Pacific Northwest sisters in expansion had but a month together as a roster before taking the stage, after labor negotiations frequently postponed the expansion draft, and the stage was set for early struggles.
But, even with Wednesday’s loss, both Toronto and Portland have well-justified their early inclusion despite some early concerns.
Each posted winning records at the tip of Commissioner’s Cup play, and both would be playoff-bound if the season shut down by Thursday. Brondello took pride in assembling a squad of role players (such as Sabally, Marina Mabrey, and local representative Kia Nurse) and RINOs (Rookies In Name Only, thanks to international experience for players like Maria Conde and Laura Juškaitė) for a greater good, basking in their early flourishing.
Working in Toronto also allows Brondello to put her development cap back on, another welcome return to humbled yet vital normalcy after years of win-now efforts.
“Who says I don’t play rookies?” a humored Brondello said with a laugh after youngsters’ minutes were scrutinized in New York. “A big part of my coaching is the relationship part, you know. I’m very big on connections, and yeah, we have a little fun, and there’s time, obviously, to be serious too, and they get a little bit of that too. And we’re trying to, you know, obviously, mold this team into being the best it can be.”
Kiki Rice Weighs in on Brondello, Expansion
The debut roster features draftees Kiki Rice and Teonni Key, and the former seems well on pace to duplicate the backcourt impact Brondello herself left during her own time as a WNBA All-Star and a member of Australia’s famed “Opals” national team. Rice enters Thursday as the second leading scorer among 2026 rookies behind only second choice Olivia Miles.
“Obviously, we’re on an expansion team, so to have a coach who has won the championship, has played at this level, really is very experienced, it’s helped our transition as a whole,” Rice, who left Wednesday’s game with a late injury, said. “I also think from, just a guard’s perspective, she just kind of understands what’s going on out there. She knows what I’m feeling. Oftentimes, she’ll help me out, but she’ll kind of let me figure things out when I need to figure things out.
“Taking advice from her, always knowing that she has my best interest out there, it’s helping me through this rookie year.”
The Tempo will look to rediscover its groove on Sunday when it returns north to face the Chicago Sky (3 p.m. ET, TSN).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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